Forget studio jobs and podcasts. Dancing with the Stars is the new favorite retirement plan for NBA players. From Iman Shumpert to Lamar Odom to even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a range of NBA stars have been seen on the show. This year, the token basketball offering to the ballroom gods is Baron Davis. Not the most predictable option, with the 46-year-old appearing on the show alongside Britt Davis. While we still wait for the day LeBron James answers the salsa call, fans will take the former players swapping the court for the ballroom. But what do the teammates of some of these rumba renegades think? Surprisingly, Baron Davis wasn’t crowdsurfed into the DWTS set.

Baron Davis and his dancing partner opened his new Cha Cha chapter with a performance on MC Hammer’s legendary anthem, “Can’t Touch This.” Unfortunately, he couldn’t touch the top ranks at the premiere and the two finished with an overall scoring of 10/20, snagging a 5/10 from each judge. During the show, Draymond Green’s podcasting co-host revealed he’s got a groupchat with former teammates where he broke the news of his DWTS casting. Their reaction was what we’d expect.

“They laughed for like 5 minutes. Face emojis, don’t lose, don’t go out,” Baron revealed. He didn’t exactly say who is on the chat because he was pretty winded after that performance, and… “I just wanted to get it done, I’m tired.”

Wonder why they laughed him off. Not like Davis is the first NBA player to compete for the Mirrorball Trophy. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Metta World Peace, Charles Oakley, Dwight Howard were the more unexpected waltzers on the ABC show. Davis obviously knew that his friends will eventually realize that he is appearing on the show. Instead of letting them find out on their own, he decided to himself tell them. And well, judging by the way he explained the situation, Davis seemingly already knew he would be met with ridicule when he told them.

Or maybe they know something we don’t. Because social media is still surprised that Davis scored only 10 out of 20 despite the decent comments he got for the season opener. The judges and fans loved his natural showmanship but he’s got to work his way up in the coming weeks. Further, the feedback appeared to be that his ‘cha-cha’ performance did not have enough ‘cha-cha,’ with Bruno Tonioli stating, “No heel leads in the cha-cha-cha.” Regardless, there is plenty of room for improvement, and he’s got the support of a ballroom champ for that.

One teammate comes through for Baron Davis

Among the NBA players who’ve dared to tango was Iman Shumpert. And the Knicks star won the 2021 title. Naturally, when Baron Davis joined the show, Shump got that call.

Right after Davis was officially announced to the lineup earlier this month, he told TMZ that Shumpert Facetimed him that morning. They have a comm-call session scheduled and “Me and him are going to do some note-taking. I talked to his coach. He told me what an incredible coach I have in Britt.” 

Shumpert won with dance pro, Daniella Karagach who was partnered with Dwight Howard last season. Davis’ current partner, Britt Stewart was partnered with Karate Kid franchise star, Martin Kove in Shumpert’s season. Many Knicks players have participated on DWTS but Shumpert is the first NBA player to win. So obviously, Davis has extra support to repeat Shumpert’s season 30 victory, and he is not someone who would distract him with laughing emojis like his other NBA friends.

And Shump has his work cut out for him to turn Baron into the next ballroom baller. Jordan Chiles is the other pro athlete this season and she too got 10. Both Chiles and Davis narrowly missed an early exit because there’s no simply no elimination in premiere week. Both athletic stars will have to work hard to remain in the competition. How they do that, we’ll know on DWTS every Tuesday at 8 PM EST on ABC.