In 2016, three former NBA players submitted claims for root canals on the exact same six teeth. The claims were dated April 30, 2016, with crowns for those same teeth listed just 11 days later. Years later, that kind of detail would become part of one of the strangest fraud cases to hit the NBA.

Now, nearly two years after being sentenced to federal prison, Glen “Big Baby” Davis is revisiting that case—and claiming the story was much bigger than the players who were ultimately prosecuted.

During an appearance on the Locked In with Ian Bick podcast, Davis named Matt Barnes, Stephen Jackson, Gilbert Arenas, Kendrick Perkins, Corey Maggette, Cuttino Mobley and others while claiming they were investigated by federal authorities. Barnes, Jackson and Arenas have now responded, making it clear they want no part of Davis’ version of events.

Matt Barnes took to the comments section of a post sharing the interview clip to directly confront his former peer, writing, “@gbbabydavis wtf you talkin about. i was never investigated for s—. Don’t try & drag me into that bulls—.”

Barnes’ All The Smoke co-host Stephen Jackson quickly stepped in to echo the sentiment, forcefully rejecting Davis’ accusations right under Barnes’ comment.

“@matt_barnes9 neither was I,” Jackson replied under the post. “We ain’t got nothing to do with it.”

Former All-Star Gilbert Arenas then responded with his trademark humor, Disney villain laugh and defiance, ridiculing the idea that he had any involvement in the health care scam.

“When you say Gilbert Arenas, you mean me? Brother, the only money I’ve ever stolen, was the NBA contract money,” Arenas said in a video on Instagram. “Yeah, when I was sitting, they was paying $66 million.

“I don’t know where my name came in that, brother. I don’t know nothing about this. I got my corn. As for the other one who already did this. allegedly. Yeah, yeah. So that means I still got all of it. Six, seven hundred thousand, whatever was on that corn, I still got it. Y’all need something? You want to try it again? Come on, Big Baby. Come on, man.”

The pushback did not stop with the players Davis named. As clips from the interview spread, more NBA veterans reacted to the allegations, and the tone quickly shifted from denial to outright disbelief.

Former champion J.R. Smith responded under a post with a series of emojis, writing, “🧀😭🤦🏽‍♂️.”

Former Golden State Warriors center Festus Ezeli chimed in with a sarcastic remark, writing, “‘come out yall we got caught’😂.”

Meanwhile, veteran forward P.J. Tucker expressed his disappointment with “😔🤦🏽‍♂️,” and Wilson Chandler urged Davis to back off, commenting, “Come on Big Baby. Don’t do that.”

For now, though, the reactions are only one side of the story. To understand why Davis is making these claims in the first place, it is worth going back to the case that sent him to prison.

The case that sent Glen Davis to federal prison

The federal case became public in October 2021, when authorities announced charges against former NBA players accused of submitting fraudulent medical and dental claims to the NBA Players’ Health and Benefit Welfare Plan. The alleged scheme involved claims for procedures that were never performed, with former NBA guard Terrence Williams identified as the ringleader.

Davis was eventually convicted at trial and sentenced in May 2024 to 40 months in federal prison, three years of supervised release and $80,000 in restitution. He served roughly 17 months before his release.

But Davis’ argument now is not simply that he was wrongly convicted. He believes the government went after him while other people involved in the wider investigation avoided prison.

During his sit-down with Bick, Davis said he believed he had been singled out while others connected to the investigation received very different treatment.

“They literally wanted to make me out to be an example. There was a lot of people that got investigated. Kendrick Perkins, you see him on ESPN. Tony Allen—he was literally the third person on the indictment, with his wife. He’s not walking in jail. Darius Miles—he’s not walking in jail. And these guys got money, like thousands of dollars. How’d I end up in jail and these guys are on probation/walking free; their whole life is still intact.”

That argument became the foundation for Davis’ broader claim that the government’s case was much wider than the group of former players who ultimately faced convictions and sentences.

“I think the NBA let the feds pick who they wanted to choose. 180 people were investigated, subpoenaed. We didn’t hear about all those people. We just heard about the 22 people that got caught, or that got jammed in the situation. A lot of people pleaded out. They didn’t go to jail. They didn’t even go get time served.”

When Bick pressed Davis on whether the other players he was referring to had actually stolen money, Davis did not back away from the claim. Instead, he started naming NBA figures.

“Yeah. Actually stole money. Thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Davis claimed. “Your favorite podcast, people you see on different podcasts, Matt Barnes, Stephen Jack, all those people were investigated. Gilbert Arenas, Corey Maggette, Cuttino Mobley, thousands of NBA players were investigated. They just let some of them go to jail. Some of them, the fed got.”

That is the claim that brought Barnes, Jackson and Arenas directly into the story—and prompted the public responses that opened this controversy.

Davis also questioned why some defendants connected to the original case received probation or shorter sentences while he was sent to prison.

“Like how Tony Allen, like he didn’t go to jail, he’s still out,” Davis added.

The comparison has some context behind it. Tony Allen and Darius Miles pleaded guilty and received probation, while Antoine Wright received time served after cooperating with prosecutors and testifying against Davis and William Bynum. Keyon Dooling received 30 months, Alan Anderson received 24 months and Terrence Williams received 10 years.

The outcomes were different because the defendants’ cases were different. Guilty pleas can bring an acceptance-of-responsibility reduction, while cooperation can also affect a sentence. Davis and Bynum went to trial and were convicted.

So while Davis is asking why he went to prison while others remained free, the court records show that the defendants did not all take the same path through the case.

More than 20 defendants were ultimately convicted in the broader scheme, which involved former NBA players submitting fraudulent claims for medical, dental and chiropractic procedures that were never performed.

Former NBA guard Terrence Williams was identified as the ringleader. Prosecutors said he recruited retired players, supplied fraudulent invoices and collected more than $230,000 in kickbacks. He also created fake email accounts to impersonate health-plan administrators and was accused of threatening a witness. Williams was eventually sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Keyon Dooling received a 30-month sentence, while Alan Anderson was sentenced to 24 months.

But the case was not just about who received what sentence. The evidence against Davis included a series of medical claims that prosecutors said were fraudulent.

The investigation also uncovered highly specific claims tied to Davis himself. He submitted a $27,000 dental claim for root canals and crowns at a Beverly Hills office on a date when passport and border records showed he was in Paris. Davis, Tony Allen and Anthony Wroten also submitted identical claims involving root canals on the same six teeth.

Those details became part of the government’s case against Davis. But Davis has continued to argue that his own role was far narrower than prosecutors portrayed it.

For most of the proceedings, Davis maintained his innocence. He said he was seeking legitimate reimbursement for serious foot and ankle injuries he suffered while playing in Ice Cube’s Big3 league.

Davis said Alan Anderson and Terrence Williams offered help with medical reimbursements and that he passed paperwork to his financial adviser, Edgar Abrams, who approved the filings. Davis has said he personally received only about $40,000.

But prosecutors presented a different picture, pointing to the fraudulent invoices and the $27,000 dental claim tied to the date he was in Paris. A jury ultimately convicted Davis in November 2023.

He was sentenced in May 2024 to 40 months in prison, three years of supervised release and $80,000 in restitution.

Davis’ conviction is a matter of court record. His broader claims about who else was investigated are a different question—and that is where the public record becomes important.

What the public record actually shows

Publicly available court records and Justice Department materials do not establish Davis’ claims about Barnes, Jackson, Arenas, Maggette, Mobley and Perkins. The public record does establish the players who were formally charged and what happened in their cases, but it does not establish that the NBA figures Davis named were defendants in the healthcare fraud conspiracy.

That does not settle whether anyone outside the charged group may have been questioned or investigated. But it does mean Davis’ statements about those players should be presented for what they are: claims made by Davis, not findings established by the case.

The same issue applies to Davis’ claim that 180 people were investigated or subpoenaed. The public record reviewed for the case does not establish that number, while the Justice Department’s public accounting of the broader prosecution describes more than 20 defendants ultimately convicted.

The defendants did not all take the same path through the case. Guilty pleas can bring an acceptance-of-responsibility reduction, while cooperation can also affect a sentence. Davis and Bynum went to trial and were convicted.

So the record gives us a clear picture of the people who were charged and how their cases ended. What it does not give us is independent confirmation of Davis’ much broader claim about the other NBA names he mentioned.

And that is what makes the backlash to Davis’ interview so significant.

For Davis, though, the story did not end when he walked out of prison.

Davis is trying to rebuild after prison

After serving roughly 17 months of his 40-month sentence, Davis was released from federal prison in March 2026. Since then, he has started speaking publicly about what happened to his career, relationships and reputation while he was behind bars.

His explanation goes beyond the courtroom. Davis has acknowledged that prison changed how people viewed him and said rebuilding his life would be difficult.

“You lose relationships that you’ve been building up for years. Your image is tainted. All the hard work you put in as a role model is now depleted. You gotta start over, and you have to be a special person to start over, you know what I mean? To look that in the face and be like, oh OK, I’m going to move on and keep going. That’s hard to do. That’s hard to do when you build yourself up to be this person in the world. But it’s something I can do because I’m a special individual.”

Now, only months into his comeback, Davis has put the most controversial part of his past back into the spotlight.

The federal record establishes who was charged, who pleaded guilty, who cooperated, who went to trial and who was sentenced. It does not establish Davis’ claim that 180 people were investigated, nor does it establish his claims about the NBA figures he named.

What is clear is what happened after he made those claims.

Barnes said he was never investigated. Jackson said he had nothing to do with it. Arenas laughed off the accusation. Other NBA veterans reacted with disbelief and told Davis not to drag them into it.

For Davis, the case that sent him to prison is no longer just about what happened in court. He is trying to tell a much bigger story about who else was involved, who got away and why he was the one who ended up behind bars.

For the players he named, however, that story has already crossed a line.

They never asked to be part of it.