Player Profile- Gilbert Arenas

Player of the Week- Gilbert Arenas

It wasn’t hard to determine the player of this week, with Gilbert Arenas stealing all the headlines and attention. We all know he has recently been suspended indefinitely by Commissioner David Stern for his gun situation and subsequent inappropriate pregame antics, but here are some things you might not have known…

As a big follower of the University of Arizona basketball, I knew about Gilbert Arenas before he burst onto the NBA and blogosphere scene. As the starting shooting guard on what I believe was one of the best NCAA teams of the past decade, his 2001 Wildcats lost to Duke in a very questionably officiated National Championship game. While in his prime, Gilbert was one the NBA’s elite, he wasn’t even the first, second, or even third option on that college team. Those fell to Richard Jefferson, Jason Gardner, and Loren Woods for those of you who were wondering. Arenas had a solid, but not spectacular stint by any means at Arizona, and was considered a bit of an enigma to many NBA GMs. He didn’t have a pure position, with scouts believing him to be too small to be a shooting guard, but also without enough passing ability and court leadership to run a team at the point. This uncertainty led more than one scout to tell Gilbert that while he most likely will not get drafted, and even if he did he would play 0 NBA minutes in his career (that false prognostication is the reason he sports the jersey number zero). Arenas entered the 2001 draft anyways, and was taken with the second pick of the second round by the Golden State Warriors, ready to prove his doubters wrong.

After a decent rookie year in which he averaged just under 11 points per game for the Warriors, Arenas really crashed the NBA party in his sophomore campaign. Starting all 82 games, Arenas averaged over 18 ppg and was named the league’s Most Improved Players. In the off season he signed with the Washington Wizards, but had a disappointing and injury plagued first year there. In the 2004-2005 season though, Arenas began the best three year run of his career. Leading the Wizards to a playoff berth and first round series victory over the Bulls, that year he was 7th in the league in scoring in averaging over 25 ppg and made his first All-Star Game. But the best was still to come for Arenas, having the best year of his professional career in 2005-2006. He recorded career highs in minutes (42.3), points (29.3), assists (6.1), and steals (2.0), leading to his second consecutive All-Star and Third Team All NBA appearance. But the season ended painfully for Arenas and his Wizards as they started what would become a trend of losing first round series to Cavaliers, with a pivotal loss coming after Arenas’ missed some clutch free throws. The following year, Arenas continued to prove he was among the NBA’s best scorers, averaging over 28 a game, but his season was cut short by the first of a series of knee injuries that have never left him the same.

Another knee injury derailed the majority of his 2008 season, and after opting out of his contract, he signed one of the largest contracts in NBA history. Despite his recent injuries, the Wizards offered him a max contract of 6 years worth 124 million dollars. But citing he wanted to make some cuts to help the Wizards build around him, he signed for only 111 million. Late owner Abe Pollin did a lot of amazing things for this organization and the entire league, but agreeing to this massive contract to a player coming off two injury hampered seasons wasn’t his finest moment. After signing the contract, Arenas’ health was still an issue to the dismay of the fans and front office. In the 2009-2009 season he played in only 2 games, and there were a lot of questions about his integrity in signing the large deal knowing that his knee just wasn’t right.

But this year was supposed to be different. Now under the leadership of proven coach Flip Saunders there was hope in Washington that the core of Arenas, Antwan Jamison, and Caron Butler with the addition of Mike Miller would finally reach new heights. As we all know though, that hasn’t exactly been the case. Jamison missed a bunch of the early part of the year with injuries and this squad never really came together. They suffered a streak of painfully close losses and now sitting at 11-22, with this latest Arenas saga and being over 8 million dollars over the luxury tax, this most likely will be the final swan song for this Wizards group.

I agree with David Stern’s decision to suspend Arenas, especially considering that Gilbert forced his hand with his pre game guns blazing routine in Philly which highlighted he still doesn’t understand the severity of his actions. I really liked J.A. Adande’s article on the issue, and agree that while there were no actual guns fired or people hurt, that Arenas’ cavalier behavior about it is frightening and needed to be addressed. Hopefully after a lengthy suspension (I’m thinking it will be between 30-50 games), Arenas can try and come back into the league. It won’t be easy, but it is not impossible to rebuild an image in this league, and make people remember the Gilbert that fans fell in love with. From the self proclaimed nicknames, to the uncensored blog entries, to the overall silliness he portrayed on and off the court, Arenas was one of the games most entertaining stars. It is this behavior that made the media love him in the past and now question him in the present. He acted immaturely and unconventionally after the revelation of his locker room gun possession, trying in typical Gilbert fashion to make a joke out it, but this time it was different. This time the stakes were too high, and what Arenas clearly didn’t get, was that this wasn’t a joking matter to anyone, especially Stern. I am interested to see how this will turn out, but I am personally wishing for the best for Gilbert, and hope he uses this suspension time to his benefit. Due to the knee injuries I am not sure that he will ever be the player or scorer he once was, but I do believe that once he gets his act together, he has the dedication and work ethic to redefine his game and once again become somebody we talk about, but for his actions on the basketball court this time.