Gilbert Arenas

   On Wednesday night I attended the Wizards game vs. Cleveland and it was great to see Washington come away with a win, especially in front of a legion of Cavalier fans (where they came from I don’t know).  While the Wizards were able to seize a victory against one of the best teams in the East and an immanent rival, it is still hard to ascertain whether this team is any good.  After a dreadful first half by just about every player on the team I was absolutely fuming in my seat.  It didn’t help to be transplanted in between a Cleveland fan who would say “terrible shot” during all of Antawn Jamison’s trick hooks and a Ohio family of six that probably amassed a total of 3,000 pounds.  The father of that Lebron-rooting herd fittingly donned a t-shirt with the slogan “I’m not going to call you stupid, but I’m thinking about it.” 

Continue reading "Thoughts on the Wizards: Are They Good?"

Williams' shot clangs off the iron, and Gilbert Arenas, like Haywood playing in his second game of the season, goes up for the clutch rebound. As he comes down, Arenas whips the ball down the court to a streaking Antawn Jamison for the breakaway dunk. Up 9. Now it's real. All game long, the crowd has wondered if it should believe, wanted to believe, hoped to believe, and the players on the court seemed to be doing the same. Now they believe. You can see it on Nick Young's face as he takes an Arenas pass and charges to the hole with 1:30 left. You can see it in Caron Butler's eyes as he leaps up to steal the Cavs' inbounds pass down 5 and with 50 second remaining to essentially put the game away. You can see it in the body language of all the Wizards as LeBron does what LeBron does, finding open teammates, hitting long three after long three, and generally defying every rule about how basketball is supposed to work. The Wizards team that has played most of this season would have collapsed, folded, stopped playing defense and started throwing up bad shots on the offensive end. Instead, they keep hustling, keep getting after the boards, and let an eerily calm and collected Arenas take control of the offense. And, lo and behold, Arenas, Haywood, Butler, Jamison and the crew make more plays down the stretch than the King.

Continue reading "What Might Have Been: Wizards - Cavs ..."

So Gilbert Arenas is apparently going to opt out of the final year of his contract this summer and test the free agent market.  Honestly, if I were the Wizards, I'd probably say, "Okay, go ahead lets see what happens."  You know why?  Because, look at how well they played this year without him.  They've got a good core nucleus of players and promising young talent in Nick Young and Andray Blatche.  Yes Blatche and Young don't look like Kobe or Garnett right now, but you can see them progressing.  In fact Arenas' injury this season was great for Young, because he got a chance to really get some experience under his belt. 

Continue reading "Gilbert Arenas return a good thing?"