Those wacky Wizards...

[Andrew]

Agent Zero Blames Wizards For Letting Him Dictate To Them

Gilbert Arenas says the Washington Wizards shouldn't have listened to him last season when he insisted on playing even though he wasn't fully recovered from multiple knee surgeries.

"If you have a kid that loves basketball, that eats, sleeps, drinks and thinks basketball and all he knows is basketball and he gets hurt and he's your franchise player, you need to hold him back from himself," the star guard tells The Washington Times. "If I'm saying I feel good and you know it's supposed to take six months, instead of letting me at four months run … they should have held me back.

"Rather than saying, 'Let's let this guy do what he wants and use him to sell tickets'—sometimes you have to protect players from themselves. I don't feel like I got that type of protection. But, I don't judge them for that. Some things just happen. I told them I felt OK because I wanted to play, and they did what they did."

So apparently, they're at fault because they trusted him when he insisted he wanted to return by the end of the season. If they had held him back, I wonder if he'd be complaining about that instead. Of course, Arenas goes on to say that no one can guard him, which I'm sure the Wizards hope is true as that contract runs a few more years yet.

Antawn Jamison has topped him though, proclaming the Wizards championship contenders:

When Antawn Jamison looks at the Washington Wizards, he doesn't see a team recovering from an embarrassing and deflating 19-win campaign; a team that has struggled through injuries and first-round exits the past few seasons; or a that should be elated with a playoff appearance in the upcoming season. Jamison sees a championship contender bolstered by the additions of Mike Miller, Randy Foye and Fabricio Oberto and the return of a healthy Gilbert Arenas, Brendan Haywood and Deshawn Stevenson.

"I've been around here for six years and championship talk wasn't a norm around our locker room. That's all we're talking about now," Jamsion said, with less than two weeks remaining before training camp. "If we stay healthy, I think we can compete with the upper echelon of the NBA."

You've got to admire his confidence, I suppose.

[hova-]

I see where Arenas is coming from but I guess that he should blame himself for coming back too early. I don't believe that there was no one who at least warned him about his injury and gave him the advice not to play too soon. From what we know about Arenas' character it's just hard to believe that he would have stayed put with his injury rather than moaning that he wants to play.

You really have to admire the confidence of Jamison, that is right. I think the Wizards overrate their injuries of last year a bit. Arenas will definitely shake things up and turn the team around but their problems inside will not be solved by Brandon Haywood. You need inside presence to win it all, that is my opinion.
Still the Wizards team without injuries is pretty good and can make it to the second round if everything goes right. But the Celtics and the Cavs are still way better in the East with their guys inside like Shaq and KG respectively.

[Andrew]

I see where he's coming from too but like I said, I wonder if he'd be criticising them for holding him out if they'd forced him to sit. Maybe he just likes to talk and make these attention grabbing statements, but I'm sure the team let him play with some reservations and because of his insistence. Between things like this and those remarks last season about not being keen to return because the team was losing, he's not acting like much of a team leader. He can make these boastful remarks and claim that no one can guard him, but with that contract and two lost years he's got a lot to prove.

A healthy Wizards team should certainly have an opportunity to best 19 wins, make the Playoffs and maybe get to the second round if they overachieve but in calling them a championship defender, I think Jamison is walking the line between confidence and delusion.

[Martti.]

Arenas wanted to come back, said the team he was fine, but he wanted the team not to allow it? As he is the franchise player, like he said himself, usually a team listens to its franchise player. Like Jordan in '85-86 after sitting out 65 games.

I like Jamison's enthusiasm, but I fear it's too ambitious. They are a Playoff-team, but I don't see them beating the Celtics, Magic or the Cavaliers in a 7-game series.

[Modifly]

Arenas is a weird person. Remember all those weird trouble he got into? Making a bet with a courtside fan that he will make the game winning shot, only to be fined by the league? He also have all these weird habits surrounding him, like yelling "hibachi" and all that. His freethrow routine is not the most normal thing either.

[Andrew]

Arenas' antics are hit and miss with me. Sometimes I'm entertained by his personality and his comments, running over to perform a dunk off the trampoline during a timeout in the All-Star game a few years back was fun to see and the way he jokes around at times is a likeable trait. However, at other times his chip-on-the-shoulder mentality wears a little thin and comes off as something he needs to get over, or at least stop making all these boasts and proclamations. It's put up or shut up time for him.

[bowdown]

wht a crybaby. if you are being paid 111 million then you need to have some responsibility on your behalf as well

[Andrew]

This quote in particular stands out to me:

I told them I felt OK because I wanted to play, and they did what they did.

So he told them he was fine to play, they let him return because he wanted to and somehow that was the wrong thing to do? I'm sure the Wizards would've held him out if he'd said he wasn't ready to return. His choice, his responsibility.

[shadowgrin]

Arenas is starting to cross the line of Kanye West level idiocy. It's even starting to affect Antawn Jamison.

Nobody could guard me before, and can't nobody guard me now," Arenas told the newspaper.

Too bad the same thing can be said abut his defense.

[Fcuk Orlando]

The Wizards are a championship type team........on paper, only if they're all healthy and motivated, but I doubt that will happen.

[Andrew]

I'm not sure I'd go that far. On paper, I'd say they're a team that can put together a respectable record, get to the second round and maybe win a game or two before being eliminated if they can stay healthy.

[Andrew]

Arenas: 'I'm not the entertainer anymore'

Gilbert Arenas arrived for the Washington Wizards' mandatory media day Monday declaring he doesn't want to be judged by his words anymore. Then he spoke for 30 minutes.

"I'm 27 now. I'm not the entertainer anymore," said Arenas, whose blog was once among the most entertaining NBA fixtures on the Internet. "I wouldn't be here today if there wasn't a big fine. I don't feel like speaking anymore. I just want to go out there and play.

"If I'm not going to get fined, I don't think you're going to hear me again. I don't have a blog. I don't have a tweeter. When I was entertaining, all you guys focused on was my words. Now I'd rather you just focus on my basketball."

Sounds like a good idea. However...

He stood by his recent comments to The Washington Times in which he blamed the team for letting him rush back from his prior rehabs. But he wouldn't elaborate.

I still don't get him on that one.