[Shaun Livingston shows no fear going against the JaVale McGee tree.]

[Livingston ended up missing the tough shot ... but man, he and McGee are some lengthy dudes.]

Along with “no cheering in the press box”, and “no soliciting autographs from the players”, one of the rules of game-attending media says that we aren’t supposed to openly root for players. We are supposed to be as objective as possible so we can freely vacillate between criticism and praise, without worrying about offending our own sensibilities.

In three years covering the NBA, I think I’ve done a stellar job of obeying all of these rules.  I’ve slipped up a few times and pumped my fist, but I catch myself before anyone can see me.  I’ve  praised and criticized players and coaches (most recently Flip Saunders) with a clear conscience, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. And lest we forget, basketball writers tend to be basketball fans too.

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Whether you’re in the NBA or not, what you eat and how your body reacts is kind of a big deal … but especially if you are in the NBA, or any other type of athlete. Just this season, we’ve seen Al Thornton playing with more hustle and explosiveness, partially due to his summertime consumption change of cutting beef, chicken and pork out of his diet. On the other hand, we’ve seen Andray Blatche struggle to get in playing shape, seemingly more than he should be after suffering a broken foot in June, due to his dabbling in late-night snacks.

Gilbert Arenas is a third case on the team, at least in terms of playing weight and getting into full game shape. Most of Arenas’ setbacks can be attributed the groin and ankle tweaks he experienced in preseason, which also caused him to miss the first three games of the regular season. When asked about how his knee felt after Wednesday’s home game versus Houston, Gilbert scoffed, “I haven’t had a knee problem for a year and a half now, so I don’t know why people keep asking about it.”

But otherwise, as John Townsend noticed in his ‘Player Lock’ on Arenas, he doesn’t exactly look physically comfortable on the court just yet, and that’s to be expected … as Arenas himself has admitted that he’s probably about 10 pounds overweight.

“Gil’s still a long ways away,” said Flip Saunders after Wednesday’s game. “He needs to lose some weight and he needs to just get practice time on the court to get his legs under him. Because when you don’t shoot well, he’s not shooting well, you don’t have your legs under you as much. Give him credit, he worked hard on the defensive end –tried to work — so it’s going to be a work in process. But what we can’t do is we can’t put him in situations where we start playing him too many minutes because we don’t want him to have any kind of an injury.”

Before talking to him about pooping in shoes, which, believe it or not, is a result of what you eat, I briefly spoke with Arenas about losing weight. I started by asking him if he’s changed his diet to facilitate weight loss, Gil went in his own direction, indicating that he’s not completely willing to buy that he needs to lose weight, or that he’s overweight. And on regaining basketball shape, Arenas says he still doesn’t completely trust his ankle and is weary of it becoming a lingering injury.

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Plenty of professional athletes pull pranks. Plenty of regular people pull pranks. Gilbert Arenas didn’t invent the prank, he just was, perhaps, the best at it — the most prolific … because he’s a professional athlete.

Arenas’ varied pranks are infamous, and for a recent spell due to a horribly failed prank with guns that wasn’t really a prank, they became blemishes open for all armchair psychologists to analyze to their core, from a distance.

And then there’s pooping in someone’s shoe, an act that added a somber twist to Arenas’ locker room gun affair and his history of egregiousness excused by a franchise. Or in the least, it was Gilbert’s most memorable prank, which went from the punchline of comical stories among those in the know to something that was used to further indict Arenas’ character.

The proper term, kids, is defecation … in verb form: to defecate. And it was first properly used in reference to Arenas and victim, Andray Blatche, by Mike Wise and Michael Lee of the Washington Post in January 2010:

“Former Wizards coach Eddie Jordan and his staff privately intimated they felt undermined by Grunfeld when it came to matters of discipline with Arenas. Arenas, a notorious practical joker, often crossed the line of acceptable decorum. The example often cited was how Arenas once defecated in teammate Andray Blatche’s shoe during Blatche’s rookie season. His behavior often went unchecked and unpunished, said a former team employee on condition of anonymity.”

Early 2010 Internet yuks and blogging gold were the mostly innocent results of the newly divulged information about an act that occurred in 2005/06. And then the story remained relevantly dormant and unmentioned by all parties involved and aware … until recently.

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So Gilbert Arenas is evidently wearing a pair of custom Under Armour shoes now, as seen above (via Sole Collector – click for more pictures). Well, at least he wore a pair Saturday versus Cleveland (and only in the second half, I’ve been told). For his season debut in New York he wore a pair of Jordans.

The model, Under Armour’s Micro G Supreme, will supposedly be sported by Arenas-only for the next couple of months — and as you can see, the released pictures show the shoes in Wizards colors and with Arenas’ No. 9 on the heel. Also note that Arenas is evidently not getting paid a dime by Under Armour just yet (via CNBC’s Darren Rovell on Twitter).

For Arenas, it doesn’t hurt for him to lend his name/number to a company willing to support him; and for Under Armour, it’s certainly a low-risk investment that could increase their basketball market penetration.

But forget all the strategy, how does Arenas’ shoe look? More specifically, who has the better looking shoe, John Wall or Gilbert Arenas? Or, perhaps, whose shoe are you more likely to buy?

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[Note: This is a trial run of a "Player Lock" series in which Truth About It.net will spotlight one player over the course of a game. -John]

I chose to spotlight Gilbert Arenas in Saturday night’s contest between the Washington Wizards and the Cleveland Cavaliers. And why not? It was Gil’s homecoming — the first time he had played at the Verizon Center since January 2, 2010 against the San Antonio Spurs.

[To beard or not to beard? via K. Weidie]

Flip Saunders and Gilbert tested a bit of my patience, forcing me to wait … and wait for his debut. He didn’t check into the game until just a few minutes before the end of the first quarter. After making his season debut against the Knicks on Friday, Arenas indicated that he didn’t mind coming off the bench for the unforeseen future, saying, “When I come off, I just got to be ready like ‘The Microwave’.” And Wizards fans in D.C. were hungry for whatever he had cooking.

When he finally hit the hardwood, Gil didn’t fit the “man on a mission” parable. It was strange. His steps were measured and deliberate. Arenas furrowed his brow and narrowed his eyes, as he locked his gaze to the far end of the court. He looked like a man who had lost something he cared about dearly. He looked like a guy trying to find a loved one in a crowd.

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NEW YORK – Gilbert Arenas wasn’t in the mood to talk to the media tonight at Madison Square Garden before his first scheduled appearance of the 2010-11 season. Well, check that, to use the word ‘mood’ is a little bit loaded. He seemed to just rather not adhere to a formal session of manufactured quotes before playing his first real game since January 5, 2010.

He dribbled the ball while sitting in his locker, listened to his headphones, went in and out of the crowded visiting locker room at MSG. No scowls on his face, no menacing glares (at least that I witnessed, for the most part).

Without a Flip Cam or a recorder in his face, I asked him, “Okay, on the scale of 1-10, how excited are you to be playing tonight … for the first time in a while?”

He looked off toward the ceiling in sincere thought, but still couldn’t answer the question.

“You’ve got to be excited, right?,” I asked him. “Or maybe ‘excited’ is not the right word,” I followed.

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Not too long ago we took a look at some of the worst shooters in Bullets/Wizards franchise history. Now, especially since shooting is such a concern, we’ll take a look at some the best shooters in team history, specifically from the three-point distance.

[Basketball Court - Georgia Avenue/Howard University - photo: K. Weidie]

Last season was the 31th anniversary of the three-point shot in the NBA. Well, sorta. The three-point line was implemented on a trial basis for the 1979-80 season and set into permanent rule for the 1980-81 season. So, perhaps technically this season is the 31th anniversary of the three-point shot in the NBA. Nonetheless, stats on the shot have been kept for the previous 31 seasons and are available thanks to Basketball-Reference.com.

Kevin Grevey of the Washington Bullets hit the first three-point bucket in franchise history, on opening night against the Philadelphia 76ers at home on October 12, 1979. Evidently there is some dispute as to whether Grevey hit the first three in NBA history; Chris Ford of the Boston Celtics is usually credited with accomplishing this feat, which occurred on the same night.

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First Wizards-related web stuff, then pictures of rallies.

1) According to Asia-Basket, Javaris Crittenton has signed with the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association. Evidently he’ll be playing there with another former Wizard, Peter John Ramos.
[h/t: NiuBBall.com]

2) As you probably know, John Wall tweaked his ankle versus the Hawks on Saturday, but should be okay to play against the 76ers on Tuesday. Gilbert Arenas, however, is unlikely to go (via Washington Post). Arenas is getting MRIs, Cortizone shots and seeing specialists about his ankle. Bad timing for Wizards fans who really want to see him play, but Arenas’ patience is tested more. You have to think, loving the game as he does, that he’s desperately anxious to get on the court for a real game. But it would be a good sign if he takes precaution, and it’s not much of a sign of anything else beyond that.

3) The mother of Gilbert Arenas’ children and his fiancee, Laura Govan, recently spoke with S2S Magazine. She denies the rumor about her and Shaq, saying it’s something that Shaq’s ex-wife, Shaunie, made up. But whatever with all that, here’s the best part:

“Laura is a former basketball player and coach who met Gilbert while she was working at a Golden State Warriors basketball camp. He wasn’t “Agent Zero” or the “$100 Million Man” yet. Laura said she tried to ignore Gilbert’s smiles and glances and even turned him down when he asked her out.

“I was like, ‘Being an athlete doesn’t impress me.’ I said, ‘If you really want to go out with me, you’ll work for my family.’” Her dad owned a jazz club and she promised him a date if he worked there.

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The Washington Redskins aren’t the only team in D.C. that may be on the brink of a lineup change (Hi Donovan and Rex!).  Any day now (possibly tomorrow, but that seems unlikely at this point), Gilbert Arenas will recover from a strained tendon in his ankle and will make his 2010-2011 regular season debut.  That may be good news for Wizards fans, and great news for John Wall’s game, but it puts Coach Flip Saunders in quite the quandary.

Does he revert back to the three-guard lineup that creates match-up problems for the defense, but likely causing problems in the much maligned rebounding department?  Does he keep Arenas on the bench until he has his legs and his game back?  Does Flip bench Kirk Hinrich and Al Thornton and start the Arenas/Young combination since they seem to look out for one another?  Should Yi be given the chance to start since McGee seems to be struggling (when not blocking shots and dunking on Josh Smith)?

The possibilities are endless, and with the Wizards sitting at 0-2, it’s not like Flip will be disrupting some sacred chemistry by shaking things up a bit.  Wall should start, and Blatche, despite his passiveness in the first two games, represents the best low-post threat the Wizards have.  Everyone else is subject to be replacement.

So what do you think? Should the starting lineup change when Arenas is healthy?

Not too long ago, I found that the Wikipedia page for Flip Saunders listed his real first name as “Flippery” — Wikipedia hijinks … it gave me a chuckle. His real name is Phillip.

On a related note, I recently wrote something for the individual team previews that Basketball-Reference.com is doing. I was supposed to discuss strengths and weaknesses, which I aimed to do, and did to a minor extent, but when all was said and done, it ended up being somewhat of a preview on Phillip “Flip” D. Saunders, Wizards head coach.

Hence, I’m re-purposing what I wrote for BBR for the first part of this post. Sure, it’s kind of “iffy” of me to post something I wrote for somewhere else here (not like I haven’t done it before). But I know you’ll go check out the rest of Basketball-Reference’s preview on the Wizards anyway, which includes projected per-36 minute stats and some team-related polls to vote on.

Looking Forward

The Wizards’ biggest strength is also their biggest weakness (and please don’t picture Michael Scott or Dwight Shrute saying this … I’m being serious): Youth.

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Sure, I pretty much said the Wizards would lose to the Magic on Thursday in my last post. But there’s always an ‘if’ … and Gilbert Arenas is just that. Coming into this season, I’ve been confident that Arenas would be healthy enough to be a very effective scorer. Some are concerned about his knee, but if the mystique of Tim Grover proves true, time off due to suspension only made the surgical repairs stronger, with more rest.

We’re talking about a guy who scored 45 points in a game last season — and 25 or more points in 10 out of 32 games, seven of those games coming in December when Arenas started to heat up. The Wizards went 4-6 in the win/loss column when Gil scored 25 or more … which I guess isn’t bad, considering.

No, instead of his offense, what I’ve wanted to see from Gilbert is if his defensive legs can prove something other than the norm, for him, especially after Flip Saunders has backed Arenas’ defensive capability so much. People are already afraid that the twists and turns will continue with Gilbertology. Hopefully, lingering groin and ankle injuries won’t contribute more of that feeling you get when the plane or roller coaster takes a sudden drop.

But if Gilbert is merely a bench ornament in Orlando, the name of the Wizards’ game will still be to out-trick the Magic with strong and dominant guard play — pressure bursts pipes and speed makes it worse. Hello John Wall.

An upset toppling like a good ol’ Pyramid Scheme in the new Amway Center isn’t beyond comprehension. What if Dwight Howard gets in foul trouble, or perhaps is moved by the spirit to pick up a couple of those ‘new’ technicals? Who else do the Orlando Magic have that can out-basketball the Wiz kids? Vince Carter? I imagine that Al Thornton is a threat to give him the ‘Melo Treatment (meaning the one time Thornton played stellar defense against Carmelo Anthony).

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[Editor's Note: More pixels on Gilbert Arenas? Yes, more pixels on Gilbert Arenas. Last Friday I took part in a chat about the Wizards on ESPN.com. The questions coming in weren't mostly about John Wall or anyone else. They were about Gilly. People want them some Gilly. It got to the point where a couple questions came in complaining about the amount of questions about Arenas; I gladly obliged to answer their inquiries about other players. But yea, you like Gilly and TAI likes to cover Gilly ... simple as that. And this post by Adam is an excuse to post bearded Gilbert pictures anyway. -Kyle]

The national media freak out over Gilbert’s “sacrifice solid” rages on. Last Thursday I listened to Dan Patrick on his radio show crucify Arenas for using the word “loaded” when talking about the Wizards’ guard position. So now Gil can’t use certain words that may have indirect gun references? GEESH.

This is where I sympathize with the plight of Gilbert. He sulks in front of the media, everyone goes all Dr. Phil on his mood (myself kinda included), and when he is too candid about why he sat out the game to help out his boy, he is sliced up by the same media.

Let me reiterate, it is PRESEASON!! What was the Wizards’ preseason record in 2009? How about ’08? Or ’07? Or any year? I am sure very few know those answers without firing up The Google.

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Today Gilbert Arenas sat out of practice because of that injured groin. Afterward, he took about 25 minutes or so to sign autographs for and take photos with fans after an open house/practice the Wizards held at the Verizon Center. Arenas signed everything from paper money, to ipods, to jerseys, to human arms … pretty much anything fans could produce. The people showed him love and he showed them love back, joking and talking with fans and not just solemnly signing his name .

He didn’t speak with the media afterward, about all four of us who were there to check out the event, saying with a smile on his face, “I’m happy today, I’ll talk to y’all tomorrow.” (or something like that). Take a look at some pictures first … and then, commentary.

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{photo: A. McGinnis, TAI}

[Gilbert Arenas gets some gum/candy for Lester Hudson. Watch out Lester! Tony Kornheiser says that candy could be POISON!]

Bullet Point Thoughts on Gilly …

• So that Gilbert guy … you know what he did and you know he has been punished for it in the form of a fine (and likely old man giddiness via Tony Kornheiser … I bet old Tony popped a Viagra and everything when he heard Arenas lied to his coach).

• In fact, there are a lot of blowhards diddling themselves over Gilbert today. They were just waiting for him to slip up and now they’ve got coitus interruptus all over their keyboards and microphones. Steinberg over at the DC Sports Bog aptly addresses the rhetoric of John Feinstein, Kornheiser and Skip Bayless.

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Sacrifice.

It’s a good word. It’s a good thing to do. And something that some just assume Gilbert Arenas can’t do.

Well, he can. Perhaps not in the most tactful manner, but he can … especially when it’s for a guy with whom he has always had a special relationship with, Nick Young (and I’m not talking about the time Gil arranged for Nick’s Range Rover to be stolen).

According to reports before the Wizards’ preseason matchup against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday, Arenas told Flip Saunders at that morning’s shoot-around that his knee was sore and that he wouldn’t be able to play.

“We had two hard days of practice, so it’s a little sore and stiff as far as today,” Saunders told the media around 90 minutes before the game.  ”At least that’s what he said to me at shootaround.  So based on that, I don’t think he’ll play.”

Evidently that wasn’t exactly the case.

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