Nick Young and Gilbert Arenas were close … still are. When Arenas was traded, before he left town as quickly as a plane could carry him to Orlando, he knocked on Young’s door to tell him the news, and a goodbye. He didn’t even say goodbye to his family (and now we kind of know why), but still … point is, Nick and Gil were a close pair of teammates. Here’s a link to Young talking about Arenas before the Wizards played the Miami Heat on the day of the trade.

Midway through pre-game warm-ups before tip-off of Arenas’ return to Washington as a member of the Orlando Magic, a basketball “mysteriously” went astray from the other side of the floor, bouncing right near Arenas. None other than Young surfaced to claim the errant ball, smile on his face and eager to catch up with his friend. Below are a couple pictures of their encounter…

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Long ago, in reference to his team’s troubles at the time, former Orlando Magic GM Pat Williams said:

“We can’t win at home. We can’t win on the road… As general manager, I just can’t figure out where else to play.”

The year was 1992 and the Magic fielded a 7-27 record when Williams said his quote that’s become one of the more infamously comical ones in NBA history. The 1991-92 season started out well enough for the Magic, as they won four of their first six games, two of which came against the Washington Bullets, one in Orlando and one in Landover, MD, despite 30 points from Michael Adams.

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One way in which Ernie Grunfeld can be commended is that he found a situation relatively suitable for all parties, speaking of Gilbert Arenas too. And isn’t that what it’s supposed to be about? Should fans always feast on the blood of perfect-world trades and maneuvers? Or should they consider moves in their entirety? Maybe that last sentiment can only be reserved for special cases such as Arenas’ relationship with Washington, but that’s all we have to go off nonetheless.

Let’s go back to mid-November when I asked Arenas why he went from jersey No. 0 to No. 6 to No. 9…

You can’t really go through a proper rebirth unless you change cities, traditionally speaking in the professional sports world. And now that Arenas has found a warm place in Orlando outside of the rebirth canal, he has switched jerseys again, going from No. 9 to No. 1 in the spirit of Penny Hardaway.

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Before a trade even went down, and as legitimate rumors made their infiltration Friday night, I somewhat contemplated the departure of Gilbert Arenas from the Washington Wizards. It was vastly incomplete, but my point was that in D.C., Arenas will be remembered for both good and bad, but mostly for the good.

As the trade became official while I was scrambling to get to the Verizon Center for the Wizards-Heat game on late Saturday afternoon, I spurted off several reactions on Twitter, but I don’t consider them as being anywhere close to complete either. The departure of someone who was so ingrained into modern D.C. basketball culture, much less franchise history, is difficult to contemplate, especially so soon. Surely many, myself included, will digest Arenas’ tenure in Washington plenty in the future … and then regurgitate and digest again.

But until then, below is one digestive attempt I made on the trade after Ernie Grunfeld’s press conference, which was held just over 100 minutes before tip-off. I had the opportunity to write this for ESPN.com’s TrueHoop blog, where you’ll also find a brief analysis of both of Orlando’s blockbuster trades from respective Magic and Suns bloggers in the TrueHoop Network. So, check out what I have to say below and be sure and get the full picture at TrueHoop.

Mr. Opportunity

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Two initial thoughts upon hearing “strong” Gilbert Arenas trade rumors (via: Yahoo!, Orlando Pinstriped Post, Washington Post):

1) So what? If he’s traded, he’s traded. If he’s not, he’s not. Arenas has had a colorful past in D.C. that will always be remembered, mostly good … but it wouldn’t be colorful unless there’s some bad, and that will be remembered too.

Gilbert has come back relatively quietly this season (aside from emo acts, the fake knee injury, or shoe poop stories). Whether truly humbled, who knows, but he’s at least playing the part. The struggle with whether he should stay or go should now be released, regardless of if the rumors become true or not. People will surely struggle with how to remember him, many will dramatically paint broad pictures with broad brushes … just remember him.

It reminds me of a fight I once had with my girlfriend. It got pretty heated, and in a dead serious moment she looked up at me and said, “I hate to get all Mike Miller on you, but it is what it is.” And then the fight was pretty much over. I cracked up because she had the perfect way to break the tension, and get my attention, rending the conflict silly in the big picture. Then we moved on.

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The Wizards take on the Raptors in Toronto tonight, still aiming to win their first road game of the year … and they’ll be doing it without Hilton Armstrong.

In a November 24 poll, when the Wizards were 0-6 on the road instead of the current 0-8, 33-percent of voters said the Wizards would notch their first road win tonight against the Raps. My dad recently told me that he thought the Wiz would get their first roadie in Sacramento — in that case, you’ll have to wait until December 8, when the Wizards would face the Kings with an 0-11 record on the road. The NBA: Where Amazing Happens.

Anyway…

Let’s look back and break down the play of the night from Monday’s game versus the Miami Heat. This one involves none other than Gilbert Arenas and Andray Blatche running a pick-and-roll, one where Blatche actually rolls to the basket. Imagine that.

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Poor Vince Carter. Above, he can be seen shooting a basketball before a recent meeting between his team and the Washington Wizards in the District of Columbia. He didn’t play in said game against the Wizards, as Carter is wont to do — not play in games due to injury, that is.

Poor Vince Carter. He’s getting paid $17 million this year. He’s previously quit on a team from Canada according to some (Like A Bosh), he could keep his current team, the Orlando Magic, from winning a championship, and he seemed to be ever so slightly perturbed that the photographer taking these pictures, aka me, was taking these pictures.

“They’re supposed to be out here already?,” blabbered Carter to an assistant coach. I appeased the man by walking away upon detection of his annoyance at such a disturbance. Sorry Vince.

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No one likes moral victories. They aren’t supposed to happen in professional sports, at least not acknowledged. Moral victories? Those are for the college underdogs, the 15 or 16-seeds in the Big Dance.

But if you’re the Washington Wizards, fighting hard against the Orlando Magic to the point where the game was decided by a Gilbert Arenas missed runner in the paint (after being stuffed like turkeys on Thanksgiving night in Atlanta), you’ll take it as one to grow on.

“Well, we competed,” Flip Saunders said, almost reluctantly, after his team fell 100-99 in the waning seconds. “Had opportunities, I thought we could have very easily hung our heads when we got in the situation and got down 12, but fought back, had some great individual play.” The coach relented his answer before even being asked a question at his post-game press conference.

Wizards fans can only hope the players see the type of effort displayed against Orlando as more positive bricks in their project of rebuilding. Saunders had an excellent game plan and his players worked hard to implement it. But the little things made the difference on Saturday night, according to the Wizards’ coach.

“It’s just the little things,” Saunders noted. “We wanted to wrap [Dwight] Howard up, not let him get layups. We gave him too many layups.”

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[Daniel Orton receives coaching instruction on his shot from Magic assistant Brendan Malone.]

Friday night after the Orlando Magic defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers, 111-100, Coach Stan Van Gundy was very upset about the brand of defense his team had played. The Magic led by as much as 18 points in the third quarter, but they allowed that lead to whittle away to eight points, and they never truly put the Cavs away despite the victory.   Here’s what Van Gundy had to say after that game:

“I saw very few good things defensively. We were terrible. Another 47-percent game. It’s the same old thing. With us right now, when the scoring is easy, we won’t guard, and that’s why we can’t put games away. We play one end of the floor at a time. So, we’re going to be in these challenges all the time.”

Last night against the Wizards, the Magic found themselves in a similar situation.  They jumped out to yet another big lead of 14 points, but in third quarter the Wizards shot 53-percent, and they even took the lead from the Magic.  If it weren’t for a big Dwight Howard putback toward the end, and a last second missed shot by Gilbert Arenas, the Magic could have easily lost the game.

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This is a Washington Wizards blog, and even though we have a segment entitled, “From The Other Side”, where we grab comments and interviews from the opposing locker room, we still try to make sure most of our content is Wizards-related.

However, there are instances when I get an audio or video clip that is too good to pass up regardless of whether it has anything to do with the Wizards or not.  Tonight happens to be one of those instances.

Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson and Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy have been engaged in a war of words during this Thanksgiving week. First, Jackson hinted that if that Miami Heat continued to struggle a “Van Gundy situation” could emerge and current coach Erik Spoelstra could be fired.  Van Gundy shot right back by saying Jackson was “inappropriate and ignorant” about what really happened in Miami.

After a morning shootaround in Utah yesterday, Jackson offered up a bit of an apology:

“It was an off-handed remark about if things continue to go poorly for Miami, what might happen.  But, obviously Stan felt that he had to say something. Unfortunately he got defensive about it. I didn’t mean to do that. I should apologize because I do know about his situation.  Stan was going home to be with his family and that was his reason for leaving. I have no idea about the rest of it; why he came back out after retiring and being with his family. But, that’s his decision and fine.”

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