Well, it’s no Eddie Jordan pro-style Princeton offense. Instead, it’s Gilbert Arenas aimlessly wandering around the 3-point arc on the basketball hardwood in China. Which, for some strange reason, I take pleasure in watching … while those peddling Amway products are essentially paying Arenas not to play for the Orlando Magic. It’s all very sad in a bloggable way. Hey, did you know that Arenas was the first blogging athlete? Well, he was.

The above video, in fact, comes from China. It’s Arenas’ November 24 debut with the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), against Stephon Marbury, famed consumer of Vaseline, and the Beijing Ducks. Well, the first few minutes of Arenas’ debut—he pulled up with an injury not six minutes in. But there Gilbert is, wandering around the floor in blue, wearing uniform No. 0 (just like Andray Blatche of the Brooklyn Nets).

Long story short, the Sharks get down 10-2 while Arenas barely touches the ball. Then Arenas sinks a step-back, fadeaway 3-pointer at about the 6:35 mark of the above YouTube (the only shot he would end up attempting). Then Arenas gets injured via his groin, or hip flexor, or “intramuscular strain of the right thigh”—all of them probably apply, all of them are probably lost in translation—and leaves for the night, and the foreseeable future (around the 8:22 mark of the YouTube). And then the Sharks lost to the Ducks, 94-78.

The blog, Beijing Cream, relays this: Read more »

Andray Blatche is doing good things in Brooklyn. So good that trolling the Wizards is easy. So good that he knows exactly when he will be ready to talk about a new contract.

We’re all too familiar with the fact that the Washington Wizards used the amnesty provision on Blatche this past summer. That no other NBA team made a full, or even partial, waiver claim on his contract. That Blatche signed with the Brooklyn Nets for a one-year, non-guaranteed deal worth about $850,000. That the Wizards are essentially on the hook for the remainder of Blatche’s amnestied contract, about $23 million over three years. Essentially.

So about the new contract that Blatche might want due to his good play with the Nets? Well, it’s too early to talk about all of it, he says. But, there will be a good time to discuss. We’ll let the New York Daily News take it away:

In an interview with the Daily News, the Nets center said he’d like to re-sign as a free agent next summer but understandably couldn’t commit to anything so early in the season.

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[ShareBullets: links, thoughts, randomness, shares, Washington Bullets...]

John Wall turned 22-years old on Thursday, September 6. Kevin Willis turned 50 on Thursday, too. (Could’ve sworn he was 60 … he was still playing in the NBA less than 2,000 days ago.) Who else celebrated a birthday on September 6? None other than Pippa Middleton, Foxy Brown (the rapper), Jeff Foxworthy (the redneck), Rosie Perez, and Idris Elba (Stringer Bell from The Wire). Now let’s check out some John Wall birthday club fliers — Wall surely won’t become the next “Party All Dray,” right? (H/T DC Sports Nexus)

First, there’s New York…

And then Miami, where there will be girls holding boobs, clearly…

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ShareBullets: Links, Web, Randomness…

Who says child prodigies have no time to grow up, to be young?

… John Wall seems to be doing just fine.

Just like during last year’s NBA lockout summer, Wall this summer has made his way around the land like a Tribe Called Quest song. Instead of a mic, it’s a basketball… but he’s still having all the fun that a world tour can provide.

From NOC, there’s John Wall’s breakout story, set at a 2007 camp sponsored by Reebok where college coaches try to find breakout stories; Wall’s breakout happened in Philadelphia. One thing that’s clear about Wall, which is reflected in his passion for basketball, is how the tough times he faced as a kid are clearly reflected in his professional maturity.

Maybe you’ve already seen the 15-minute NOC feature that shows some old footage of Wall with coverage of today’s prospects at this year’s Reebok camp. Featured is Baltimore’s Aquille Carr, who is facing some tough times himself this summer (the prodigy nicknamed the “Crimestopper” was recently arrested for allegedly assaulting the mother of his child).

The key (to the summer) is exposure, as North Carolina coach Larry Brown says in the video; Oh, it’s also about the hair.

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ShareBullets: things from around the web…

>> We start with a big Kevin Seraphin block versus Tunisia.

>> James Singleton is moving on; Roger Mason, too.

With the Wizards reportedly unwilling to pay anything more than the veteran’s minimum, John Singleton moving on and Roger Mason signing with the New Orleans Hornets represents cost-considered moves for the Washington franchise (see cliche phrase: “It’s a business”). In a sense, this is a disservice: not finding a way to reward the efforts of Singleton and Mason while offering some constancy to a young team. In reality, the Wizards weren’t offering much playing time. Shooting from Mason would have been nice, the same with the grit of Singleton, but with roster capacity now at 13 — and the need to see how all the new feature parts fit together first– the Wizards can afford to hold off on filling the last two available spots, per report of the Washington Post’s Michael Lee. Not retaining Mason and Singleton was not part of an ideal offseason plan for the Wiz, but that doesn’t mean someone else can’t come along an inspire the team from the end of the bench just as well.

>> ESPN’s Marc Stein reports (via Twitter) that the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat are interested in Andray Blatche. Both are solid organizations and could help turn Blatche into something. Each city also drastically differs in nightlight options, which understandably could have a significant influence on the overall “Party All-Dray” experience. Blatche has for the past couple of offseasons made his home in Miami. So there’s that. San Antonio has the Riverwalk. Also:

“Everyone knows San Antonio is a great city… they do have some big ol’ women down here,” famously said Charles Barkley.

Destination Blatche: To Be Determined. Read more »

ShareBullets … news, randomness and tidbits from around the web. These involve current Wizards, ShareBullets on past Wizards/Bullets to come…

> John Wall’s New Reebok Zigs

So a sneak peak at Wall’s new Reeboks is out, via Sole Collector. What do you think? (Poll below.) FWIW, in the poll on Sole Collector, which has many, many options, 26-percent currently say that they are “hideous.”

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ShareBullets… links and random relevance…

[Capitol Rebuilding]

First off, news…

TAI’s Adam McGinnis (@adammcginnis) will be a judge at the Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown this Saturday at the National Capital Barbecue Battle in downtown Washington, D.C.

The details you need:

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A D.C. pic, links, other pictures, commentary, video, etc.

[Down 14th St. from Red Derby - NW Washington, D.C. - photo: K. Weidie]

LINKS.

> John Wall, in this photo, seems kinda bummed without the NBA.
[via irockcollege.com]

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Most of us saw where Kobe Bryant took time to rip Kwame Brown during a guest lecture to a college class at the University of California-Santa Barbara the other day, video embedded above and linked here if you missed it. In calling out the transgressions of inglorious bastard teammates Brown and Smush Parker, Bryant took pause to mention that he would say the same thing to the faces of both players; this after eliciting chuckles from the class en masse by mere mention of Brown’s name. Surely Kobe realizes that every comment he makes, every action, is susceptible to fast dissemination amongst the Internets. He knew Kwame would hear his dig.

People are always ready to rip Kwame, myself included. Almost as readily, people blame Michael Jordan or Doug Collins for all that went wrong with him at the onset of his career with the Washington Wizards as the NBA’s 2001 No. 1 overall draft pick. Both men have admitted that they would’ve handled the 18-year old differently, Collins at various times even admitting that their scouting was duped by Kwame’s accelerated physique and confident persona in a pre-draft workout where he bested, and beasted, high school contemporary Tyson Chandler. Jordan, now majority owner of the Bobcats, attempted to swallow his mistakes last summer by reuniting with Kwame in Charlotte.

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John Wall: Damn good at basketball, which rhymes. So it’s good his name is not John Facade or John Rampart.

Anyway, in the ESPN.com #NBArank project he’s ranked 40th in the league. More interesting to me, than rankings, however, is that he was rated with a 7.07 out of 10 by the collective collectivity of ESPN-related voters. Consider that along with the fact that there’s no where to go but up for Wall. Kind of scary, in a good way, for the Wizards fans who’ve never been apart of any sort of achievement.

OK, so I’m exaggerating about the achievement part. Making the playoffs four seasons in a row (2005-08) is a damn fine achievement for the team that I know, as sad as that may seem. But now achievement means making it past the second round. And that former achievement? Well, it doesn’t count so much anymore because no one cares (but not in a ‘no one cares about the NBA’ selective sample size of opinion that spawned a Mike Wise column kind of way).

Otherwise, four of us Truth About It.net writers — Rashed Mobley, Adam McGinnis, John Converse Townsend and myself — asked each other questions about Mr. Wall. And as he would say, Leggggo!

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