Much has been made about Gilbert Arenas eschewing jersey No. 0, and then going from 6 to 9 (very Jimi Hendrix of him). But why? Probably because Arenas’ past nickname, Agent Zero, derived from the number he chose to represent the slight of people saying he’d get zero minutes at the University of Arizona. The chronicles of zero have been well documented since.
Okay, so why No. 9? Well, it was probably time to ask Mr. Arenas himself, so I did.
“Nine means the rebirth … you know it’s the last number before you start something else,” Arenas said. But it sounds better coming from him, so let’s take a look-see:
As the Post’s Michael Lee reported before the game, Gilbert Arenas has filed paper work to change his jersey number from #0 to #6, and the NBA has given its approval.
What does it all mean? The death of Agent Zero? The birth of Agent Six? With Gilbert, who knows. What we do know is that a current Washington Wizard wears #6, and that would be Mike Miller, who probably had to file paper work himself.
Miller was asked about the number change after the game. {more below the jump}
Although this move achieved a certain level of knowledge by late Friday in the least, the February 26 deadline to submit paper work to the NBA (also exactly a month prior to Gilbert Arenas’ sentencing date), there are whispers that Arenas’ intentions have been known for longer.
Arenas’ games with the media are a bit annoying. He’s partially silencing himself because he just wants to concentrate on basketball after being injured for so long. Perfectly reasonable. The other part seems like an attempt to be ‘cute’ since he feels he’s been tragically wronged by the media in the past. Uh, not so reasonable.
I’m not saying Arenas isn’t somewhat justified in being miffed toward previous coverage of him. But at the same time, his own words caused much of the strife. It’s not like Arenas was constantly misquoted or taken out of context with malicious intent. He was able to speak directly to fans via ‘Agent Zero: The Blog File’, which was how people became so attracted to his sincerity in the first place. Without blogging, he’s probably just another Ben Gordon.
I guess Gil just feels misunderstood. But the problem is that he doesn’t understand how he could contribute to the cause of him being misunderstood. If that makes any sense. Perhaps his ghost-writer/blogger should have used more emoticons and ‘LOLs’ so that we would ‘get it’.
You may think yesterday’s press conference introducing Fabricio Oberto was about closure … about finalizing the chapter on 2009 summertime movement … about alleviating the angst of Wizards fans hoping for a reliable big man to secure depth.
You’re wrong. Yesterday was all about Gilbert Arenas.
As soon as it was mentioned that coach Flip Saunders, who has been visiting almost all of the players on his team in their summertime locale, made a trip to Chicago to check on Arenas, zealous ears perked up.
Maybe media types assume fans are hungry for Agent Zero morsels since the all-star’s self-imposed moratorium on communication of any type. Or perhaps Arenas’ “so goes him so goes the team” importance is realized whereas any little bit of information about him needs to be magnified and manufactured into web hits.
Whatever the case may be, the assumption that this is ‘The Year of Gilbert Arenas’ is 100% correct. New found depth be damned. You know it, I know it … we all know it. This team is going nowhere unless Agent Zero’s Takeover (part 3 or ‘reloaded again‘ … I’m not sure which one we’re on) reigns supreme.
Caron Butler is happy that Gilbert Arenas has seen the light … or stepped up in “that” light … or claimed that he’s going to be more serious. If Tuff Juice is expected to play more in the flow of the game and not force the offense for a losing team, he’ll need Gil on that line.
The WashingtonTimes and Post acted as the microphone for the attention getting Agent Zero last week, and he used the platform to let everyone know that next year will be “totally different,” and that the team will be “approaching the game seriously.”
Such talk from Gil, much less an NBA star in general, is nice to hear. It provides Wizards fans with a lot more hope for the future than negative talk we so often hear from the usual spoiled/pampered NBA brats.
