Last Saturday, Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld reported that the Los Angeles Lakers have “expressed interest” in signing Gilbert Arenas. On Sunday, ESPN’s Chris Broussard confirmed the report, saying the Lakers have “considered the idea” of adding the guard to their roster. On Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Lakers had yet to interview or work out Arenas. On Tuesday, via Kevin Ding the Orange County Register, Lakers coach Mike Brown acknowledged that team personnel had “just conversation” about the former Wizard, also confirming that there had been no workout, nor a review of Arenas’ past game video by Brown.

After Monday’s Wizards-Bulls game, I spoke with Nick Young, a good friend of Arenas, about how his former teammate was doing and about his prospects of joining the Lakers.

You said you talk to Gilbert just about every day. How is he doing? Is he just down in Orlando working out?

“Yea, he’s been working out. He said he got the — I don’t know if I’m supposed to say this — but he got that Kobe treatment on his knees…”

[I make some lame joke about the "Kobe System" commercials. -- NOTE: This past June, Kobe Bryant underwent treatment on his knee in Germany.  Orthokine Therapy, developed by German doctor Dr. Peter Wehling, also a former physician to Pope John Paul II,  involves "centrifuging the patients blood and using the serum as an anti-inflammatory drug." Tracy McGrady reportedly introduced Wehling to Bryant, who in turn recommended the therapy to Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees. In addition to a clinic in Germany, Wehling is said to have a small outpost in Los Angeles.] Read more »

Gilbert Arenas turns 30 today, and who knows how scary this is for the artist formerly known as Gazo the Prankster. He now sits at home and waits for a chance to play basketball again, his quietness magnified by its deviation from his known personality. The video below of Washington fans reacting to the Arenas trade from Washington was shot around 50 hours after he was sent to the Orlando Magic in mid-December 2010.

Gilbert Arenas once called himself the Black President, but the way he governed the basketball court and his world around it after injuring his knee in 2007 was far from diplomatic. The former star’s fall from grace in the nation’s capital is, however, fitting of political scandal.

Many have painted Arenas a complicated person, from fans to media to teammates to team personnel. But he’s not as dense as a mortgage-backed security. No, it’s the digestion of Arenas that was always complicated. One story one day, another the next. His antics were often a disruptive force, pardoned by organizational higher-ups and accepted in the best “boys will be boys” way possible. What former coach Eddie Jordan once dubbed as “Gilbertology” often spilled into the headlines. The NBA has had characters galore, but Arenas’ idiosyncrasies and flaky personae, at their height, were unmatched.

He carried the insistent whimsy of a child with the ability to drop 60 points in a game, something that’s still only been done by nine different players 16 different times in the last 26 NBA seasons — Tracy McGrady, Allen Iverson, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Tom Chambers, Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Jordan (four times), and Kobe Bryant (five times). Arenas’ brand of roller coaster fun captured basketball fans in Washington, and dragged franchise to its only sniff past the first round of the playoffs in the last 28 seasons.

Read more »

…Because, well, why not? A man once said that you have to laugh to keep from crying. That man was 2009 Caron Butler, evidently with a message to Wizards of the future then that holds true now. Exactly. In other news, the year is almost over, but the season has just begun. Whatever that means. -Kyle W.

———- Message ———-
From: Wizz Nutzz <wizznutzz@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 9:17 PM
Subject: incites!!!
To: truthaboutit@gmail.com

Jordan Crawford heads back to Atlanta to play against the team that drafted him, while Chris Singleton returns home. He is from Canton, Georgia and played his senior season of high school at Dunwoody, right outside of Atlanta. As the Wizards prepare for game two on the season against the Hawks tonight, their first road game, we have three questions and three answers surrounding the two teams. TAI’s Rashad Mobley, Kyle Weidie, and Bret LaGree from the ESPN TrueHoop Hawks blog, Hoopinion… 3-on-3 is now…

1) Rashad Mobley: The Hawks lack a significant scoring threat off the bench, and Wizards are lacking a veteran presence in the back court to mentor/guide/spell John Wall. Jordan Crawford could be that bench threat for the Hawks, and Kirk Hinrich (when healthy) could play that role again for the Wizards. The draft pick part of the trade that brought Chris Singleton to D.C. notwithstanding, would Crawford and Hinrich be more effective on their old teams?

MOBLEY:  Crawford is still trying to figure out how his skill-set fits in the NBA, so I don’t know if that clarity would have come in Atlanta. But I do know that on opening night, Wall struggled to lead the Wizards on offense, and Hinrich could have steadied the team a bit.

LaGREE, Hoopinion: I think Hinrich’s perimeter defense will give the Hawks more value this year than Crawford’s ability to create a huge number of low-efficiency shots. Any of Atlanta’s five starters should be able to lead/carry the second unit for short stretches, though it remains to be seen how creative Larry Drew will get with the rotation to hide the lack of bench scoring.

WEIDIE: One part of Crawford provided Nick Young leverage this past summer (or a backup plan, depending on how you look at it). Hinrich did have shoulder surgery in the offseason that was suddenly revealed at the beginning of December (he will likely miss the first month of the season), but there’s no doubt that, if healthy, he would help the Wizards more — why do you think Atlanta paid so much for him in the trade? But the move was obviously made for reasons beyond individual usage, and the Wizards had time to afford an up-close glimpse at Crawford’s potential.

Read more »

Training camp is set to begin today for the Washington Wizards. Actually, it’s starting right about as I hit ‘publish’ on this post. Roger Mason Jr. is your newest Wizard, Mo Evans might be set to return, and Nick Young… well, we’re not quite sure yet. Could be a couple days.

Aaron Pettway and Mardy Collins have been invited to camp, per Craig Stouffer, on top of previously reported invitee, and former Wizard, Mike Wilks.

The TAI team will do our best to cover training camp happenings, but we are also old cats with regular jobs, and other stuff. For instance, Adam McGinnis and I coach a Boys & Girls club basketball team (10-11 year old boys), and we have a game this evening that might preclude attendance at tonight’s initial training camp media section. Another TAI regular, Rashad Mobley, is very close to celebrating the birth of a new child. So, Wizards basketball will come. In the meantime, a couple of training camp musings…

Leadership of John Wall?

One training camp question that Mike Prada posed on SB Nation is ‘How is John Wall relating to his teammates?’ The idea is to hope Wall becomes even more vocal as the team leader. Personally, I feel he will be just fine in this regard. It brings me back to Wall’s very first NBA summer league game in July 2010. Right off the bat, he certainly wasn’t bashful about imploring JaVale McGee to rebound the ball with two hands. Since, there have been countless observed instances of Wall being vocal, barking court orders to his teammates.

Read more »

Links, a D.C. picture, commentary, lockout, stuff, a poll…

[A blurry night vision in Washington - photo: K. Weidie]

So before I get to the links, and as I continue to contemplate how much I care about this lockout, officially losing the first two weeks of the regular season – obviously this is an unideal, frustrating situation, but I also could care less about getting wrapped up in the politics, economics, and interpretation (often misinterpretation, likely) of scatterbrained media reports — I wanted to throw out a poll to see where some of the readers of this site might stand. Vote below and drop comments if you feel like venting. Otherwise, thanks for visiting. Even with no games, there’s a ton of potential for content (just not a lot of free personal time for the regular job-working contributors to this site), so just bare with us as we try to make whatever it is that’s going on as fun as possible. Thank you. -Kyle

LINKS!

Read more »

Links, commentary, strange connections, and silly photos of Gilbert Arenas, randomness…

Bryon Russell will be forever cemented into Michael Jordan lore. You know exactly why. And evidently, Russell holds a solid spot in Washington Wizards/Gilbert Arenas lore as well.

Because of Jordan’s last shot as a Chicago Bull, a game six and championship winner that took place in Salt Lake City, Utah on June 14, 1998, which came courtesy of a Jordan push-off of Russell and subsequent burial of the Utah Jazz, Russell and Jordan will always be connected. The moment has been in/on video games, video game commercials, posters, artwork,  t-shirts, books, and captured via wide-ranging multimedia design. No one has been, and perhaps no one will ever be, more remembered for having a basketball shot hit on them. The rest of it travels down an unexpected road.

After the shot marinated in basketball history for over four years Russell teamed up with Jordan on the 2002-03 Washington Wizards, a team surrounded with strife and disaster that failed to even make the playoffs in Jordan’s final NBA season. Russell averaged 4.5 points and 3.0 rebounds over 19.8 minutes per game and appeared in 70 contests. Russell then joined the 2003-04 Los Angeles Lakers, a team that epically failed to be a team in the NBA Finals against the Detroit Pistons. No championship for Bryon. Russell played 16 total minutes during that playoff run, the swan songs for the careers of Karl Malone and Horace Grant, and the end of the Kobe/Shaq era; Gary Payton was also involved.

Russell next appeared in 70 games with the 2004-05 Denver Nuggets and in just one game for Denver the following season before retiring from the league. Then came September 2009. Jordan, in his Hall of Fame induction speech that was ‘so’ Jordan, made mention of Russell. Read more »

Seeing that pro basketball fans are essentially suspended from the NBA due to squabbling amongst millionaires and billionaires, passing time might be aided by chronicling all NBA and team suspensions of the Washington Wizards since circa 1995. Why? Well, because we humans love stories about crime and punishment, and to most, the NBA lockout fits the bill for both.  So away we go (with old basketball cards to accompany on occasion)…

[Note: This listing is incomplete and unconfirmed for accuracy; information has been gleaned, copied and pasted from eskimo.com/~pbender and prosportstransactions.com with the understanding that all suspensions and fines might not have been publicized or reflected.]

1/5/95
Bernard King suspended by team for altercation with head coach at practice.

2/3/95
Washington suspended Kevin Duckworth for 3 games for not staying in good physical condition.

Read more »

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

[Mt. Pleasant Day 2011 - Washington, D.C. - photo: K. Weidie]

Do we even know this John Wall kid?

Watching him play at exhibition games this summer, he doesn’t seem like the guy I saw make his pro debut at the 2010 Las Vegas Summer League, much less the player who dazzled us all during an injury-affected, frustration-filled rookie season.

The one potential problem I see with all of this (there’s always a “problem,” isn’t there, pessimist?) is that with the seemingly enhanced offensive and athletic ability over the 2011 Summer, is Wall, as a point guard, setting himself up to take matters into his hands too much if his teammates fail him?

Read more »

Links, commentary, a D.C. photo…

[Key Elementary School - NW Washington, DC - photo: K. Weidie]

Eventually, soon, I would like to make a more comprehensive post regarding Javaris Crittenton’s Tweets on this here site. There’s a problem with his Tweets… in that it’s Twitter. It would be very hard to gather context from each and every one of Crittenton’s Tweets, much less the small sample used for my piece on TrueHoop, or even from any number of people publishing thoughts and ideas on the social media tool.

To put it clearly: Nothing can be gathered, inferred, or deduced from Crittenton’s Tweets. They are simply an additional window into the life of a figure whom so many people are now trying to futilely gain information about. Yes, the Tweets came directly from his mind, but we don’t know what kind of filter he was putting his thoughts through… just like we don’t know what type of filter athletes, or anyone, puts themselves through during interviews and other media interactions.

There is, however, one misconception, or instance that needs more clarity: Crittenton’s six Tweets from the day of the murder in question, August 19.

Read more »

>>

“Don’t show that weirdo no love homie.”

That’s what Javaris Crittenton wrote on Twitter in response to a Tweet sent by @TazWube on August 14. A piece I’ve written regarding Crittenton’s now-defunct Twitter account resides on ESPN’s TrueHoop.

Wube is a famed D.C. club promoter with a Wikipedia page that reads like a press release. His exact Tweet:

@TazWube #np Spend it/2 chainz– he says he brings all his guns to work–gibert arenas… Makes me remember I miss Agent O.. 6’4 and unstoppable!!

His “Gibert” Arenas (sans the ‘l’, pronounced GUY-burt) could only play, by means of misspelling, to the potential of Andray Baltche, one would assume.

Read more »

Pictures, commentary, links, more pictures…

WE HAVE HERE: JaVale McGee dunking over Gary Neal at Capital Punishment, but John Wall should also look out below…

Read more »

Commentary, links, randomness…

Unfortunately, good people, John Wall tragically lost his right arm in Tuesday’s earthquake. (#Moment of Silence)

Seems like the Jerry Stackhouse owned by @n1coolguy didn’t fare so well either.

 But hey, Stackhouse has long been a fixer-upper … See? Good as new.

Read more »

On several planes, Gilbert Arenas and Dan Snyder are totally alike. On about a million they are not.

One commonality I can easily think of is that they both appear to be utterly oblivious to the general sensibilities of those who live in reality. Now, it’s not completely the fault of these men that they live in a fantasy world – NFL owner, a $100 million contract NBA man — but the ridiculous ways they can act is on their own accord.

Another similar trait of the two maligned D.C. sports figures? (One of whom the city no longer has to deal with.) Both are championing legal maneuvers against free speech.

In mid-June lawyers for the Washington City Paper made a filing, under anti-SLAPP laws passed in the District of Columbia last December, seeking to dismiss Snyder’s well-documented lawsuit against the local weekly alt-newspaper because of a November 2010 article written by the WCP’s Dave McKenna, “The Cranky Redskins Fan’s Guide to Dan Snyder.”

Read more »

[Emery Rec Center - NW Washington DC - photo: K. Weidie]

I’ve previously used historical statistical analysis in an attempt to determine who were some of the best, and worst, shooters in Wizards/Bullets franchise history.

One post explained that Slick Leonard might have had to worst shooting season in franchise record books. As a member of the ‘61-62 Chicago Packers, Leonard threw up 1,128 shots, second most on the team after Walt Bellamy, but only made 37.5-percent of them. In a nine team league that season 30 players attempted 1,000 or more field-goals, and Slick was the worst of them all.

Others, such as Kevin Loughery and Mitch Richmond, have cemented themselves as some of the worst shooters beyond the window of just one season. Loughery, over 591 career games played with the team in Baltimore, made only 41.5-percent of his 9,209 FG attempts. Richmond, who adeptly bastardized any memories of trading Chris Webber into scorn from fandom toward his aching knees, made just 41.7-percent of the 2,356 shots he took as a Wizard. To note, Loughery and Richmond were two of 26 players in franchise history to play in 160 games or more with the team and average over 15 field-goals attempted per 36 minutes.

Another post noted that Gilbert Arenas is the best long-range bomber in team history, and that some of the franchise’s better shooters — over various time periods, from everywhere on the court… twos, threes and ones — have been Brent Price, Mike Miller, Scott Skiles, Chris Whitney, Tracy Murray, Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler.

Read more »