How Many Strikes Does He Get?

Unlike many die-hard sports fans, I don't dislike all the other franchises just for having the gall to not be my favorite team. I pretty much only reserve my day-in and day-out hate for the Lakers, Pistons and Yankees (also the Steelers and Cowboys if they get to the Super Bowl). I guess I'm supposed to hate more teams, but unless they are playing one of my teams I just don't have it in me. Most of the time I find myself either not thinking about other teams enough to not like them or rooting for them if it would be a fun upset, provided it isn't against a team from Boston. Then there are other times I will have a rooting interest in a team if I have friends or family who root for them. For example there is a team like the Washington Wizards - I have a friend who I used to work with, who grew up in D.C. and who really likes the Wizards. Since smack-talking between friends before a Celtics/Wizards game is a lot more fun if the other team actually has a chance to win occasionally, I would like the Wizards to be a well-run franchise. It is because of this slim Wizard connection that I have been following the Gilbert Arenas situation so closely.

For those of you who might not follow the NBA like I do (read: 98% of the population), Gilbert Arenas is a point guard out of Arizona. He was a second round pick for the Warriors and had a couple nice seasons there before signing a big contract in Washington. Teaming with Antawn Jamison they managed to get the Wizards into the playoffs a few times and won an occasional series but never did much else once they got there. On a player scale of 1-10, I would have given Arenas about a 7. A nice enough player, but not the superstar that nice players always seem to get hyped into by NBA media relations people. Also on his side was that Arenas was particularly media-savvy. He had a very popular and funny blog and the beat writers loved him, which helped cover up a lot of underlying issues. He had started to get a reputation as a bit of a hot-head as well as a guy who would pout if things did not go his way. There were numerous reports that if Arenas was losing in one of the mini-games that often break out after practice in the NBA, he would continually change the rules to his benefit and if the people didn't agree to those changes he would storm off and declare himself the winner. There is also a report he once took a dump in a teammate's sneaker as a 'joke'. Classy guy. But, because the media was on his side, this kind of behavior was written off as just "Gilbert being Gilbert." (Sound familiar, Red Sox fans?)

Plus, an organization is often willing to overlook all that kind of stuff when the guy is playing well, which Arenas was. The problems really started about two years ago when Gilbert began to repeatedly getting hurt. At first he told the team he would rehab on his own, only he then got mad at the team when his knee didn't get better quickly, saying it was the organization's fault, because they should have forced him to rehab their way. Despite this, the Wizards gave him a second huge contract. Arenas rewarded them by getting hurt again early in the next season, then saying he was in no rush to come back because the team wasn't winning. Apparently a huge contract wasn't incentive enough. Then, what should have been the breaking point came last season. Now, Arenas was apparently notorious for refusing to pay off any money he lost on the team plane rides, having lower-salaried players cover for him and then never paying those teammates back. Well, one of his teammates called him out on it and demanded to be paid back, at which point Arenas pulled several guns out of his locker and told the guy to pick one, because they would settle it that way. Arenas would later claim this was all in fun and some kind of joke, but the police didn't see it that way. Arenas was tried and convicted of bringing an unlicensed firearm (because why would a guy like Arenas take the time to get a gun license?) into a public building. He had to spend a month in jail and was suspended for the rest of the NBA season.

Now, because of how the NBA salary cap works with all contracts being guaranteed, the Wizards remained tied to Gilbert. Releasing him meant he would still get paid and take up a big chunk of the salary cap. Also, the Wizards were in flux: they had just been sold, but the new owner had not yet taken control of the team and major decisions were in a holding pattern. Their only hope was that someone would miss out on all the other free agents this summer and make them a low-ball offer, but no one did. While the public faces of the Wizards were saying they believed Gilbert had learned his lesson and they never wanted him gone, the reality was that they were stuck with him and everyone knew it. Still, they brought him to camp where once again Arenas was very media-savvy and said all the right things, leading to lots of "Gilbert is a changed man!" stories. But then earlier this week Arenas was a late scratch in a preseason game, claiming he had some soreness in the knee that has been repeatedly hurt for the past three seasons. The Wizards weren't about to mess with his health, so they took him at his word. However, after the game Arenas said he faked the injury to get a young teammate some playing time. He would laters say that in his mind he was doing it for the good of someone else and thus he didn't really see what the big deal was.

Ok, this has to be the end of Gilbert in Washington. It's one thing if the guy is loopy, but when he's trying to bring down the organization from within it's another thing entirely. Arenas basically just came right out and said he didn't respect his coach, GM or new owner, all of whom have tried to be on his side in this. The worst part is that, given it was a preseason game, he didn't have to lie to his coach. He could have simply said, "Hey, this kid needs playing time." But now they'll never be able to take him at his word on an injury ever again. Just last night Arenas came up lame with a "groin injury." Is he really hurt? Your guess is as good as mine. I know that the Wizards don't want to take the big cap hit by just releasing him, but no one is going to trade for him with his the combination of his legal troubles, injury history, huge contract and "quirky" personality. Frankly, I have little sympathy for the team, because his second contract was a bad idea the moment they offered it to him. Now, other teams know the Wizards have no leverage in negotiations, so either they release him and take a big cap him or take back some other franchise's equally terrible head case with a cap-crippling contract. The way I figure it, the Wizards weren't going to contend for a title this year anyway, but the longer they keep Gilbert around the longer it is going to take them to get on the right path to start them in that direction. Time to cut your losses.