Free agent guard Gilbert Arenas will be suiting up for the Memphis Grizzlies as they look to upgrade their back court before the playoffs. Arenas will sign for a prorated veteran’s minimum contract of about $300,000. Welcome back to the NBA, Agent Zero.

Arenas opens heart in interview

If you haven’t already, you need to read Sports Illustrated’s Sam Amick’s interview with Gilbert Arenas.

Arenas talks at length about a variety of subjects, addressing his past, present and future and acknowledging that he needed to change on a personal level before he could move forward following the much talked about ‘gun incident’.

Highlights of the interview include:

“Someone close to me told me I lost myself a long time ago when I invented Agent Zero, and I didn’t understand what the person was talking about at the time. He’s like, “You were basically on the road down anyway, the image you were putting out meant you were going to get killed at some point.” Now it’s like, “Yeah, you were right.”

- Gilbert on resetting his mentality.

“So I decided I’m not here to prove anybody wrong anymore. I’m just here to prove myself right. I’m not here to chase the money, to chase stats. Now what you have is a basketball player who’s ready to play

- Gil’s mindset.

I’m not going to lie, I feel so much better. I’m jumping and moving like before I got injured, like it’s basically ’06 again. My explosiveness, my jumping ability, my quickness — it feels like I never got injured.

- Arenas on the platelet rich procedure he underwent for his knees and hips.

“I think I’m seeing life how I saw it before I got famous, and that’s hard to do sometimes. It’s hard to break yourself back down. I’m loving life.”

“Just got the love of the game back. That’s never going to leave. I just love the game of basketball.”

- Arenas talking about his life away from basketball.

“He was saying all the other teams that he decided he was going to go to, and will I come there? I said, ‘Of course. If you want me to play, I’ll come with you.’
“What do you do when somebody dominant like him wants to play with you? He still believes in me”

- Gil talking about Dwight Howard and his decision over what team he should play for.

“All I know is I’ve got a Daddy-Son Donut Day on the 24th. You go to the school, and you have donuts. That’s what I’m looking forward to.”

- Classic Gil.

It seems from the interview as though Arenas is a lot happier where he’s at, both mentally and physically and he’s been able to ground himself and re-establish his priorities. He’s shown a lot of humility and maturity during the interview and appears to understand himself better than he has done in the past.

Arenas has indicated that he’s happy to ply his trade in the D-League if he feels it’s the right thing to do which strikes me as a decision Gil wouldn’t have made before. And if you look at the fact that he plays YMCA pick-up ball as well as being willing to play in the NBA’s developmental league, it looks like Gilbert Arenas’ love for the game is back.

By @KeithFirmin

Date: 30th December 2005
Location: Verizon Center, Washington, D.C.
Game: Regular season match-up between the Washington Wizards (113) and the Miami Heat (128).
Gilbert Arenas points total: 47
Point of note: Gil pulled out this performance against the 2005 NBA Champions. Yup, he scored 47 against the eventual title winners.

Gilbert Arenas vs Miami Heat: 47 points and some snazzy assists

FIRST QUARTER:

4-0 Miami: 10:59 remaining – Gil kicks off his evening with a ‘simple for him’ jumper following a hand-off.

6-4 Miami: 10:01 remaining – A jumper in transition, in traffic, off the dribble from about 20 feet out hits the bottom of the net. GILBERT ARENAS IS GOOD AT BASKETBALL.

8-6 Miami: 9:56 remaining – Jason Williams is left stranded on D thanks to a back screen which gives Arenas an open look for three.

14-9 Miami: 7:21 remaining – A baseline cut from the weak-side from Gil has him open long enough to get the ball and turn and hit a jumper. Hilariously, Jason Williams is chasing round after Gil like a little puppy chasing after a bigger dog. Even funnier is Shaq’s commitment to stepping out on Gil – he barely bothers moving.

23-18 Miami: 2:59 remaining – Arenas runs to the top of the arc and gets the ball. From there, he stops for a split second and assumes the school taught ‘triple threat’ pose, drawing in his defender who makes a lazy attempt to steal the ball as Gil blows by him. Once in the paint, Arenas is met by the giants of the Heat but adjusts his body in mid-air, moving the ball from both hands to only his left before laying it up and in for one of those beautiful circus shot moves that were his trademark. He draws the foul. God damn, you were good Gil.

SECOND QUARTER:

28-21 Miami: 1:36 remaining – Gil crosses up D-Wade, leaving him rooted to the spot before drilling a pull up J from 18 feet like it was nothing.

28-25 Miami: 54.7 seconds remaining – From three point line to three point line, Arenas dribbles the ball up court before hitting the three and tying the game. That’s how he do.

42-34 Miami: 6:52 remaining – Gilbert Arenas doesn’t miss jumpers. That’s a fact. I don’t care what NBA.com says, he just doesn’t miss them.

54-44 Miami: 3:16 remaining – The degree of difficulty in this shot is about an 8 out of 10. It starts off in a fairly standard way for Arenas – a simple screen set on his defender – except neither defender switches off of Gil so he has two Heat players trying to stop him as he drives baseline. In one motion he stops, gathers the ball, elevates, shakes off the defender and pops the short range jumper for two.

HALF-TIME

THIRD QUARTER:

The broadcast shows some Gil related stats that basically just alert everyone to how awesome he is. I don’t even know why they bothered telling us, we already knew.

67-49 Miami: 9:11 remaining – A strong move in the paint from Gil is finished with a short jumper.

71-61 Miami: 8:24 remaining – Agent Zero backs down his defender in the paint, slips the double team and throws the floater up which Shaq is called for goal tending on. Oh and Arenas drew the foul as well. Gil is casual like that.

73-67 Miami: 8:03 remaining – Simple kick out to Arenas for three.

84-81 Miami: 3:54 remaining – Mr Arenas is in full flight mode, leading the fast break and drawing the foul as he crosses the three point line before finishing with a lay-in. Man, Gilbert was so good at getting to the free throw line back then. Didn’t matter if he initiated contact or not, he got calls. That’s the sign of a superstar.

17, 12, 15. Those are the quarter-by-quarter stats of Gilbert Arenas against the Miami Heat. Is there a chance that Gilbert Arenas was underrated? A lot of the hype he got was generated by his post game quotes and quirky persona but as an actual talent, he was incredible.

FOURTH QUARTER:

114-103 Miami: 3:40 remaining – The ball is handed off to Arenas at the three point line, Gil kind of drops it but into his own path where he gathers it and takes a long two which hits.

It was Arenas’ last bucket of a game the Wizards lost but that didn’t stop Arenas finishing the game with 47 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists.Gilbert Arenas vs Miami Heat: 47 points and some snazzy assists

By @KeithFirmin

Date: 15th January 2007
Location: Verizon Center, Washington, D.C.
Game: Regular season match-up between the Washington Wizards (114) and the Utah Jazz (111).
Gilbert Arenas points total: 51
Point of note: This game was held on Dr Martin Luther King Jr. day

Gilbert Arenas vs Utah Jazz: 51 points and the game winner

FIRST QUARTER:

2-0 Utah: 10:33 remaining – Gil has the ball about 16 feet out with his back to the basket. A couple of back down dribbles later, Gil turns, fades and fires with Deron Williams in his face and hits. The tone for the rest of the game has just been set.

4-4 Tied: 8:54 remaining – As the shot clock runs down to eight, Gil is on the wing with the ball in his hands. Arenas looks for any kind of opening but with the clock at 3 he takes a dribble to his left and shoots a three. The ball goes through as the shot clock buzzer sounds.

8-7 Utah: 8:03 remaining – A simple give and go gifts Gil a golden opportunity which he gladly takes, guiding the ball in for three. Today’s sentence has been sponsored by the letter G and the number 0.

Once again we’re reminded of the side of Gil that has often been overlooked: His generous side. Nominated learning centre, William Wirt Middle School, is the game’s recipient of $100 for every point Arenas gets.

20-18 Utah: 3:49 remaining – You know what was written a moment ago about the bucket off of the give and go? Yeah, well just re-read it because it happens again.

SECOND QUARTER:

56-43 Utah: 59.0 remaining – Arenas drives to the basket, his defender leans on his back but Gil is still able to finish at the rim. What started off as beating just his own man turned into blowing by two men and finishing over a third.

HALF-TIME

THIRD QUARTER:

60-51 Utah: 9:28 remaining – Gilbert steals the entry pass, gets his head down and drives the full length of the court where he draws another foul off of Brewer before finishing at the rim.

66-61 Utah: 6:14 remaining – This play is created by Arenas’ crossover on the wing but helped by the fact that instead of playing defence, Ronnie Brewer stumbles around like a hapless drunk, fouling Gil and then inadvertently clearing the path to the rim by blocking Kirilenko which allowed Gil to convert an uncontested lay-up. And talking of Kirilenko…

69-66 Utah: 4:30 remaining – Agent Zero takes the lengthy Russian for a native Khorovod dance before driving baseline and hitting the lay-up on the opposite side of the rim.

69-68 Utah: 4:10 remaining – A baseline inbounds play finds Gil a couple of feet behind the three point line. He drills it. A fan holds up a sign saying ‘Arenas = MVP’.

80-78 Washington: 15.8 seconds remaining – Arenas streaks down the court off of the Jazz miss where he lays it up and in despite Kirilenko swooping in for the block.

FOURTH QUARTER:

99-96 Utah: 3:16 remaining – “Casual [ˈkæʒjʊəl] adj: being or seeming unconcerned or apathetic” – that pretty much summed up Gil’s attitude when he dribbled back out to the three point line before taking a step in and nailing the jumper with the defender on him.

104-100: Utah: 2:15 remaining – Gil no worry about screen on perimeter no working. Gil shoot ball anyway and watch ball touch net only.

106-103: Utah: 1:47 remaining – Give + go + screen = open look from 3. Which Gil cans in typical Gil fashion.

111-111 Tied: 10.4 remaining – The ball is in Gilbert’s hands at just over centre court. Deron Williams is no more than a foot away from Gil which, considering he’s about 40 feet from the basket, tells you everything you need to know about the damage the Jazz fear Arenas could do.

Gil has the ball held away from Deron like an old brother holding a younger brother’s favourite toy away from him in order to tease him, while the younger brother looks to knock it loose. And then it happens:

With the shot clock turned off and only five seconds the difference between a W or an overtime session, Arenas spins to his right and Williams jumps off of him, allowing Gil only a little space to operate but that is all he needs. He threads the ball through his leg with the same unconscious thought that we use to breathe, there’s a slight hesitation in his dribble, less than a millisecond and then he explodes. One hard dribble to get to the three point line and then he stops, pops and it drops. GAME OVER.

The true beauty of the shot and the defining moment of the play is that as the ball was still in the air Arenas raised his arms and began to turn his back in triumph.

Some may describe his actions as pure confidence, some as pure arrogance. We can all agree though, that it was definitely pure Arenas.