Thanks to Gilbertology reader CWebb, who sent in a blog post by Yahoo! Sport’s Adrian Wojnarowski that rips Gilbert Arenas for calling a press conference congratulating himself for being on the cover of NBA Live 08, while his teammates are on the verge of being swept in their first round playoff matchup against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
This was the wrong time, the wrong place, for Arenas to be celebrating his favorite topic — himself. All that Saturday should’ve been about was encouraging his teammates to make an improbable bid to get back into the series with Cleveland. After all, that’s what franchise players say in the playoffs.
I guess Wojnarowski forgot to point out the quote in the press conference where Arenas talked about his team.
“We were one of the best teams at one point, and a lot of teams are scared of us. A lot of teams are going to be scared of us next year, too, when we’re all healthy.”
Arenas’s, who spends most of his free time playing video games, is justified in his enthusiasm and happiness for being selected to appear on the cover of one of the most popular franchise basketball games of all time. Sure the timing of it all could have been better but to call him selfish is quite a ridiculous statement.
Perhaps Wojnarowski doesn’t know the contributions that Gilbert makes to local schools and his Zero2Hero foundation. What other player in the NBA, let alone All-Star, will take time to personalize his jersey and shoes to his fans, give away customized Agent Zero jerseys, and donate to charity every point he scores.
And about Gilbert’s commitment to the team?
“So far I’m ruling everything out — trips, vacation,” Arenas said. “I’m ruling them all out until I’m 100 percent because the Wizards come first.”
6 responses so far ↓
bun // Apr 29, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Wojnarowski is a hater. must be a portland fan.
gg // Apr 29, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Bad timing but Arenas is a team guy and loves his fans.
Picture of cover
mike // Apr 30, 2007 at 5:54 am
I’m a big Arenas fan but I do feel he did pull the trigger on this one. He should’ve waited until the series was over. this, in my opinion, makes himself look self-centered and a bad leader. if you can’t play, you need to be the emotional leader for the team. not call a press conference to say “good job, gil”.
gilbertology // Apr 30, 2007 at 7:11 am
Rembember, Gilbert doesn’t have an agent as of right now so he’s acting on his own. Perhaps an agent would have told him not to have the press conference during the playoffs.
Jeanie // Apr 30, 2007 at 12:21 pm
I agree with gilbertology! Arenas doesn’t have an agent so he has only himself. I agree with gilbert. He is hurt and he just found out he is on the NBA live cover. That is a big accomplishment! He deserved it and he wanted to announce wat he had accomplished!
Pepper // May 10, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Well, I agree with Mike. That was definitely the wrong place and the wrong time to talk about a video game, especially AFTER the Wizards took a loss.
Okay, yeah, congrats, and whatever other compliments. But at THAT moment, Zero should’ve step up to the plate, as the capital, and build-up the team’s confidence. Who knows, they probably won’t loss the series.
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