DC Sports Bog broke the news that Gilbert has a new contest with sponsor Vitamin Water for a chance to have a late night shoot around with Gil and win various Vitamin Water and Gilbert Arenas related products by submitting your best trick shot.  You can check out the site here.  The site has information on the contest, as well as a couple of cool videos (one of them featuring a sweet dunk from teammate Nick Young) and some wallpaper for your desktop.

It’s much easier to explain why Gilbert wants less money than it is to explain this outfit.

To really understand what Gilbert’s latest comments mean, it’s important to know the unchanging facts about Gilbert before analyzing anything he says:

• Like most people, Gilbert likes money.
• Like some people, Gilbert is a very insecure person.
• Unlike some people, Gilbert would sacrifice money for victory.
• Unlike almost everyone, Gilbert is completely and certifiably crazy.

Taking those known facts, we can start dissecting Gilbert’s revelation that he’s willing to take a “pay cut” in order to ensure that Jamison will stay with the team.

When Gilbert announced that he was opting out, I personally thought the move was more about security than it was about trying to get a max contract.  Sure, he wants to get a better deal out of the situation, but coming off knee surgery, I think Gilbert is more concerned about making sure that the Wizards are committed to him and in his mind, there’s no better way to find out than to opt out and see if they want to bring him back.  Of course, it didn’t seem like those were his intentions when he wrote this on his blog a few months back:

I want to get a six-year deal. I want to be a max player. If my team decides that they don’t want me here any more and they’re going to go in a different direction, then I got to look elsewhere. For me to look elsewhere, I want to go find a championship team who’s a championship contender. I’m going to have to take less money, but I’m willing to do that to win a ring. If my team doesn’t want me, then I’m going to another team and I’m going to take less money to go there.

Most people probably read those comments and agreed with TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott who had write about Gilbert’s comments:

I’m sure he doesn’t mean it this way, and maybe we’ll have a clarification soon, but it seems like Arenas is saying that he’d play for passion, and to win in some other city. But if he has to play with these scrubs in D.C. …

On the surface, it would seem that way but when you look at Gilbert’s comments later on in the blog, he makes it clear that he’s not just playing a bunch of scrubs in D.C.:

Over the years this team right here has played plenty of teams that we have no chance of winning against and we pulled out the victory. That’s what people don’t understand. They say, “The Wizards are better without me.” No, the Wizards are great. They’re a good team without me. They’re a great team with me. Last year, Eddie Jordan was the All-Star coach. There’s a reason because of that. We were the No. 1 team in the Eastern Conference. Right now, without me, they’re the third or fourth best team in the Eastern Conference.

Just imagine if you have a solid group like Detroit. If you take Chauncey Billups off the Pistons right now, they’re still going to win games. They’re a great group like us. We’ve been together for three years, four years now … some of us, for all five years. So, we know how to get it done. This is not a young team where you take the best player off of a young team and they go down the toilet. We have two other All-Stars on this team and Brendan is playing like an All-Star center. You have veterans in Daniels, DeShawn, Songaila and Roger Mason who’s been around and he’s hitting shots. Andray Blatche is doing good. Then you have Nick Young who can score like anybody in this league. You put that all together with two All-Stars, and you’re going to be a good team. You’re not supposed to lose games. I don’t think people understand how good we are, with me or without me.

Those are the comments of someone who think his team already has all the pieces in place to be a contender.  The reason he said that he’d take a pay cut elsewhere is because he would have to take a pay cut if he signed elsewhere.  The only teams that could offer Gilbert top dollar aren’t contenders, so if the Wizards don’t re-sign him he would have to take a lower salary to keep playing with a team that can contend for a title.

His feelings haven’t changed since them.  In saying that he would take a pay cut (which is weird to say, because it’s not so much that Gilbert’s taking a pay cut, he’s just settling for less than a max contract) he’s showing what I’ve felt all along: His decision to opt-out was all about finding out if the Wizards still want him around, if they want to give him a max deal, that’s awesome, but he’s not going to let dollars and cents get in the way of re-signing if the Wizards want to keep him and he’s not going to let it get in the way of making sure that he’s playing on a contender.

Gilbert Arenas is unconventional. What other athlete asks the team to resign him to a paycut? That’s exactly what Gilbert told reporters last night before the Washington Wizards took on the Los Angeles Lakers. The only stipulation is to resign Antoine Jamison.

“We’ve been together six out of my seven years. I told him, whatever he wants, give it to him, and I’ll take the pay cut.”

For those Wizard fans breathing a sign of relief, don’t celebrate just yet. Arenas also implied he would take less to play for a championship contender.

“Going to a team like the Lakers, Dallas, any championship team, I’d have to take a pay cut to go there,” Arenas said. “The pay cut is, if I leave I have to take a pay cut, if Antawn comes back, I’d have to take a pay cut.”

Complex says this shoe will be released April 4th, just in time for the Wizards game against Miami.  With it looking more and more likely that Gil could be back in time for that game, there’s a chance you might actually see this pair of shoes on his feet (unlike most of the others):

When the NBA confirmed yesterday that the Wizards would be playing a pair of preseason games in Europe next fall, they set up a conference call to the media with Wizards’ coach Eddie Jordan, and Gilbert Arenas.  This can only be a good sign that Gilbert isn’t going to leave in the off-season.  Just ask Gilbert who said this during the conference call:

I didn’t opt out to leave; I was opting out to to sign back.

Eddie had this to say:

Going into next year, we don’t think we are going to see a lot of wholesale changes. We have got eight guys under contract and those are our top eight guys outside of Gilbert. We know that we are going to sign Gilbert back and Antawn back and they are high priorities for us. So, we don’t look at a wholesale changes in our roster…Our rookies are under contract and Gilbert and Antawn love it here. We have a great relationship, and we knew we were the best team in the Eastern Conference when we were all healthy. We anticipate signing our two priority guys.

Finally Wizards’ beat writer Ivan Carter added this:

Gilbert Arenas, Eddie Jordan and NBA commish David Stern talked about the tour on conference calls today and to me, the most interesting thing to come out of it all was how Jordan and Arenas spoke as if it is a certainty that the three-time all-star will be back next season. Jordan also thinks Antawn Jamison is going to be back as well. As you know, Arenas plans on opting out of his contract this summer and Jamison is set to be an unrestricted free agent.

Gilbert also talked to Mike Jones about the trip to Europe, it’s worth a read.

All those quotes would make it seem that there’s a very strong possibility that Gilbert’s going to be staying in D.C. for a loooooong time (besides when he goes to Europe).