As you’ve probably heard, Wizards coach Eddie Jordan is out in Washington.  Eddie Jordan is the only coach that Gilbert has played for in his time in Washington.  With Eddie as a coach, Gilbert turned into a 3 time All-Star and helped lead the Wizards out of the dregs of the NBA.  They’ve had their differences at times, but they enjoyed a lot of success together.

Moving forward, it’s going to be interesting to see what role Gilbert Arenas has in picking the next coach.  You have to figure that at least tangentially he will have an impact, because it would make no sense on Ernie Grunfeld’s part to get a coach that can’t maximize the franchise player’s talents.  But we’ve seen numerous times in the past where star players have played a role in deciding who would takeover the reigns of their team and I don’t expect this situation to be much different.

Imagine this scenario: Let’s say Avery Johnson becomes the front runner for the Wizards job.  Gilbert, as you know, is an Arizona alum just like Mavericks guard Jason Terry who played under Avery Johnson.  If they talked about Avery Johnson over the off-season and Terry gave Gilbert a less than glowing review (which sounds like a pretty safe bet, given how Avery’s tenure ended in Dallas), then Gilbert would probably voice some concerns about Avery becoming the new coach.  And if the star player is less than sold on the new guy, than it’s going to be a really hard sell for the rest of the team.

To win Gilbert over, the new coach is going to have to do two critical things.

1. Have an up-tempo offense: Gilbert has always been a force pushing the fast break for the Wizards.  Fast-break offenses are a lot like gummy bears in that once you get a taste of it, it’s hard to be satisfied with anything else.
2. Understand Gilbertology: Any coach coming in has to understand that Gilbert has a little different outlook on life so you have to coach him a little differently.  I’m not saying that they should cater to him by any means, but they do need to understand that you can’t do all of the same things that you would do with other players.

Needless to say, things are about to get interesting.