Gilbert Arenas has overcome lots of obstacles in his life: Growing up without a mother, getting drafted in the second round, and having multiple surgeries on his knee.  But he’s never faced anything like the challenge of eating 6 saltines in 60 seconds.  Can he get them all down in time?  Find out here.

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of posts recently.  Gilbert understandably stayed on home on the team’s recent trip out West so any chance for an update on his injury status or a cooky quote went out the window, hence there hasn’t been a whole lot to talk about.

Thankfully, J.E. Skeets of Ball Don’t Lie has this Impossible is Nothing photoshop to tide you over until we get some more news on Gilbert, which hopefully will be sooner rather than later.

Washington Wizards’ Gilbert Arenas (635,540) was the top vote-getter for the 2009 NBA All-Star game in Phoenix among players who haven’t played a single second on the court this season. Arenas finished 7th overall among East guards beating out rookie of the year front runner Derrick Rose and former All-Star Joe Johnson.

With so much free time healing from his knee injury, maybe Gilbert was stuffing the ballot boxes on his free time?

Gilbert Arenas has his fingerprints all over Free Darko’s new book, so it only seems fitting that a site that focuses on Gilbert Arenas should focus on the parts where his influence is felt the most in the book.  Previously, we took a look at the foreword and now we’re going to focus on MONGA.

At the end of the book, Free Darko focuses on the “Myth of the Next.”  Throughout the history of the NBA, players have been labeled as the reincarnations of great players that have come before them.  Of course, Michael Jordan is the player that’s drawn the most comparison.  Everyone from Kobe Bryant to Harold Miner has been labeled as the “Next Michael Jordan” with varying results.

The thing is, no comparison is ever and more times than not they create a standard that can never be lived up to which inevitably leads to disappointment.  Still, the comparisons continue to be used because it’s easier than writing a scouting report.

In the Myth of Next section, several players who have served as the model for future players have been examined as well as the players who had to follow in their shadow.  When it comes to Gilbert Arenas, five players were identified as players who fit the Myth of the Next Gilbert Arenas (MONGA) mold.

The first and most obvious player to fit the mold would be Monta Ellis, who like Gilbert was drafted in the second round by the Warriors and ended up winning the Most Improved Player of the Year Award in his second year.  FD also identifies Luther Head, Troy Bell, C.J. Miles, and Lou Williams as players who have been stuck with the MONGA tag and it’s hard to disagree with any of those choices.  Certainly, not all of those players have lived up to that hype, but the comparison was used with all of them at different times leading up to the draft.

Since it doesn’t look like these comparisons will end any time soon, we might as well take a look at the next crop of players that will get the MONGA tag.

Jerryd Bayless – Like Monta Ellis, he’s the easy pick.  When you’re a combo guard coming out of the University of Arizona wearing #0, the comparisons are hard to ignore.  However, with a Summer League MVP under his belt and some nasty highlights to call his own, it doesn’t look like it will be long until he creates his own myth:

Jeff Teague – I mentioned him a few days ago but with his team currently at #1 in the nation, it seems like a good team to bring him up again.  Aside from wearing 0 like Arenas, Teague also possesses blazing speed, a strong crossover, a penchant for getting his hand on the ball (2.1 steals per game) and he’s shooting over 52% from 3 point land.  He’s currently 13th on NBADraft.net’s 2009 mock draft.  Plus, the kid can get up:

Lester Hudson – Playing at Tennessee-Martin, Hudson doesn’t get the same kind of pub that a guy like Jeff Teague gets, but once you see his numbers, they’re hard to ignore.  The 6-3 guard is currently averaging 27.4 points per game on 46% shooting and 34% from downtown, 7.1 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 2.7 steals per game.  Right now, it looks like he’ll be a second round pick, if he’s drafted at all, but he’s certainly someone worth keeping an eye on in the future.

I know that there’s been a lot of he said, she said with Gilbert’s injury and where he’s at in his recovery and whether or not he’ll be coming back this season.  There’s still nothing definitive to report either way, but here’s what Yahoo reported in the latest Wizards team report.

Here is the skinny, according to a source with intimate knowledge of the situation.

Arenas’ knee is better off right now than it was when he tried to come back at the end of last season. While he has yet to play a game for the team, he regularly plays in two-on-two and three-on-three games with teammates.

In fact, if this season weren’t already a wash, Arenas would probably, according to the source, be playing games right now. He would not, however, play in back-to-back games.

One of the main concerns is whether or not he would have any swelling in the knee and, according to the source, there is no swelling at all. This was not the case at any point last season.

Still, there is no guarantee that he will be back this season. In fact, with the Wizards so far out of playoff contention already, it is a good possibility that he won’t be back at all this season.

If it’s true, it’s somewhat depressing but probably good news in the long term.  The most important thing is that there’s no swelling.  As long as that doesn’t flare up, then there shouldn’t be any need for another surgery.  If it’s also true that Gilbert would be healthy enough to play if the Wizards were in the playoff hunt, that’s a good sign as well.  The thing is, if you want to believe this is true, then you also have to believe that Gilbert won’t be coming back this season, even if he gets to 100% before the end of the season.  While I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that being a good idea, it wouldn’t shock me if that’s the route they take.  Then again, it’s kind of moot point anyway since I doubt Gilbert or anyone else in the Wizards organization would come out and say that he’s not playing even though he’s completely healthy so it’s not like we would ever know the truth.