- Sadly, it doesn’t look like TNT will be taking my advice on letting Gilbert Arenas fill in for Charles Barkley on Inside the NBA.  Mike Fratello will be filling in for Sir Charles tonight.

- Bethlehem Shoals adds his name to the list of those who think Gilbert should sit for the rest of the season.

- Looking for the next Agent Zero?  Take a trip to Wake Forest.

By now, you’ve probably heard that Charles Barkley got in a little trouble with the law recently and as a result will be taking a break from his duties on Inside the NBA.  This leads to the question of who will take Barkley’s spot on the set.  The Basketball Jones covered this very issue in their most recent podcast and brought up some interesting candidates to fill the job.

It’s a tricky situation because you can’t just grab just anyone to fill his spot because Barkley is such a big part of what makes Inside the NBA such an entertaining show for NBA fans and non-NBA fans alike.  The perfect candidate to fill-in has to do a lot of things well that most people can’t do.

1. Have a good sense of humor.
2. Not be afraid to say something controversial.
3. Have the respect that comes with being an All-Star multiple times.
4. Be available for the next few weeks while Charles figures things out.

There’s only one viable solution.

It’s only fitting that the stance on Gilbert’s return flip-flops more often than a politician on Capitol Hill.  Caron Butler, how do you feel about Gilbert’s chances of coming back this season?

You may have heard Caron on the John Thompson Show on ESPN-980 yesterday, when he said that he didn’t think Gilbert Arenas is coming back this year. I was confused when I heard it because I had heard this take from Butler before, but on Monday, he and Jamison were both optimistic that Arenas will come back. So I asked him tonight, what gives? What was the change from Monday to Thursday?

His answer: “What happened?” Butler chuckled. “The truth. Man, the truth happened. I really don’t think it’s gonna happen.”

For what it’s worth, since Monday (when Caron said that he thought Gilbert would be back) the team has dropped three straight and they’ve come out flat all three times.  Could this be tied into “truth” happening?  And what exactly is this truth that Caron is talking about?  Did Ernie Grunfeld send out a team wide e-mail saying Gilbert wasn’t coming back?  Has Gilbert confided with the team that he doesn’t think he’ll be ready to go this year?  Did Paul Pierce club him in the leg?  Well, here’s what Gilbert had to say to Mike Jones:

So I stepped out the locker room and there standing is Gilbert, so I asked him what the real deal was. At first he said “Well, Ernie [Grunfeld] said I’m coming back, so …” But I pressed him a bit further and he admitted he is in fact going back and forth on whether or not he should come back. “I mean, seven wins? Would you?” He asked me. He went on to say, “Right now, I’m not even close. It’s a matter of recovery. It’s taking a good two or three days to recover depending on how hard I go when playing 2-on-2. So, I’m not even sure. What am I gonna do, play a game here, play five minutes a game there?”

You don’t have to do a lot of reading between the lines to see that it looks like he’s leaning more towards not coming back this season, but it also seems to me like he hasn’t shut the door on playing this season either.  But on an interesting side note, Gilbert mentioned that he plans on playing in the summer league this year to “get his rhythm back.”  That should make for some interesting mid-summer entertainment.

Note: A day late on this, but Happy Belated 27th Birthday Gilbert!

As I’m sure you’ve heard many times here and elsewhere, Gilbert Arenas penned (or more likely, dictated) the foreword for Free Darko’s new book.  A foreword is defined as a “a short introductory statement in a published work, as a book, esp. when written by someone other than the author.”  Typically, the best forewords are able to do that and establish some credibility for the author and the thoughts that follow.  It might be short, but writing a good foreword isn’t as easy as it might seem.

To start off his foreword, Gilbert talks about the player that made him “fall in love with the game”, Penny Hardaway.

If you’re too young to remember what Penny was like on the court during his prime, you can get a good idea by watching this (YouTube is awesome isn’t it?).  But as Gilbert explains, he didn’t become a fan of Penny just because of his highlights, his style played a huge role as well: The shoes, the commercials, the armbands, the hair, and of course his style of play.

I’ve always felt that the basketball is the most artistic sport around.  The court is a 94 foot canvas that we all paint differently.  Like any work of art, some of it is influenced by previous works (think of all the times you’ve tried to copy Jordan’s fadeaway, Kareem’s sky hook, or LeBron’s crab dribble) and some of it is original and unique to ourselves.  Furthermore, like any work of art, basketball style is open to interpretation and evaluation by all.  Each of us have different tastes that either attract or repel us from different players.  Some art evokes almost universally positive reaction (Chris Paul), some art evokes almost universally negative reaction (Antoine Walker) and there’s some art that draws lots of reaction both positive and negative (Kobe Bryant).

Chances are, if you’re reading this site it’s because there’s something about Gilbert’s style that you find appealing.  Whether it’s his blazing open court speed, his fearlessness when it comes to taking the final shot, his goofiness or something else, there’s something that about Gilbert’s game that you can’t help but admire, like a great piece of art.

Well, you get the idea.

As Gilbert explains in the foreword, we’re all attracted to different players because of their style.  As you go on to read the book, you realize that it’s all about the great players of the NBA and how their styles make the game so fun to watch.  By lending his name to the foreword and getting people acquainted with this idea, Gilbert meets both of the requirements of a good foreword and sets the table for the rest of the book.

At least, I think that’s conclusion that I think you can draw, now that Gilbert has begun 2 on 2 scrimmages with his teammates after practice.

As the practice was winding down, the teammate who might best help the Wizards salvage their season grabbed three of the team’s youngest members — Nick Young, Oleksiy Pecherov and Dominic McGuire — and challenged them to a game of two-on-two upstairs on the arena’s main court. Gilbert Arenas, the three-time all-star who has yet to practice or play this season on a knee that has undergone three surgical procedures since April 2007, was working out.

Arenas’s appearance was not a full-fledged workout. Even so, word that he was on hand shooting a basketball in a game of pickup was enough to subject interim head coach Ed Tapscott to a barrage of questions about the status of the Wizards guard, who has not played since he decided to end his 2007-08 season following Game 4 of last spring’s playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“When the training staff thinks he’s at the right point to begin workouts, we will,” Tapscott said. “Obviously, we’re going to be conservative because he’s a critical member of this franchise. So when they tell us it’s time to go to work, we’ll go to work.”

Still, there’s no word on if a timetable or a return date has been established, but this is some encouraging news, to say the least.