Ever since it was announced that Kwame Brown would be signing a 2 year deal with Detroit, In his latest blog, Gilbert defends the move:

I like that deal for Detroit and for Kwame. He’s in a quieter city now, he’s 26-years old, he’s on a veteran team, he’s growing up. In the past in D.C. and L.A. it was a case of him being a big kid in a big city, now he can settle his career down. You know that Sheed and McDyess and those other bigs will help him develop and this should be the best time of his career because in Detroit, the bigs get touches in the offense.

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In the past he had the spot light on him because he was a No. 1 pick and he was in these big markets, but now he can just go out and play hard and blend in. This is going to be his year.

If nothing else, it shows that the “slap incident” is far, far behind them.  After praising the Kwame’s new deal, he goes on to defend two more of his teammates from the ‘04-’05 Wizards, Juan Dixon and Larry Hughes:

Juan is one of those players out there that needs a team, because he can really help out with scoring. He needs a team to just let him play. I’ve played with a lot of players in my time in the league, and he has to be one of the top five I’ve played with in terms of points per minute.

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What teams need to realize is that Larry is a two guard. Chicago would have a good thing going if they play Larry at the two and let him play off of Derrick Rose manning the point. Larry doesn’t want to play the one. They tried to have him do that in Cleveland, and it didn’t work out. He’s a scorer, he defends, he’s a good two guard.

After talking about some of the big trades that have gone down in recent weeks, Gilbert spends some time talking about the new trend of players signing big contracts in Europe:

It’s kind of sad that you have the young, future players of this league threatening to go to Europe because Josh Childress already signed himself a deal over there. It’s going to be hard to negotiate sometimes now. Some of these owners and general managers are going to be watching out because these European teams are paying these kids money. Since their economy is on top right now, somebody like Josh Childress is getting $11 million a year over there. That $11 million a year is basically a max contract over here.

But with that said, he doesn’t dismiss the idea of playing overseas entirely either:

For me, if the circumstances were right maybe I could see myself going overseas when my time is done in D.C., but I’ve never really thought about it. I don’t know if I could go to another country and just live. I mean, I can vacate, but live? I can’t even understand my kids, let alone another language.

Gilbert also talks about the new pool that everyone’s raving about, but since I’m sure that will get enough coverage as is, let’s focus on the shark tanks that he’s having installed:

I’ve been in love with fish tanks and sharks for a while. (And not just shark jokes.) I actually bough Ken Griffey Jr.’s old tank online and have that in my living room. I knew somebody who was selling it in Orlando. Actually, the company ended up buying it back from me and building me another one for the same price because the old one was too tall. It was like 10 feet tall and there was too much water pressure to have it in my living room, or whatever, so they build me one that was rounder and shorter. I’m going to have exotic fish in there, a couple sharks, some black tips, some bonnet heads … that’s my mild tank.

Then I have the tank in the grotto that’s going to have semi-aggressive fish like lemon and leopard and puffer fish and the fish with poisonous spikes that’s in Deuce Bigalow.

Then I’ll have my personal shark tank that’s going to be in my basement. My basement used to be my weight room but I’m converting it to a shark tank. I cut a whole wall out down there and replaced it with a 10,000 gallon shark tank. That’s going to be my aggressive tank, only filled with bullhead sharks. If anybody knows what a bullhead shark is, it’s the No. 1 killing shark in America. It can go in salt water and it can go in fresh water. I’m going to have a salt water tank so I can have my eels and my stingrays too.

I’m going to have three bullheads in there. I originally wanted six, but the guy who has to clean it once a week said that he’s not going to get in the tank with six of them, he’ll get in with three. Once they get big enough, I’ll have to get rid of them. The guy who cleans the tank actually goes and catches the sharks himself, because you know, these sharks you can’t just go buy, they’re illegal.

Ever since Jaws there’s been something about fish and sharks that I’ve always liked. Also when I saw Cribs and Ice T had a shark tank in the back of his place, I was like, “Oh man! That’s what it is!!” I’ve been trying to plan this shark tank for the last seven years of my career I’ve been talked out of it by my mentor, Otis Smith. He first talked me out of it when I was a rookie and I was going to spend my whole paycheck on a fish tank. I was like “Man, I want a fish tank, that’s all I want to leave with, if I don’t get another dime I can know I got a fish tank,” and Otis shut that down. So this has been years in the making.

That’s a lot to digest, so I’ll try to summarize the key points:

• When all is said and done, Gilbert is going to have not one, not two, but three shark tanks.
• One of these shark tanks is going to be in his living room.  And you thought your new HDTV was cool.
• Gilbert admitted on a blog accessible to just about anyone with a computer that he’s doing something illegal.
• Did I mention he’s going to have a shark tank in his living room?
• Let’s thank Otis for telling Gilbert not to get a shark tank with his first check.  Otherwise that tank would either A) still be in Oakland or B) been part of the first ever coast-to-coast transportation of a shark tank.

I’m not sure how you could read that and somehow not think of Gilbert in a higher regard than you already did, but just in case, he wanted to make sure that the fans feel appreciated:

You got to always thank the fans for their support. So far I’ve been getting good feedback. I don’t know if I’m only hearing the good stuff and not hearing the bad stuff, but I appreciate it. I don’t know where I first heard this from, but it’s actually stuck with me: They say whenever you’re in the public eye, you got to always have a smile on your face, you got to always be approachable. Everybody has bad days, but if you’re a professional athlete or a movie star and people notice you, you can’t ever have a bad day in the public because to somebody who’s never met you, if that’s the one time they come in contact with you and you brush them off because you’re having a bad day, they’re going to think you’re a bad guy. You’re not going to remember them, you’re going to keep it moving, but they’re going to remember that for the rest of their lives and they’ll tell their friends your mean and then their friends will blog to their friends that you’re mean, and boom, that’s how it starts.

Near the end of his latest entry he also talks about his jersey collection, the presidential election and one thing that he’d rather die than do (unless gas prices are lowered).  As always, it’s a great read so check it out.

The night is December 22, 2006.  The Phoenix Suns behind 2-time MVP Steve Nash were riding a 15 game winning streak.  Meanwhile the Wizards had won 4 of their last 5, including a win in L.A. where Gilbert dropped 60 points on the Lake Show.  You all know how this epic battle between two of the league’s best point guards would turn out, but now video of all the shots made by Arenas and Nash from this classic are up on YouTube for everyone’s enjoyment:

Ahern Inquirer has all the details on this year’s Hoops for the Homeless event which will be happening on September 13th.  You might remember it was at this event last year where Gilbert announced that he was going to opt-out of his contract at the end of the season.  Now that he’s set for the next six years, that shouldn’t be an issue this time around.

If you want to get some tickets for the event, head over here.

Over the last week or so, there’s been a lot of discussion over at Free Darko about the effect of playing two players with similar skill sets as a way to complement each other.  As Bethlehem Shoals put it:

I can’t remember if I’ve said this before, but I totally believe that the way to neutralize a star players’ limitations (or quirks) is to pair them with a similar player, not his logical opposite. Think Arenas/Hughes, or the Wade/Mayo thing that didn’t happen, or the Wade/Gordon rumor. Redundancy is the new complementary, unless you’ve thought really hard about the latter. And it seems like that could very easily bleed into the kind of philosophy I’m talking about, since there’s no reason that minimizing weaknesses has to take priority over stockpiling strengths.

No one can deny that the Arenas/Hughes pairing was a successful one.  In their 3 years together (1 in Golden State, 2 in Washington) the two of them teamed up to become the best backcourt duo in the league. Gilbert’s only trip to the second round of the playoffs came with Larry at his side and Hughes’ best season came with Gilbert that same year.

Since they’ve parted ways, they haven’t been able to recapture the magic.  Gilbert got a better 2nd option in Caron Butler and his numbers have gone up since Larry left, but he hasn’t been able to get out of the first round.  Meanwhile, Larry Hughes also found a better Batman to his Robin in LeBron James and he’s been able to make it farther into the playoffs, but his production has dropped off significantly since he left D.C.

Of course, there are other factors behind the failures that each of them have faced since they went their separate ways.  Gilbert’s only had one healthy season since Larry left, and Hughes’ game just wasn’t a good fit alongside LeBron’s.  But there’s no denying that the two had a unique, duplicative chemistry that helped both players.

While each player enhanced the other’s strengths, the one major weakness the two shared (man-to-man defense) reared it’s ugly head in the second round of the ‘04-’05 Playoffs when Dwyane Wade averaged 31 points as the Heat swept the Wizards out of the playoffs.  Because both of them were better suited to play off the ball, neither one had an answer for the slashing Wade.  Even though it was a flawed pairing, there’s no doubting that it was a successful pairing, even though it didn’t fit the tradition yin/yang pairing where each player’s strength balances out the other’s weakness:

Why did Hughes/Arenas sort of work? They couldn’t man up to save their lives, but they created a ton of turnovers by playing off each in passing lanes. Something that, incidentally, neither has matched since 2004-05. Now, it’s not like they were the same player: Hughes is a better rebounder and has a mid-range game, Arenas is deadlier off the dribble and bombs from anywhere. But the point is, their differences were incidental. What allowed them to work together well was their similarities.

So what allowed the two of them of work together where other duplicative combos failed?  I think there’s two factors involved:

1. Likemindedness - When you have two players with similar skill sets playing together, the natural reaction for both players is to see it as competition for one spot rather than work together to maximize their strengths.  Gilbert and Larry realized that they would only be as successful as their running mate, so they knew that they would have to find ways to make each other better.  It helped that the two of them were good friends during their time together and they continue to to have a close relationship to this day, so the need to show the other that they were the alpha dog was never an issue.
2. The system - The Princeton offense that the Wizards run doesn’t rely on a strict point guard, shooting guard classification as much as other teams, so their flexibility was an asset to the team, rather than a detriment.  If these new redundancy combos like Marion/Beasley and Randolph/Wright are going to work out, the coaches have to find a system that caters to their flexibility.

With all of that said, am I advocating a trade to bring Hughes back to D.C.?  Absolutely not.  Hughes is older, slower than he was back then and makes waaaaaaay too much money for it to be a viable option.  I just think that Shoals makes a very valid point that redundancy can work when it’s done the right way with the right personnel.

Over the last few days, there’s probably been some bizarre visions floating around in your mind about what Gilbert’s pool is going to look like.  Now, thanks to the power of technology, the Bog, and a Wizards fan who had an in with the people building the pool we no longer have to imagine:

Of course, you still have to imagine that shark tank, at this point, but you can see the direction that the pool is headed toward.  You can check out some more pictures here.  One can only hope that someday a high-res picture of that mural with Gilbert standing in front of the Capitol and the White House with a pit bull will someday be available to the masses.