[Note: Yes, I posted this here and at Bullets Forever.  When I was writing this up, I wasn't sure which site it would be better suited for, so I'm posting it at both.]

If you caught any Celtics game last season, they you’re probably familiar with their rallying cry of “Ubuntu” which translates to “I am because we are.”  Doc Rivers was able to get everyone on the team from the All-Stars to the scrubs to buy into the Ubuntu philosophy as they all sacrificed their individual games for the good of the team.   Sure, the whole thing was pretty corny, but you can’t argue with the results.

Chanting “Ubuntu!” after every huddle doesn’t guarantee success, but practicing the principles behind it guide every successful team.  Doc knew that in order to get the C’s to buy into that mentality, he had to work from the top down.  When he was able to get The Big 3 sold on Ubuntu, the rest of the team followed suit.  Teams take on the character of their best player.  It’s not a surprise that the Spurs are a defensive minded team that executes flawlessly on offense but lacks flair, just like Tim Duncan.  Likewise, it shouldn’t come as a surprise when a team with a dysfunctional leader plays dysfunctionally.

Over the last few years, Antawn and Caron have been the captains and the vocal leaders of the team, but more than anyone else this team follows Gilbert Arenas.  He might not fit the classic profile of team leader, but like I said before, the team takes the character of the best player.   Does a quirky team with explosive offensive ability and defensive woes remind you more of Arenas or Butler and Jamison?

That’s why Gilbert’s decision to take less money than he was offered could prove to be the move that takes the Wizards from a perennial one-and-done to legitimate championship contender.  By taking less than the max, he’s demonstrating to the team that he’s willing to make sacrifices to make the team better and that he’s expecting the same commitment from everyone else.

Only time will tell what each player is willing to give up in order to get to the ultimate goal of an NBA championship, but if they follow the tone that Gilbert’s set here in the same way that they have in the past, we should be ready to see a Wizards team that’s ready to embrace the concept of Ubuntu.

When is Gilbert going to sign his contract?

Ivan Carter has a great article up today about Gilbert’s upcoming free agency.  The free agency period starts tomorrow (July 1st) but as Carter mentions in the article, the flight for Gilbert’s scheduled trip to Asia leaves at 9 a.m. which doesn’t give Ernie Grunfeld much time to negotiate a deal before he leaves.  Sure, he could try to work something out in those first nine hours, but I can’t see how trying to set up negotiations at one in the morning would help him in negotiations.  After all, Gilbert is going to want to get one last Halo session in some sleep before he leaves.

So the chances are looking pretty slim that Gilbert will be signing a contract before he jets off to Asia.  The chances are even slimmer that he’ll sign a deal while he’s on his trip:

“Right now, I’m just sitting back waiting to see what is going to happen,” Arenas said. “I have a number in mind, a number I feel I’m worth and we’ll just have to see what they come with. I guess we’ll find out” tomorrow.

And if the sides don’t reach an agreement before he heads to China?

“Then it will have to wait until I get back,” Arenas said.

In other words, if you don’t hear anything about Gilbert signing a contract by 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, you’ll probably have to wait until mid-July before you hear anything more about contract negotiations, barring a change of heart from Gil, which isn’t entirely out of the question.

Who’s going to sign him and how much is his contract going to be worth?

No one can say for sure, but Ivan assures everyone that this won’t be a minor deal:

According to a league source familiar with the situation, Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld plans on soon offering Arenas a lucrative long-term contract, one that could cover up to six years and could be worth more than $100 million.

However, whether Grunfeld and the Wizards are willing to meet the three-time all star guard’s wish for a maximum-level contract — one that would cover six years and pay him over $124 million — remains unclear.

The issue of whether or not he gets the max could end up being the sticking point in negotiations.  Gilbert is listed as the best available unrestricted free agent available by ESPN, so his services will be in demand.  The problem is, outside of the Wizards, there aren’t a lot of teams with the cap space to make a run at Agent Zero:

Arenas has turned himself into a max player over the past few years and, despite recent knee troubles, will likely cash in on his newfound celebrity status. While he continues to maintain publicly that his first choice is to re-sign with Washington, it’s possible that, given his eccentricity, he could change his mind.

The biggest issue for Arenas is the same one that plagues all the free agents: Who else has the money to pay him? I can’t see the 76ers or Grizzlies spending the cash. The Clippers would have interest, but Arenas already spurned them once.

Ivan seems to reiterate those thoughts in his article:

One team that could potentially make a run at Arenas is the Philadelphia 76ers, but they already have a point guard in Andre Miller and likely will look to add a forward this summer with the $11 million they have available. [...]

The Los Angeles Clippers could target Arenas, who is from the Los Angeles area, but they just drafted a scoring guard in Eric Gordon and would have money to make a big offer to Arenas only if Corey Maggette and Elton Brand choose to opt out of the final seasons of their contracts.

Of the four teams (Washington, Memphis, Philadelphia, and the LA Clippers) that can give Gilbert the money he’s looking for, it only looks like two are really interested in making a run for him.  Memphis has a glut of point guards that they can build around and Philadelphia has a much greater need for inside presence that a guard.  The Clippers could make a run at Gilbert, but they’d have to let go of their two best players to make it happen.  I don’t think either side would find that appealing, for the Clippers, that’s probably too much to give away to get Gilbert, and Arenas probably isn’t interested in joining a team that wouldn’t be competitive.  So by process of elimination, that would seem to leave Washington as the only reasonable choice, unless he wants to take a significant pay cut.

Will his new beard help him in negotiations?

Of course!  How can you say not to a guy that looks like this?

As you probably know, Gilbert grew up without his mother so his father, Gilbert Sr., played a vital role in instilling the work ethic Gilbert has today.  Just in case you forgot how the story goes, here’s the beginning:

Arenas’s “uniqueness” begins with his unorthodox upbringing. He was raised by a single father who gained custody of his son shortly before Arenas turned 3. (He has seen his mother once as an adult, after a game in Miami during his rookie season.)

When Gilbert was 8, his father packed up his Mazda RX-7 and drove from Florida to California to pursue his dream of becoming an actor. Arriving in Burbank, they only had $50, no plan and no place to stay. After surviving on McDonald’s and living out of a car for three nights, Gilbert Arenas Sr. found employment, bouncing between odd jobs until he acquired some acting gigs.

When his father took a night job at UPS, Gilbert would watch his father leave for work at 2:30 a.m., and he’d be right behind, heading to a nearby park to work on his game. “All I knew was, he’s working and working. So, I always knew, if I want something in life, I got to work,” Arenas said.

Everyone knows that Gilbert famously was famously drafted in the second round of the draft in 2001 and became the first player from the draft class to make an All-Star team, becoming one of the better players to come from the second round in any NBA draft. But how about those 29 players that went ahead of him? Let’s check in (click on the player name for career stats):

• Kwame Brown: Here’s basically all you need to know about the top pick from the draft.
• Tyson Chandler: He might not have lived up to the potential that comes with being the second pick, and the Clippers got the better end of the deal when they traded him for Elton Brand, but he’s become a solid player for the Hornets and very well may set the record for alley-oops by the time he’s done with Chris Paul.
• Pau Gasol: The first player from the draft to live up to their draft position and the first player (based on draft order) to make the All-Star Game.
• Eddy Curry: Was one of the promising big men in the league for a few years. Then Isiah Thomas traded for him.
• Jason Richardson: Gilbert’s high-flyin’ teammate for two seasons, has developed into a solid player for Charlotte Bobcats. He’s making good money, but you have to think that there’s part of him that wishes he was still getting those bounce pass alley-oops.
• Shane Battier: Not a star player, but Shane’s stellar defense has made him a mainstay in Houston.
• Eddie Griffin: R.I.P.
• DeSagana Diop: Servicable big man coming off the bench for the Nets, stellar endorser.
• Rodney White: Rodney is currently playing (wait for it…wait for it…) in Puerto Rico for the Arecibo Captains.
• Joe Johnson: The two-time All-Star has become one of the better scorers in the league and arguably the second best scorer from this draft. The name of the one scorer from the draft better than him seems to escape me at the moment…
• Kedrick Brown: He’s put up decent numbers this season, (15.2 PPG, 5.8 RPG) in the D-League.
• Vladimir Radmanovic: Good player, great snowboarder, awesome dunker.
• Richard Jefferson: He averaged over 22 points per game this season, which is nice, but he still has a ways to go if he wants to catch up to his Arizona alums.
• Troy Murphy: Troy has two great passions in life: basketball and spray tanning. He could probably use some work in each area.
• Steven Hunter: People accuse Gilbert Arenas of being a ballhog. Steven Hunter had zero (0) assists this season. Granted, he only played 120 minutes and he plays as a center, but that’s still pretty bad. In his career, Hunter has 79 assists. In only 13 games this season, Gilbert had 66.
• Kirk Haston: Kirk very well may have sold Gilbert one of his houses. No really, he’s in real estate now.
• Michael Bradley: According to this report from EuroBasket, he got released from CB Granada last month.
• Jason Collins: He laughs at the 4th pick from this draft.
• Zach Randolph: He won the Most Improved Player award back in 2004 and he had solid numbers while in Portland. Then Isiah Thomas traded for him.
• Brendan Haywood: After some up and down years, Brendan finally leveled out his play this year, arguably becoming the 2nd best center in the East.
• Joseph Forte: You can catch him in Italy.
• Jeryl Sasser: The SMU grad led Al Arabi to the Kuwait League Championship this season.
• Brandon Anderson: Brandon went out with a bang(!) averaging 2.7 points per game in his finaly season back in ‘03-’04.
• Raul Lopez: That Jazz decided to take this point guard instead of that combo guard from Arizona. Clearly Raul’s 2 year stay where he averaged just over six points per game validated their decision.
• Gerald Wallace: Makes his living as knee breaker.
• Samuel Dalembert: Sam has become one of the better shotblockers in the league today, averaging over 2 per game. That’s about it.
• Jamaal Tinsley: The Grizzlies decided to take this point guard instead of that combo guard from Arizona. Clearly Jamaal’s career averages of 10 points and 7 assists per game validated their decision.
• Tony Parker: Parker has been one of the key cogs in the Spurs last 3 championships, but he’s still less popular than his wife.
• Trenton Hassell: The defensive specialist is currently making his money with the Nets. That gives them 3 picks from this draft, along with Jefferson and Diop.
• Gilbert Arenas: Undersized combo guards? Those guys never get shoe deals, video game covers, or All-Star votes.

Does anyone remember who said this?

One of the good things about Gilbert is that you rarely see him have two bad games in a row, so expect to see a much better performance tonight back at the Verizon Center.

I’d now like to amend that to say “expect to see a much, much, much better performance that harkens back to days before Gilbert got injured tonight at the Verizon Center.”  Better?  I think so.  The full recap from tonight’s game is on the way, until then here’s a look at the box score so you can get an idea of the kind of game he had tonight.