No sooner had I posted a round-up of Arenas-related links than I see that Deadspin managed to also get an interview with him. Because Deadspin is in itself a blog, it makes the interview that much more interesting. Among the highlights:

A look into Gilbert’s web-surfing:

I think you appeal to a certain type of smarter fan, like the Wizznutzz crew, who aren’t necessarily the Paint Your Face And Scream Obscenities. (Ed. Note: Nope. They just dress up like Wizards.) I think the blog is a large part of that.

Well, some people would rather not go to arenas, they’d rather just sit at home and watch the game at home, or play on the computer. There’s a lot of people like that. You’ve got your video gamers, who just sit at home and play video games all day. So by blogging, and playing video games, I’m actually getting to them.

Have you been to Wizznutzz?

My dad is more into the stuff like that, the RealGM, the Wizznutzz, those types of things. He tells me what’s going on. He was sitting there for five, six hours, posting under fake names, “how do you like that Gilbert Arenas? He’s a jackass, huh?” Just to see what the response is.

Do you at least go to ESPN? Do you have an email account?

I don’t, no. If someone tells me someone wrote something about me, I’ll go check it out, and I’ll “log in.” [makes actual air quotes]

Gilbert manages to take a shot at Chris Paul and NBA 2K8:

Was the idea to do the site yours?

They actually came to me about it. At first I didn’t think I had the time for it, but I thought if Chris Paul has the time to do it, I can.

And nobody reads Chris Paul’s site.

That’s what I’m gonna outsell him in video games this year. Nobody reads his site.

Finally, Gil talks about how blogging has made him realize that he has a life:

Do you guys ever scramble to come up with stuff for the site?

That’s what it’s surviving: I have an entertaining life. I thought I was boring. When I went through my life, I was like, “I sit around and play video games all day. Nobody wants to hear about this.” But once I started doing the site, I was like, “Yeah, I do have an interesting life!”

AllHipHop.com interviewed Gilbert while he was in New York promoting his Gil II Zeros.

On what shoes he would want to battle, ala Kayne vs 50:

I called it out. I want to see who takes the challenge. If it’s D Wade, LeBron or Carmelo. Or Kobe, hey. I have no problem challenging you guys.

Dime Magazine also recently had an interview with Gilbert recently (I’m pretty sure it was at the same place this interview took place) and they had this interesting tidbit:

The original concept was for Gil to wear a sneaker comparable to the classic adidas Superstars in 82 different colorways, rocking a different color for each game. Gil eventually squashed that idea, preferring to keep it to a more manageable 20.

All I can say is wow.  If you can even think of 82 different color combinations, more props to you.

Gilbert Arenas wrote in his blog that he wants another cover on SLAM:

SLAM Magazine has a color way too for my new sneakers so, I’m going to put it in their heads now, if they have a color that means I’m going to be on my next SLAM cover. It has to be. You can’t have your own color of my shoe and put me in the back of the book! You have to put me on the cover, right? So right now, we already know, that I’m going to be on my second cover with my new SLAM shoe.

SLAM’s Lang Whitaker got to the bottom of it with an interview with Gilbert in NYC as they talk about the SLAM GilIIZero Collaboration. Unfortunately, a lot of it is edited for secrecy. Gilbert does give one interesting story about finally getting his favorite player’s autograph after writing about Penny Hardaway on his blog.

Well, it was amazing, because I put a blog in about him being my favorite player, and he called me. I was like, yeah, right, this isn’t Penny Hardaway. And then we started talking, and he was like, “Well, if you ever need anything, let me know.” I was like, alright, how about sending me about 14 of your jerseys?

When Gilbert Arenas couldn’t make it to the NBA Live Summer Camp, Slam Online had a phone interview with him instead.

On why he didin’t make it:

“Yeah, I left my passport in the house,” he said via phone interview. “Me and my girlfriend got in a little argument, so I couldn’t go back home.”

On still owing the Portland Blazers 50 points

Yeah, I still owe them 50. You know what’s so funny, and I didn’t know this, I’ve never scored more than 30 points on them. That’s the only team that I haven’t scored 30 points on, in my whole career.

And if being on the cover of Live 08 or having your own sneaker was better:

Wooh, those are like neck and neck. You know what, the cover, because that’s an actual thing. People might not know your name, but they can see your face. You can go buy some shoes and they’re like, ‘which shoes are these?’ And they’re like, ‘Ah I don’t know, who cares, they look good.’ But when you’re on the cover, they can go buy the cover and they can recognize me walking down the street and they’re like, ‘Aww, that’s the guy on the cover I just bought.’ I’ll take the cover.

Read the entire interview on Slam Online.