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Can you Beat Gilbert Arenas?
Golden State Warriors point guard Baron Davis and two of his childhood friends started a website called IBeatYou, where anyone can challenge people to anything. Besides Baron, Gilbert Arenas also has a profile (as does Steve Nash and Jessica Alba). While Gilbert has yet to post any challenges, he did mention he would after the playoffs so be on the lookout or start a challenge and call him out. Who’s going to challenge Gilbert to the most 1 handed 3 pointers made in a minute? Sequels Are Never As Good As The Original
Sadly, The Takeover: Reloaded failed to live up to the hype of the original Takeover. As much as he tried, Gilbert just couldn’t recapture the magic that he had up until that fateful game last year against the Bobcats where he injured his knee. But oh did he try, using everything from parachutes to knee stimulators to get on the court. He even went to the point of near drug addiction to get on the court:
In hindsight, it was probably a little too much. While you can certainly admire a guy who’s willing to do anything to get on the court, there’s something to be said about letting your body take care of the healing process. At least now Gilbert has the off-season to let that happen and get back to the form that we all remember. Of course, while he’s working on recovering his body this off-season, he’ll have plenty occupying his mind. He’s gone on record multiple times saying that he will opt-out of the final year of his contract, in the hopes of getting a max contract deal. Now that he’s sidelined again, you would have to assume that there’s little or no chance that he’d still be able to get that kind of money, so the question shifts from “How much money will Gilbert get?” to “Will Gilbert still opt out?” Even venturing to guess the answer would be crazy at this point since I get the feeling that no one really knows, including Gilbert. Like anything involving Gilbert, this off-season will probably have some twists and turns and just enough wackiness to make it interesting. Lesson 10: The Takeover
When Gilbert Arenas said the 2006-2007 was going to be “The Takeover”, he wasn’t kidding. In the home opener of the 06-07 season, he wore a satin boxing robe for pregame introductions and then proceeded to score 44 points after only scoring 7 in the first game. ![]() Meanwhile, Adidas started their “It Takes 5ive” campaign that featured Gilbert. In early December, “Hibachi!” was born. Gilbert’s first signature shoe, the Adidas Gil Zero also came out and got great reviews. Gilbert won Eastern Conference player of the week for two straight weeks including a career high 60 point game against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. He would later change “Hibachi!” to “Quality Shots” in reference to comments made by Kobe. Gilbert went on to score 54 points on national television a week later against the Phoenix Suns and got people talking after he made comments earlier in the summer of what he would do for being cut from the US National Team.
Meanwhile, despite all the press and attention Arenas was getting and Allen Iverson being traded out West, Arenas was still in 3rd place in the All-Star ballot results behind Dwayne Wade and Vince Carter. If attention was what Gilbert wanted, he certainly got it, when details of his 25th Birthday Bash were revealed, including his own Arenas Express Card as an invitation. We also learned, when Gilbert was a rookie, he would exhange shoes for a box of All-Star ballots where he would vote for his teammates and himself. Gilbert took home December Player of the Month honors and then went out and hit a game winning shot against the Bucks. Arenas would say in the post game interview that his “swag was phenomenal”. Gilbert won the Player of the Week again for the first week in January and his jersey made it to the Top 10 in sales for the first time in his career, finishing at #8. Against the Utah Jazz, Gilbert once again hit the game winning shot at the buzzer. In the final All-Star Ballots, Arenas overtook Vince Carter to become a starter in the game. In one of the most talked about basketball videos to surface on YouTube, Gilbert’s legend grew even more when he squared off against teammate DeShawn Stevenson, claiming he could shoot a 1 handed college 3 point shot better than DeShawn could shoot a NBA 3-point shot with two hands. The All-Star game proved to be rather dull and lacking entertainment as the East was getting blown out. Gilbert showed why he is a crowd favorite by performing a trampoline dunk during a timeout. Adidas launched a new campaign entitled “Nothing is Impossible” featuring Gilbert. Gilbert would write on his blog his Mission Statement showing once again his love for the game and his fans. Against Seattle, Arenas would make another game winning shot, hitting a layup at the buzzer. Gilbert’s season would come to an end with a few games remaining in the season after spraining his knee in a game against the Bobcats. ![]() While the season may have ended badly for Arenas and the Wizards, one thing is for sure. Gilbert Arenas “tookover” the NBA this year. The 2006-2007 was season also marked the debut of Gilbert’s NBA.com blog, one of the most popular and written about blogs for a professional athlete. Slam’s Lang Whitaker wrote about Arenas being the First Blog Superstar. Blogs such as D.C. Sports Bog, Wizznutzz, Bullets Forever, Wizards Insider, Washington Wizards Blog, The Hype, Yay! Sports, and many more were instrumental in Gilbert’s “Takeover”. Thank you Gilbert for a great season and for many more to come. Take a bow, you deserve it.
Lesson 9: The East Coast AssassinArenas appeared in 80 games and averaged a career-high 29.3 points per game ranking fourth in the NBA in scoring (29.3 ppg) in his 3rd year. He was selected to his second consecutive NBA All-Star Game, but only after a spot opened up due to an injury. Gilbert started to call himself the “East Coast Assassin”. He ranked second in the NBA in three-point field goals made (199), third in minutes per game (42.3) and free throws made (655), fourth in steals per game (2.01), and 18th in assists per game (6.1) including being named Eastern Conference Player of the Week three times. He set an NBA record for points scored in a game by a player who played 30 or fewer minutes when he scored 46 points in 30 minutes vs. New York (2/25). In the 2006 Playoffs, Arenas led the NBA in scoring during with 34.0 points per game in six games vs. Cleveland and including a career playoff-high 44 points at Cleveland. He was named to the All-NBA Third Team for the second consecutive year. In the summer, he was invited to try out and represent the United States in the USA Men’s Senior National Team program but was later cut from the team. |
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