Date: 30th December 2005
Location: Verizon Center, Washington, D.C.
Game: Regular season match-up between the Washington Wizards (113) and the Miami Heat (128).
Gilbert Arenas points total: 47
Point of note: Gil pulled out this performance against the 2005 NBA Champions. Yup, he scored 47 against the eventual title winners.

Gilbert Arenas vs Miami Heat: 47 points and some snazzy assists

FIRST QUARTER:

4-0 Miami: 10:59 remaining – Gil kicks off his evening with a ‘simple for him’ jumper following a hand-off.

6-4 Miami: 10:01 remaining – A jumper in transition, in traffic, off the dribble from about 20 feet out hits the bottom of the net. GILBERT ARENAS IS GOOD AT BASKETBALL.

8-6 Miami: 9:56 remaining – Jason Williams is left stranded on D thanks to a back screen which gives Arenas an open look for three.

14-9 Miami: 7:21 remaining – A baseline cut from the weak-side from Gil has him open long enough to get the ball and turn and hit a jumper. Hilariously, Jason Williams is chasing round after Gil like a little puppy chasing after a bigger dog. Even funnier is Shaq’s commitment to stepping out on Gil – he barely bothers moving.

23-18 Miami: 2:59 remaining – Arenas runs to the top of the arc and gets the ball. From there, he stops for a split second and assumes the school taught ‘triple threat’ pose, drawing in his defender who makes a lazy attempt to steal the ball as Gil blows by him. Once in the paint, Arenas is met by the giants of the Heat but adjusts his body in mid-air, moving the ball from both hands to only his left before laying it up and in for one of those beautiful circus shot moves that were his trademark. He draws the foul. God damn, you were good Gil.

SECOND QUARTER:

28-21 Miami: 1:36 remaining – Gil crosses up D-Wade, leaving him rooted to the spot before drilling a pull up J from 18 feet like it was nothing.

28-25 Miami: 54.7 seconds remaining – From three point line to three point line, Arenas dribbles the ball up court before hitting the three and tying the game. That’s how he do.

42-34 Miami: 6:52 remaining – Gilbert Arenas doesn’t miss jumpers. That’s a fact. I don’t care what NBA.com says, he just doesn’t miss them.

54-44 Miami: 3:16 remaining – The degree of difficulty in this shot is about an 8 out of 10. It starts off in a fairly standard way for Arenas – a simple screen set on his defender – except neither defender switches off of Gil so he has two Heat players trying to stop him as he drives baseline. In one motion he stops, gathers the ball, elevates, shakes off the defender and pops the short range jumper for two.

HALF-TIME

THIRD QUARTER:

The broadcast shows some Gil related stats that basically just alert everyone to how awesome he is. I don’t even know why they bothered telling us, we already knew.

67-49 Miami: 9:11 remaining – A strong move in the paint from Gil is finished with a short jumper.

71-61 Miami: 8:24 remaining – Agent Zero backs down his defender in the paint, slips the double team and throws the floater up which Shaq is called for goal tending on. Oh and Arenas drew the foul as well. Gil is casual like that.

73-67 Miami: 8:03 remaining – Simple kick out to Arenas for three.

84-81 Miami: 3:54 remaining – Mr Arenas is in full flight mode, leading the fast break and drawing the foul as he crosses the three point line before finishing with a lay-in. Man, Gilbert was so good at getting to the free throw line back then. Didn’t matter if he initiated contact or not, he got calls. That’s the sign of a superstar.

17, 12, 15. Those are the quarter-by-quarter stats of Gilbert Arenas against the Miami Heat. Is there a chance that Gilbert Arenas was underrated? A lot of the hype he got was generated by his post game quotes and quirky persona but as an actual talent, he was incredible.

FOURTH QUARTER:

114-103 Miami: 3:40 remaining – The ball is handed off to Arenas at the three point line, Gil kind of drops it but into his own path where he gathers it and takes a long two which hits.

It was Arenas’ last bucket of a game the Wizards lost but that didn’t stop Arenas finishing the game with 47 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists.Gilbert Arenas vs Miami Heat: 47 points and some snazzy assists

By @KeithFirmin

Date: 15th January 2007
Location: Verizon Center, Washington, D.C.
Game: Regular season match-up between the Washington Wizards (114) and the Utah Jazz (111).
Gilbert Arenas points total: 51
Point of note: This game was held on Dr Martin Luther King Jr. day

Gilbert Arenas vs Utah Jazz: 51 points and the game winner

FIRST QUARTER:

2-0 Utah: 10:33 remaining – Gil has the ball about 16 feet out with his back to the basket. A couple of back down dribbles later, Gil turns, fades and fires with Deron Williams in his face and hits. The tone for the rest of the game has just been set.

4-4 Tied: 8:54 remaining – As the shot clock runs down to eight, Gil is on the wing with the ball in his hands. Arenas looks for any kind of opening but with the clock at 3 he takes a dribble to his left and shoots a three. The ball goes through as the shot clock buzzer sounds.

8-7 Utah: 8:03 remaining – A simple give and go gifts Gil a golden opportunity which he gladly takes, guiding the ball in for three. Today’s sentence has been sponsored by the letter G and the number 0.

Once again we’re reminded of the side of Gil that has often been overlooked: His generous side. Nominated learning centre, William Wirt Middle School, is the game’s recipient of $100 for every point Arenas gets.

20-18 Utah: 3:49 remaining – You know what was written a moment ago about the bucket off of the give and go? Yeah, well just re-read it because it happens again.

SECOND QUARTER:

56-43 Utah: 59.0 remaining – Arenas drives to the basket, his defender leans on his back but Gil is still able to finish at the rim. What started off as beating just his own man turned into blowing by two men and finishing over a third.

HALF-TIME

THIRD QUARTER:

60-51 Utah: 9:28 remaining – Gilbert steals the entry pass, gets his head down and drives the full length of the court where he draws another foul off of Brewer before finishing at the rim.

66-61 Utah: 6:14 remaining – This play is created by Arenas’ crossover on the wing but helped by the fact that instead of playing defence, Ronnie Brewer stumbles around like a hapless drunk, fouling Gil and then inadvertently clearing the path to the rim by blocking Kirilenko which allowed Gil to convert an uncontested lay-up. And talking of Kirilenko…

69-66 Utah: 4:30 remaining – Agent Zero takes the lengthy Russian for a native Khorovod dance before driving baseline and hitting the lay-up on the opposite side of the rim.

69-68 Utah: 4:10 remaining – A baseline inbounds play finds Gil a couple of feet behind the three point line. He drills it. A fan holds up a sign saying ‘Arenas = MVP’.

80-78 Washington: 15.8 seconds remaining – Arenas streaks down the court off of the Jazz miss where he lays it up and in despite Kirilenko swooping in for the block.

FOURTH QUARTER:

99-96 Utah: 3:16 remaining – “Casual [ˈkæʒjʊəl] adj: being or seeming unconcerned or apathetic” – that pretty much summed up Gil’s attitude when he dribbled back out to the three point line before taking a step in and nailing the jumper with the defender on him.

104-100: Utah: 2:15 remaining – Gil no worry about screen on perimeter no working. Gil shoot ball anyway and watch ball touch net only.

106-103: Utah: 1:47 remaining – Give + go + screen = open look from 3. Which Gil cans in typical Gil fashion.

111-111 Tied: 10.4 remaining – The ball is in Gilbert’s hands at just over centre court. Deron Williams is no more than a foot away from Gil which, considering he’s about 40 feet from the basket, tells you everything you need to know about the damage the Jazz fear Arenas could do.

Gil has the ball held away from Deron like an old brother holding a younger brother’s favourite toy away from him in order to tease him, while the younger brother looks to knock it loose. And then it happens:

With the shot clock turned off and only five seconds the difference between a W or an overtime session, Arenas spins to his right and Williams jumps off of him, allowing Gil only a little space to operate but that is all he needs. He threads the ball through his leg with the same unconscious thought that we use to breathe, there’s a slight hesitation in his dribble, less than a millisecond and then he explodes. One hard dribble to get to the three point line and then he stops, pops and it drops. GAME OVER.

The true beauty of the shot and the defining moment of the play is that as the ball was still in the air Arenas raised his arms and began to turn his back in triumph.

Some may describe his actions as pure confidence, some as pure arrogance. We can all agree though, that it was definitely pure 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?

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:

“It’s frustrating because I was willing to do anything; I end up taking the shot, taking four different kinds of pain pills, Vicodin, I sound like a drug addict just to play in the game, and it still doesn’t work. We just have to go back and start rehabbing it again and get ready for next season.”

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.

The Takeover is just about everything. From taking over the city, I’m trying to take over the league, taking over sponsors, taking over you know … Just the industry of everything … Getting buildings in my name, getting leagues in my name … This is the time where, you know, me as a person is gonna go get bigger.

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.

“I’m going to be the silent assassin this year. I can’t wait to play the Suns and Portland. Against Portland, Nate McMillan, I’m going to try to score 100 in two games and against D’Antoni, I’m going to score 100 in two games. I’m going to try.”

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.

]]> http://www.gilbertology.net/2007/04/08/lesson-10-the-takeover/feed/ 9 http://www.gilbertology.net/2007/01/15/lesson-9-the-east-coast-assassin/ http://www.gilbertology.net/2007/01/15/lesson-9-the-east-coast-assassin/#comments Mon, 15 Jan 2007 10:55:07 +0000 gilbertology http://www.gilbertology.net/2007/01/15/lesson-9-the-east-coast-assassin/ Arenas 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.

]]> http://www.gilbertology.net/2007/01/15/lesson-9-the-east-coast-assassin/feed/ 5 http://www.gilbertology.net/2007/01/15/lesson-8-the-black-president/ http://www.gilbertology.net/2007/01/15/lesson-8-the-black-president/#comments Mon, 15 Jan 2007 10:31:25 +0000 gilbertology http://www.gilbertology.net/2007/01/15/lesson-8-the-black-president/ Gilbert Arenas became the hottest free agent over the summer. Fans began noticing his quirky antics when Gilbert said he decided between the Wizards and Clippers by flipping a coin 10 times. When the Clippers’ side came up eight times, Arenas says he knew what he had to do: go “against the odds”, although he later said he made up the story for “fun and entertainment.” He gave himself the nickname “Black President” and finished the 2003-04 season leading his new team in minutes per game (37.6), points per game (19.6) and assists per game (5.2) but missed 27 games after sustaining an abdominal injury.

In his second year in Washington, Arenas led the Wizards in scoring with 25.5 points per game. He was named to the All-Star team and became the first player from the 2001 NBA Draft class to earn All-Star recognition. Arenas finished in the Top Ten in the NBA in minutes per game (3rd), three-point field goals made (5th), steals per game (6th), points per game (7th) and free throws made (8th). He became the first Wizards player to earn a Player of the Week honor since Michael Jordan did it in on March 2, 2003.

In the 2005 playoffs, Arenas averaged 23.6 points, 6.2 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game in 10 games with the Wizards including a game-winning basket in Game Five of the first round as time expired against Chicago before being swept by the Miami Heat in the second round. Arenas was named to the All-NBA Third team during the summer for the 2004-2005 NBA season.

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