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.
“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 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.
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.
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.
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.
In only his second year, Gilbert started in all 82 games for the Warriors and averaged 18.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game. He was named the Most Valuable Player of the Got Milk? Rookie Challenge during the 2003 NBA All-Star Weekend. Arenas was one of only eight players in the league to average at least 18.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game and was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player, beating out fellow point guards Chauncey Billups and Tony Parker and becoming the first second-year player to win the award since Don MacLean in 1994.
Gilbert had Golden State Warrior fans buzzing and excited about their future. But a loophole in NBA’s collective bargaining agreement only allowed teams to offer a contract only up to the midlevel exception if over the salary cap. This made Gilbert an early bird free agent and his days in Golden State were about to be numbered.
