Gilbert Arenas is back. Sort of. His season in China playing for the Shanghai Sharks, owned by former NBA center Yao Ming, went by unnoticed by most. He got injured in his very first game and only played in just shy of half the games dealing with a groin injury, that sidelined him for most of the first half of the season. He played in the last 11 games and showed flashes of the old Agent Zero, scoring 45 points one game, 12 points in 2 minutes once, and a game-winner. He rebounded more and ended the season averaging 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists a game, wearing the familiar number 0.

In China, he goes by the Chinese name is Gi Le and he has embraced his fans. He can be seen walking around town, something that foreign players don’t do too often in China. He interacts with the fans on their popular social network, even with the language barrier. He gives away tickets to home games, just like he did when he gave away Wizard tickets. And you can bet he is up to his old tricks and pranks with his new teammates as well.

Will we see Gilbert back in the NBA? Don’t count on it. His days sitting on the bench with the Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies made him question why he wanted to keep playing. In China, he has managed to revive his career much like how former NBA players Stephon Marbury and Tracy McGrady have done. He gets to play longer minutes and has a green light at the basket. Sure he doesn’t have the private planes and luxury hotels on the road but a shorter season lets him enjoy the summer with his family, something he didn’t get a chance to do while in the NBA. When Slam Online asked him if he has any plans or hopes to tryout with the NBA again, Arenas answered

“Nah! [Shakes head vehemently] Because after this season I can enjoy my family. You know my kids are getting older. Being in the NBA, you don’t really get to enjoy your family life because you’re always on the road, you’re always gone. So, no. After this season will be the first time I’ll get to be with my kids for a long period of time.”

Most important of all, Arenas is happy where he is at and while fans from the States won’t be able to witness his play live, there is always YouTube.

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Agent Zero might have a lot of free time this NBA season. Arenas finished the season for the Grizzlies last season and had been practicing in Los Angeles in hopes of joining the Clippers or Lakers training camp but that never came to fruition. What can he do on his free time? He could play basketball in China, play paintball with former Wizards JaVale McGee and Nick Young, watch his fiancee Laura Govan on Basketball Wives, or look for more sports reviews of his favorite basketball sites. If he does decide to play in China and plays well, we could very well see Gilbert back in a NBA uniform in time for the playoffs.

Arenas opens heart in interview

If you haven’t already, you need to read Sports Illustrated’s Sam Amick’s interview with Gilbert Arenas.

Arenas talks at length about a variety of subjects, addressing his past, present and future and acknowledging that he needed to change on a personal level before he could move forward following the much talked about ‘gun incident’.

Highlights of the interview include:

“Someone close to me told me I lost myself a long time ago when I invented Agent Zero, and I didn’t understand what the person was talking about at the time. He’s like, “You were basically on the road down anyway, the image you were putting out meant you were going to get killed at some point.” Now it’s like, “Yeah, you were right.”

- Gilbert on resetting his mentality.

“So I decided I’m not here to prove anybody wrong anymore. I’m just here to prove myself right. I’m not here to chase the money, to chase stats. Now what you have is a basketball player who’s ready to play

- Gil’s mindset.

I’m not going to lie, I feel so much better. I’m jumping and moving like before I got injured, like it’s basically ’06 again. My explosiveness, my jumping ability, my quickness — it feels like I never got injured.

- Arenas on the platelet rich procedure he underwent for his knees and hips.

“I think I’m seeing life how I saw it before I got famous, and that’s hard to do sometimes. It’s hard to break yourself back down. I’m loving life.”

“Just got the love of the game back. That’s never going to leave. I just love the game of basketball.”

- Arenas talking about his life away from basketball.

“He was saying all the other teams that he decided he was going to go to, and will I come there? I said, ‘Of course. If you want me to play, I’ll come with you.’
“What do you do when somebody dominant like him wants to play with you? He still believes in me”

- Gil talking about Dwight Howard and his decision over what team he should play for.

“All I know is I’ve got a Daddy-Son Donut Day on the 24th. You go to the school, and you have donuts. That’s what I’m looking forward to.”

- Classic Gil.

It seems from the interview as though Arenas is a lot happier where he’s at, both mentally and physically and he’s been able to ground himself and re-establish his priorities. He’s shown a lot of humility and maturity during the interview and appears to understand himself better than he has done in the past.

Arenas has indicated that he’s happy to ply his trade in the D-League if he feels it’s the right thing to do which strikes me as a decision Gil wouldn’t have made before. And if you look at the fact that he plays YMCA pick-up ball as well as being willing to play in the NBA’s developmental league, it looks like Gilbert Arenas’ love for the game is back.

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