There is no circumstance in which $126 million is not a lot of money, especially when that $126 million is being offered to a guy with a bad knee and he hasn’t advanced past the second round of the NBA Playoffs. So it’s understandable that some people would say that Gilbert Arenas isn’t worth it, or that the Wizards, in signing him to a max deal, are conceding their ability to win a championship. Of course, some people just don’t understand.
With Gilbert, it’s about more than the game. It’s about why Will Leitch, in his book God Save the Fan, dedicated a chapter to Gil vs. LeBron, siding with Agent Zero. He wasn’t saying Arenas is better at ball than James. No one would. Rather, he’s saying that we, as fans, care more about Gil, and, while my worldview is skewed towards the nation’s capital, I hold that to be self-evident. People, not just Wizards fans, love Gilbert Arenas. He makes them go bonkers. I love. I go bonkers. And that’s rare.
Even more rare is actually winning a championship. There are 30 teams vying for one every season, and the Wizards/Bullets haven’t won it since 1978 (exactly 30 years ago). In fact, no D.C. team — United excluded, sorry — has won their respective championship since the Redskins in ‘91, and no D.C. team has even played for one since the Caps lost the Stanley Cup Finals in 1998. The point being it’s hard to get to the mountaintop. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t root for your team to try, but you also have to be realistic about the situation: Between now and the year 2038, odds are that your favorite NBA team will win it all exactly once.
The odds of making the playoffs are different. Two out of five teams make it annually, and the Wizards, during the Arenas Era, have made it four years running. But that’s not normal either. Prior to Gil, the Wiz/Boulez had only made the postseason once (once!) since ‘88. Yowzers.
The Redskins, which are the gold standard for sporting excellence ’round here, haven’t made the playoffs four straight seasons since George Allen’s heyday in the early ’70s. (That’s right, Joe Gibbs never did it.) The Capitals haven’t done it since the mid-’90s and the Nats/Expos haven’t accomplished the feat or anything close to it, well, ever.
Again, the point is that maybe we shouldn’t belittle the Wizards for only making it to the first or second round of the postseason during this recent stretch. It’s quite an accomplishment, actually, and only two or three rounds (or healthy players) removed from playing for an NBA championship. The mountaintop isn’t unreachable, they just haven’t been able to reach it yet. But at least they’ve been in a position to.
In the end, aside from all that makes him so beloved in Washington, Wiz supporters should want Gilbert on that floor. We need him on that floor. He makes our basketball team good, and relevant, again. And that’s no small feat. Plus, he makes it fun as fun can be, and that’s worth something too.
So thanks for bucking up, Mr. Pollin. Now kindly take his money, Mr. Arenas.
PS: It’s also good having Antawn back, even if four years is a long time for a 32 year-old. He was the team MVP last season and the signing cockblocks Philly; always a good thing.
PS2: I gave Ivan Carter some shit for his draft coverage. In fairness, his free agency reporting has been excellent.
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3 months ago
Giving him 111 is even better :)
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