Screw It! I Want Gilbert Arenas to Be Awesome

I proudly wear my "Fire Ernie" shirt.

I antagonize the crap out of my Wizards friends.

I used to make my fraternity pledges watch the Detroit 2004 Championship DVD and drink every time a former Wizard was shown.

If the Wizards monster payroll brings in wins, I have some crow to eat, but few NBA players and fewer NBA stars are more entertaining than Gilbert Arenas.

Even before Shaq became the Big Twitter, Gilbert was putting himself out there; updating his award-winning blog, being the darling interviewee of every national sports show, and actually becoming friends with his myPace friends.

Sure there's criticism about him as a player boasting to be at the D-Wade-LeBron level when he may more accurately be grouped with the likes of T-Mac or Brandon Roy, and I have never heard any claim he was a teammate elevator, though Larry Hughes and Jared Jeffries haven't done much without him.

He's still entertaining as hell. I love the jersey thrown in the stands after every game. I love the tons of money he gives back to the community. I love the nicknames like "East Coast Assassin" and "Hibachi." I love the  drama between him and other stars like the Kobe bad shots comment or the Soulja Boy to LeBron's Jay-Z comment that resulted in Soulja Boy actually showing up for some playoff games. Gilbert Arenas may be the closest thing to Reggie Miller we have now.

Garnett won a championship and all we pretty much got was another Adidas commercial. Kobe won and we get a contrived appearance on Conan. If Arenas and the Wizards ever get it done, Arenas' championship is our championship. He'll take the Larry O'Brien trophy on every show that airs in English. He'll post a blog with a top five list of things to do with a Bill Russell Finals MVP trophy.

What would be great is if he were able to take the Accessible Pro Athlete era to a new level, and in tough times like these, I think that is one of the best things that can happen to sports. Owners and commissioners should be putting as many of our friends as possible on their teams. This will keep us invested in their team as season tickets seem further and further out of reach of our budgets.

Sports stars are great, but sports stars becoming our friends can be legendary.