NBA Trade News: The Trade That Will Not Happen This Year

The Arizona Wildcats basketball program under Lute Olson was a factory for NBA talent. From Sean Elliot to Jordan Hill, we have seen many NBA draft picks play ball at the McKale Center.

We hope that this trend continues in the Sean Miller era and the current team, led by senior Nic Wise, is currently tied for first in the Pac-10.

It has been awhile since the 'Cats were on national TV for a home game so the nation has not seen the crowd for a few years. The crowd at McKale is an older group of knowledgeable basketball fans. They must feel as if they are watching their kids out there playing for the win every time out.

For me at 32, I feel like Jason Terry, Richard Jefferson, Tom Tolbert, and even Steve Kerr would be my buddies. When Sean Elliot hit the Memorial Day Miracle to launch the Spurs over the Trail Blazers and Damon Stoudamire, it felt so good to hear all of the publicity that Elliot received.

I knew what a great person he was from his days at Arizona. We all know what kind of guy Sean Elliot is here in Tucson and he has never disappointed us.

The NBA trade deadline has never had the appeal of the MLB trade deadline. Rarely do deals happen that push contenders into champions. Rasheed Wallace moved from Portland to Detroit and helped the Pistons to a title. Pau Gasol moved from Memphis to Los Angeles and the Lakers went to the NBA Finals then won it all the following year.

Those are the exceptions that prove the rule.

With the marriage between the Washington Wizards and former Arizona Wildcat Gilbert Arenas on the rocks, it looked like a multi-dimensional talent would be available for an in-season trade this year. Arenas is coming off injuries and has a huge contract so he was a risk but for a team like Denver or Atlanta that was close to the top of their conference, he might have been worth it if it meant taking down the teams ahead of them.

As a Cleveland fan, I would have loved to see Agent Zero play with the Cavs if it did not mess with the team's great chemistry.

Then Gilbert Arenas, a guy that I would love to hang out and crack jokes with, made a horrible decision. He made a few of them as the story unwound itself.

He was gambling on a team plane and lost a sum of money that many people work to make over the course of six months or even a year. Then he decided to not pay his debt and that turned into an issue. Then we find out that before any of that happened, he brought guns to his place of work so they would not be around his kids at his home.

Then he showcased his guns in the Wizards locker room. Then he made light of his situation on Twitter and went as far as brandishing finger guns at an NBA game.

David Stern finally had to intervene before the legal process and suspend Arenas from the NBA.

The guy who always had a smile on his face looked like a ghost in a legal proceeding where he was given a felony for owning a gun in the Washington, D.C. area without the proper registration.

The young man we knew in Tucson as a great kid was now a grown man facing jail time. He finds out his fate in late March, long after the last trade will be made by the Feb. 18 deadline.

When the NBA Finals come to our attention in June, Gilbert Arenas might be in jail when he could have been the missing piece for a team on a magical run in the NBA playoffs.

All of the parents in the McKale Center crowd must feel such disappointment with the choices made by Gilbert. As a contemporary, I feel bad for him but do not have the years to know the disappointment felt by my elders.

I wish that Gilbert would have hired a security detail if he felt threatened. I wish he would have given his guns away instead of taking them to work. I wish he would have just paid his debt instead of being such a clown about it.

He did not do any of those things and he deserves what has and will happen to him because of it. He deserves to have his life ruined and for all of the good things he has ever done to be swept under the rug.

This society does not need guns in it as they rarely are used for protection. They are a destructive force in an already violent world.

Gilbert Arenas went from a second round pick to a max NBA contract. He went from a great basketball player to a felon. We all loved his antics in the good times and when he started to get bad press, he thought he could win us all back with his humor.

He was the only one who didn't get it.

It was never a joke once he involved guns in his life. I hope that he serves his time and can rebuild his life. I hope that he can make us all laugh again and that he can play basketball again in the NBA.

I hope that when the trade deadline comes around in the 2010-11 season that Gilbert and the Wizards can part their ways like they were going to do this year.

As for this season, there might be a lot of changes but the one trade that will not come to be is for Gilbert Arenas.