Gilbert Arenas Is This Year’s Dwyane Wade
It’s been two years since Gilbert Arenas has been relevant in the NBA. On top of being one of the league’s top talents at the time, Agent Zero also possessed Shaq-like charisma that allowed him to grace national magazine covers, appear in TV commercials and pen the hottest blog in the sports world (do athletes still blog?). Coming into the 2009-10 season healthy for the first time in two seasons, Gilbert is on a mission to get his name, his rep and his team back into relevancy.
But this time, he’s just letting his game do the talking. Ever since training camp started, Arenas has been doing his best John Stockton and Tayshaun Prince impersonations by giving reporters as little, if not nothing at all, sound bites. He basically locked himself inside Tim Grover’s gym in Chicago all summer getting ready for this season. It’s obvious this year’s personal for him. Like Dwyane Wade a year ago, Arenas is looking to remind everybody who forgot about him, exactly who he is again. And that’s exactly what he did opening night.
Next to the Celtics topping Cleveland at the Q, Arenas made the biggest statement of opening night. Agent Zero went for 29 points, 9 assists in Washington’s 102-91 road victory over Dallas. He was killing the Mavs with his jumper and got to the line nine times, making eight of them. Although he didn’t display a whole lot of athleticism, he was moving well and playing without a knee brace.
Last season, Wade came back from an injury and a losing Heat season in ’07-08 to have an MVP-worthy year and making the playoffs. Will it be deja vu for Arenas, who has appeared in just 19 games in the past two years?
Obviously, last night was just one game out of an 82 games season. Playoff talk, all-star talk, comeback talk are really premature right now. Working hard in the summer doesn’t guarantee an injury-free season. Hell, we don’t even know if his talking-strike will last, there’s still half-a-dozen months between now and April for Arenas to get a Twitter account.
If I were to guess, I’d say that Arenas will play the majority of the year. I think he’ll be an all-star again and I think he’ll even lead them to the playoffs. Will he be this year’s Dwyane Wade? I wouldn’t doubt it but even if he’s not, at least he’s relevant again.
Follow Dime on Twitter at @DIMEMag.
Follow Gerald Narciso on Twitter at @Gerald_Narciso.
Become a fan of Dime Magazine on Facebook HERE
October 28th, 2009 at 10:50 am
vignesh from india says:
hibachi is back… the world is normal again…oh btw first!
October 28th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Mike says:
I can’t wait to finally be able to wear my gold “vote for gilbert” Gil Zeros and not get asked by every passerby who gilbert is.
October 28th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Just a Fan says:
Long live Tim Grover
October 28th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Crabhands says:
Simple fact: the NBA is a better place with Arenas in it.
October 28th, 2009 at 11:41 am
Heckler says:
first of all, dwyane wade never fell off. he missed 1 season due to injury. ONE. i told yall, wade should have been mvp 2yrs ago. if it werent for him, miami would have been 1-81.
moving on…
gilbert arenas is for real. its good to see hibachi back. he lights up the league in smiles and scoreboards. washington will be a 5 or 6 seed in the east if they stay healthy.
remember, 3yrs ago, the Wiz had the best record in the east at one point. and gil was hitting all them half court buzzer beaters. he got hurt, and then the wiz lost to cleveland in the 1st round.
but its good to see Gil back and balling.
and Gerald (punk ass writer of this article), did you watch this game or just see playback highlights? cause Gilbert should nuff athleticism. starting at the 3pt liine and driving thru the paint numerous times
October 28th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
LakeShow84 says:
I dont want to be negative but it was against the Mavs..
What good PG DOESNT torch Kidd/Barea??
October 28th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
LakeShow84 says:
the real test will be after All-Star break..
2 years is a long time and then u got to run a marathon?? look for his legs to get a little heavy towards the end of the season..
October 28th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
sh!tfaced says:
And Big Baby Davis is this year’s Gilbert Arenas…? so to speak.
Just signed a multi-year deal this summer and was expecting some big things from him this year, only to get injured once the season started.
October 28th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Scott says:
I think we’d all prefer if no one ever compares Big Baby Davis to Gilbert in any way, shape or form, ever again. lol
Gilbert is up here. Big Baby just isn’t.
October 28th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Lucas says:
Agree with all of this.
My question is this: Why doesn’t everyone go to Tim Grover>
October 28th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Ian says:
He doesn’t need to remind me who he is. He’s a ballhog. Shaq like carisma? Yup u r right I’m always thinking when is this dude going to shut up.
When did wade disappear? He’s always been a top 4-10 player in the league. Arenas hell no.
October 28th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
cbil01 says:
say what you want about wade vs arenas, but watch who’ll take their team farther this year. arenas will be in the second round, miami’s gonna catch cleveland or orlando in the first round and that’ll be the end of their season
October 28th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Colton says:
ya … i wanted to make a trade in my fantasy league for him for someone ‘meh’ before he played … nobody made the trade. now theres no chance. gaay!
October 29th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Lu Galasso says:
He’s back. The man is not quite as full strength, but still extremely dangerous. He was never quite at Wade/LeBron/CP3 level, but there’s a reason he was given that contract. Watch out, league.
-Lu Galasso