When I look back on Gilbert Arenas’ career, although it’s not fully over, I can’t help but shake my head a little bit. This is a guy who became the face of the No. 0 in the NBA because kids told him he’d be nothing. At one point in his career, he was the clutch-est in the league. (And yes, Laker’ fans, that’s over your Kobe Bryant who shoots you out of more games than it) “The Silent Assassin” dropped game winners after game winners. He poured 51 points on Deron Williams, and put the most embarrassing outing on Kobe’s head during a 60-point performance in L.A. Starting with the ’04-05 season, Gilbert averaged 25.5, 29.3, and 28.5 points per game for the next three seasons before injuries took a toll on his career.
After those few years of All-Star performances, Arenas played a total of 117 games the next 4 seasons.
It’s not only injuries, though, that put a hamper on Gilbert’s career; it was his own stupidity. Back in 2010, Arenas was found guilty of having guns inside of his locker at the Verizon Center and was ultimately suspended.
Now 30 year’s old and nowhere near the player he once was, the Memphis Grizzlies decided to take a chance on the 11-year veteran in hopes of providing them with veteran leadership (Ha!) and perhaps a spark once the postseason starts. The best thing about his signing with Memphis isn’t that he will be playing basketball again, but he has a chance to redeem himself and show us fans/organization he’s grown up.
Gilbert isn’t the first player that had their careers turn around for the better when they came to Memphis. And Bethlehem Shoals of GQ.com gives a few examples of who those players are:
“Without having seen a second of present-day Gilbert Arenas, and severely doubting that he can pull off the kind of press conference that makes writers weep for joy at their own copy, I still want to be excited about this signing. Memphis, quietly, has turned into a home for outlaws and rejects, a kind of Bad News Bearsof the NBA. Much is made of Randolph’s transition from “knucklehead” to franchise rock, but all Z-Bo did was stop acting out and learn to exercise some judgment, both on and off the court. Randolph is a terrific basketball player, but there’s been little attempt to convince us he is an entirely different person or a model citizen. He’s just straightened himself out and been left alone to flourish on his own terms.”
“An even more extreme case is Tony Allen, he of the smothering defense, and incoherent Twitter account. Allen was central to the Grizzlies’ playoff run; he’s also the guy who, with the Celtics, blew out his knee dunking after the whistle, and more seriously, was mixed up in a Chicago fight that led to a shooting. Tony Allen has matured, but he’s still unmistakably Tony Allen. Of course, this kind of acceptance is possible only in a small market, where players draw less fire from the national media, and where locals are more likely to overlook imperfections. It’s a level of “realness” that can’t be sustained in the glare of the spotlight, and as it turns out, one that can be a competitive asset. The Grizzlies have an energy, and chemistry, that wouldn’t be there if everyone were worried about his brand.”
Not only are those great examples, those are perfect examples. Shoals was dead on with their troubles and how perhaps a change of scenery is for the better. Some teams take chances on troubled players, (i.e. Cincinnati Bengals) and sometimes it works out for the better. A team like Phoenix is where you go to get healed, but perhaps Memphis is the place you go to get your act together and become a professional. Arenas’ days of averaging 20+ are long gone — unless he went over to Germany and received the Kobe treatment that we don’t know about — but for his sake, I hope everything works out because personally, I’m rooting for the guy. As should you.
