Gilbert Arenas
Gilbert Jay Arenas Jr. is an American former professional basketball player. Arenas attended Grant High School in the Valley Glen district of Los Angeles, and accepted a scholarship offer to the University of Arizona late in his junior year. He was drafted by the Golden State Warriors with the 31st overall pick in the 2001 NBA draft.
Arenas was a three-time NBA All-Star, three-time member of the All-NBA Team during his time in Washington, and was voted the NBA Most Improved Player in the 2002–03 season in his final season in Golden State. Arenas was nicknamed "Agent Zero" while playing with Washington, due to his jersey number. He was also nicknamed "Hibachi" for "cooking" his opponents. Both names quickly became fan favorites during his time in the Washington, D.C. area. Arenas played the shooting guard and point guard position.
Arenas was suspended for most of the 2009–10 NBA season because of handgun violations stemming from an incident on December 24, 2009, and for subsequent actions that appeared to make light of the incident.
In late 2010, Arenas was traded to the Orlando Magic. After the 2011 NBA lockout, Arenas was the first NBA player to be waived under the "amnesty clause". He signed with the Memphis Grizzlies for the 2011–12 NBA season, which would be his final season in the league.
Early life
Gilbert Arenas was born in Tampa, Florida to parents Gilbert Arenas Sr and Mary Francis Robinson. His paternal grandfather Hipolito Arenas Sr., was a first-generation Cuban American and also an American Negro League baseball player. Arenas was raised in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles where he played basketball at Ulysses S. Grant High School. His number, #25, was retired by the school. Arenas was a late bloomer, taking the final spot on the national ranking as the 99th in the class of 1999. Before beginning his freshman year at the University of Arizona, Arenas attended Michael Jordan's basketball camp and was chosen to play on Jordan's team during a game. He impressed Jordan by scoring eight baskets in his first eight possessions. Following the camp, Jordan told coach Lute Olson that Arenas deserved time on the court. Rodney Tention recruited Arenas to Arizona during a Summer AAU game.College career
Arenas played basketball at the University of Arizona. He was 17 years old during his freshman season at Arizona, where he played 34 games, starting 31 of them and averaging 15.4 PPG and 4.1 RPG playing both shooting guard and point guard. One of his teammates, Richard Jefferson, would later join him in entering the 2001 NBA draft. In 2001, Arenas' sophomore year, he was named first-team All-Pac-10. He helped lead Arizona to the national championship game, where they lost to the Duke Blue Devils, 82–72. Arenas, who was reportedly dealing with a knee injury, struggled in the championship game. He scored 10 points, grabbing 4 rebounds and dishing 4 assists, shooting 4–17 from the field and 4–13 from 3, in what would be his final game with Arizona. Shortly after the tournament, Arenas announced that he was foregoing his last two years at college and would enter the 2001 NBA draft. NBA scouts thought that Arenas, at the time aged only 19, was Arizona's best pro prospect.Professional career
Golden State Warriors (2001–2003)
After a productive college career, Arenas entered the 2001 NBA draft. Despite strong consideration from many teams in the first round and even lottery teams such as the Boston Celtics, Golden State Warriors, and Sacramento Kings, Arenas fell to the second round in part due to his effort in interviews despite strong performances in workouts and scrimmages, being selected with the first pick of the second round by the Golden State Warriors. Arenas stated, "I had my 2-day pre-Draft workout with Celtics. Killed the first one, I skipped the 2nd to heal my Achilles so I can tryout with other teams. Celtic's Jim O'Brien put out the rumor that I was immature, didn't take it seriously. Once I was labelled that I was done as a 1st rounder." While slipping through the draft, Arenas contacted Rodney Tention, who was responsible for recruiting him to Arizona to see if he could return to school. Arenas was shocked teammate Richard Jefferson was selected ahead of him despite Jefferson mocked commonly in the top 10 to the late lottery. Arenas would wear the number 0 on his jersey to signify the number of minutes that experts predicted he would play coming as a 17 year old low end prospect from a small high school going to a college powerhouse in Arizona.Arenas made his NBA debut on November 4, 2001, vs the Portland Trail Blazers after not playing his first 3 games, Arenas went scoreless, Arenas scored his first point a free throw in a game vs the Toronto Raptors on November 7, 2001. Arenas made his first field goal on January 16, 2002, in a game vs the Cleveland Cavaliers scoring 7 points and going 3–4 from the field. Arenas made his first career start on February 15, 2002, and on February 17, 2002, vs the Atlanta Hawks, Arenas had his first double digit scoring game with 12 points; he continued the streak to 9 games with one double double in that stretch. Arenas started 30 games and averaged 10.9 points per game for the Warriors, who finished in last place in the Western Conference that season. Arenas was often forced to sleep at the Warriors' arena due to lavish spending of his rookie money and signing bonus. He later stated the time at the arena allowed him to focus on his game and become a better player.
In 2002–03, his sophomore season, Arenas received the NBA Most Improved Player Award averaging 18.3 points, 6.3 assists and 4.7 rebounds as Golden State improved its victory total to 38, up from 21 last season with Arenas leading the charge, and was named Most Valuable Player of the Rookie-Sophomore game during the NBA All-Star Weekend. Arenas had a 33 game stretch where he averaged 23.4 PPG, 5.7 APG, and 4.7 RPG with 1.5 SPG on 46.7% FG and 37.7% from 3. Arenas had one of the best performances of his career during March 2003, when he dropped 41 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished five assists in a win against the Wizards which would be the team that made him their franchise player after the Warriors were unable to match. Arenas said after he won the Most Improved Player award that he didn't think there was much to improve, and he had only needed more playing time and more experience.
Washington Wizards (2003–2010)
2003–04 season
After the 2002–03 season, Arenas became a restricted free agent. He reportedly flipped a coin to decide among several teams seeking to sign him, including the Wizards, Warriors, and Clippers. The Washington Wizards offered him a six-year, $60 million contract making him the face of the franchise after just turning 21 years old. The Warriors were unable to match this offer because they were over the salary cap and because Arenas was a second-round pick. If Arenas had been drafted in the first round, the salary cap had exceptions that would have allowed the Warriors to match the offer sheet. The "Gilbert Arenas Rule" was later created to allow teams to re-sign restricted free agents who were not first-round picks. Arenas battled a strained abdominal muscle injury all season which would cause him to have only to start 52 games in his first year in Washington and constantly sitting on the sidelines dropped his shooting percentage instead of breaking out into the franchise cornerstones in his first year Washington envisioned, Arenas still led the team in PPG and APG.2004–05 season
With Arenas being healthy, he teamed up with former teammate guard Larry Hughes in 2004–05 to give the Wizards the highest-scoring backcourt duo in the NBA. Arenas was selected for his first NBA All-Star Game. He guided the team to a 45-win season and its first playoff berth since 1997. Arenas led the team in scoring with 25.5 ppg, finishing seventh in the league in that category. He also finished sixth in the league in steals per game in 2004–05 with 2.24.In the fifth game of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs in 2005, Arenas hit a 16-foot fadeaway as time expired to give the Wizards a 112–110 win over the Chicago Bulls. The Wizards eventually won the series, the franchise's first playoff series victory in more than two decades. In the second round, the Wizards were swept by the Miami Heat, who had been the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
2005–06 season
In 2006, Wizards fansite Wizznutzz.com jokingly nicknamed him "Agent Zero", a nickname Arenas liked so much that it stuck.Arenas averaged 29.3 points, which ranked fourth among the scoring leaders, two steals, and 6.1 assists per game during the 2005–06 NBA season. However, he was not initially chosen for the 2006 All-Star Game. He was named as a replacement after Indiana Pacers forward–center Jermaine O'Neal was injured. He also participated in the Three-point Shootout, where he placed second, after Dirk Nowitzki. The Washington Wizards finished 42–40 and earned the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference.
During the off-season, Arenas said that he was willing to take a pay cut in order to give the Wizards additional money with which to sign available free agents. He had expressed a desire to win a championship with the Wizards. One of Arenas' most memorable plays was a 40-foot jump shot in Round 1 of the 2006 NBA playoffs in which the Wizards were eliminated by the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers in six games.
2006–07 season
Arenas himself has noted that he withdrew from the United States national team for the 2006 FIBA World Championship because he felt that assistant coaches Mike D'Antoni and Nate McMillan had determined the roster even prior to tryouts. Afterward, he stated that he planned on averaging 50 points against their respective teams. He succeeded at his goal versus powerhouse Phoenix, scoring 54 points, including 21-of-37 from the field, 6-of-12 three-pointers, in a high-scoring 144–139 Wizards win over the Suns. However, on February 11 versus the Blazers, he was held to a lowly nine points, including tying the Wizards' franchise record for three-point futility, going 0-for-8 from behind the arc, in a 94–73 loss versus Portland.In an overtime game versus the Los Angeles Lakers on December 17, 2006, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Arenas scored a career-high 60 points, adding 8 rebounds and 8 assists in helping lead the Wizards over the Lakers, 147–141. Arenas holds the Wizards' franchise record for points scored in a game by an individual, a record he now shares with Bradley Beal. The previous record of 56 points was held by Earl Monroe, achieved in 1968, which was also an overtime game against the Lakers. Arenas' 16 points in the extra period also set an NBA record for most points in one overtime period, surpassing Earl Boykins' record by one point.
On January 3, 2007, Arenas hit a 32-foot buzzer-beater to win the game against the Milwaukee Bucks, 108–105. Two weeks later on Martin Luther King Jr. Day he hit another buzzer-beating three-pointer to beat the Utah Jazz, 114–111, in a thriller at the Verizon Center. This same scenario has been added as a cut scene in the video game NBA Live 2008. He also hit a game-winning layup as time expired to beat the Seattle SuperSonics on March 21, 2007.
In February 2007, during the final days of All-Star voting, Arenas was voted as a first-time starter for the 2007 NBA All-Star game for the Eastern Conference, edging out Vince Carter by a slight margin, with 1,454,166 votes to Carter's 1,451,156. At the time he was averaging 29.7 points per game, and led all Eastern Conference point guards in scoring and was second in the league.
Towards the end of the season, Arenas tore his MCL during a game against the Charlotte Bobcats, when Gerald Wallace fell into his leg. The Wizards struggled to finish the season with Arenas and teammate Caron Butler both being injured. Washington earned a playoff berth, but was swept in the first round in a rematch with the Cleveland Cavaliers. This was the last season Arenas made an All-Star game and All-NBA team before constant injuries and off-court issues.