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Giving Gilbert $126 Million Is a Good Thing
By Jamie Mottram | July 2, 2008
There is no circumstance in which $126 million is not a lot of money, especially when that $126 million is being offered to a guy with a bad knee and he hasn’t advanced past the second round of the NBA Playoffs. So it’s understandable that some people would say that Gilbert Arenas isn’t worth it, or that the Wizards, in signing him to a max deal, are conceding their ability to win a championship. Of course, some people just don’t understand.
With Gilbert, it’s about more than the game. It’s about why Will Leitch, in his book God Save the Fan, dedicated a chapter to Gil vs. LeBron, siding with Agent Zero. He wasn’t saying Arenas is better at ball than James. No one would. Rather, he’s saying that we, as fans, care more about Gil, and, while my worldview is skewed towards the nation’s capital, I hold that to be self-evident. People, not just Wizards fans, love Gilbert Arenas. He makes them go bonkers. I love. I go bonkers. And that’s rare.
Even more rare is actually winning a championship. There are 30 teams vying for one every season, and the Wizards/Bullets haven’t won it since 1978 (exactly 30 years ago). In fact, no D.C. team — United excluded, sorry — has won their respective championship since the Redskins in ‘91, and no D.C. team has even played for one since the Caps lost the Stanley Cup Finals in 1998. The point being it’s hard to get to the mountaintop. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t root for your team to try, but you also have to be realistic about the situation: Between now and the year 2038, odds are that your favorite NBA team will win it all exactly once.
The odds of making the playoffs are different. Two out of five teams make it annually, and the Wizards, during the Arenas Era, have made it four years running. But that’s not normal either. Prior to Gil, the Wiz/Boulez had only made the postseason once (once!) since ‘88. Yowzers.
The Redskins, which are the gold standard for sporting excellence ’round here, haven’t made the playoffs four straight seasons since George Allen’s heyday in the early ’70s. (That’s right, Joe Gibbs never did it.) The Capitals haven’t done it since the mid-’90s and the Nats/Expos haven’t accomplished the feat or anything close to it, well, ever.
Again, the point is that maybe we shouldn’t belittle the Wizards for only making it to the first or second round of the postseason during this recent stretch. It’s quite an accomplishment, actually, and only two or three rounds (or healthy players) removed from playing for an NBA championship. The mountaintop isn’t unreachable, they just haven’t been able to reach it yet. But at least they’ve been in a position to.
In the end, aside from all that makes him so beloved in Washington, Wiz supporters should want Gilbert on that floor. We need him on that floor. He makes our basketball team good, and relevant, again. And that’s no small feat. Plus, he makes it fun as fun can be, and that’s worth something too.
So thanks for bucking up, Mr. Pollin. Now kindly take his money, Mr. Arenas.
PS: It’s also good having Antawn back, even if four years is a long time for a 32 year-old. He was the team MVP last season and the signing cockblocks Philly; always a good thing.
PS2: I gave Ivan Carter some shit for his draft coverage. In fairness, his free agency reporting has been excellent.
Topics: Agent Zero, Wizards | 15 Comments »
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:26 AM
Yaaaay!
/waiting for the inevitable Maj joygasm
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:38 AM
I love it when Jamie pretends to be a writer.
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:39 AM
I agree Jame. Sure it’s unlikely they’ll win it all (stranger things have happened though), but if someone told me 5 years ago that the Wiz could be a perennial playoff team and be a heck of a lot of fun to cheer for, I’d take it in a heartbeat.
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:46 AM
See, the great thing about having your own blog, Maj, is that no one can tell you what or how to write. Though Chris did say I should’ve thrown a jump in this one ’cause it’s too long. Dick.
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:54 AM
You should be writing more.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:10 AM
This is by far the longest post I’ve ever seen on this site. But jumps are annoying, so ignore your brother, the puppy hater.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:59 AM
PS3: I get bored with the new Metal Gear Solid, but the Blu-Ray player comes in handy.
PSP: I’ve been playing Indiana Jones Legos more than my son.
btw Jamie, we didn’t find Antwan all that attractive here in Philly anyways. We’re trying to (metaphorically) fuck Josh Smith.
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:16 PM
Agent 0 has done quite a few good things for the Wiz. They need to keep him paid like a top Baller.
Great post. It did not need a jump. I was going to type something negative pointed in the direction of Mr. Chris, but I got scared. I suddenly became painfully aware of my place in the sports blogosphere.
Does he really hate puppies?
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:22 PM
I don’t hate puppies nearly as much as I hate people, so there’s that.
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:56 PM
Hahahaha terrific
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:03 PM
Gilbert is still on thin ice with many Wizards fans…..I like the guy and all, and really want him back.
But it’s his bed to make, take the entire $127 million and the ice gets thinner because he said he would take less (albeit for Jamison, but I’ll take it to mean the team as a whole) and if he takes it all, then expectations sky rocket.
But if he takes a pay-cut, he’s immediately a man of the people and all is good in Wizards nation…for the time being.
Nice post.
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:49 PM
TruthAboutIt, that’s a good point about Gilbert taking all the money vs. giving some back. I wanted to get into that, but I’d already written too much. Thanks for bringing it up.
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:42 PM
Take a paycut to be a man of the people? Really? This is still a profession, right? The goal here is to make money, and as much of it as possible. As awesome as I think Arenas is, I’d think he’s a fool for taking less than his market value.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:37 PM
Gilbert needs to stay off that “Big Ole Jet Airliner”. He needs to “take the money and run” this team to the 2009 playoffs. I hope he gets 100% better so he can “Come on and Dance” “In the Winter Time”. I’m just being a “joker”.
…………And scene. Laughter ensues.
January 3rd, 2010 at 4:36 PM
[...] July of 2008, I applauded the Wiz for signing Gilbert to a monster deal. Today, I’d like nothing more than for them to get out of [...]