In his latest blog post, Gilbert Arenas talks contracts, mostly those refused by the 2004 Draft Class. For a long time. He chides Luol Deng for turning down the Bulls' offer, since "you're not better than Tayshaun [Prince] and Carmelo [Anthony] and the best threes out there." Emeka Okafor gets the same verdict, since he asked for Dwight Howard money when he's no Dwight Howard. Gil's best zinger: "It's like them two had a discussion together about turning down the $12 million." But he saves some of his most frank talk for his fellow Wildcat, Andre Iguodala, who turned down the Sixers:
Same thing with Iguodala. I know after A.I. left, you were supposed to be that No. 1 guy, but, the way he plays the game, he doesn't have that. He's not that type of player. He's a second guy. An assistant coach told me a great story about him ... He's your glue player. You need a superstar and then you need him. So $12 million is good for you. Nothing more and nothing less. Be happy with the $12 million.You know, this is kind of refreshing. There are pretty much two kinds of fans: Those who think all players are overpaid, and those who sympathize with anyone's attempt to get the most money they can. Here, Gilbert's lets you choose a third way: These guys deserve to get paid a ton, but at some point they should face facts and play ball.
It's also telling that, as he explains, Arenas was in a very similar situation when he left Golden State. And he was arguably better than any of those three are right now. So while it's unusual for a player to put his peers in their place like this, in this case Arenas is speaking from experience.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-09-2007 @ 12:35AM
TIMMYD02 said...
I'm sorry, but GILBERT ARENAS thinks he's a bigger star then what he is. People outside of BASKETBALL don't even know who GILBERT is. I know sometimes he says some things just to be silly, but he calls out people too much. Especially when he just started to play good b-ball these past few years. He should just mind his business and worry about his knee and wether or not he should get paid far more money then he deserves. He say's that none of those players are worth as much as A.I, CARMELO or DWIGHT HOWARD...but neither is he. Yet I bet he won't stop anyone from giving him a MAX contract if they are silly enough to give it to him. Which is why he continues to try to get 50 pts. a game (even though he's supposed to be a point gaurd) just to boost up his value. I understand where he's coming from, but it would have sounded a lot better had it come out of a MEGA STAR players (A.I, K.G or LEBRON) mouth. Not that any of those players would be SILLY enough to say anything like that in public anyway.
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12-09-2007 @ 4:07AM
dmahlburg said...
Yo I hate to be posting at 3:00 am but it is freezing rain here and we are chilling at home...but anyway, Gilbert wasn't ASKING for Washington and LA Clippers to throw huge amounts of money at him. He was not turning contracts down when he was a free agent as you imply.
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12-09-2007 @ 10:35AM
EskinSux said...
Besides Arenas himself?. Does anyone really care what he writes on his blog?
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12-09-2007 @ 9:03PM
Marc said...
The funniest thing that I have read on this subject comes from those obtuse individual's that are making negative comments about Mr. Arenas. "Does anyone really care what he writes on his blog?" Well, you must or you would not have read and really would not have bothered to reply. What is wrong with the truth? Oh, you people do not want to hear the truth. You want to go on believing that NBA players of today are something special. There is nothing special about the players of today except their collectively ridiculous salaries, including Mr. Arenas, Lebron, Carmello, and the entire league. Who is the best player in the league? Lebron? Not. Find out who is the best by looking at who has the ring. Every year pay the players based on last years performance. Tim Duncan should be the highest paid player this year. Pay every player $1 Million per year with bonuses for winning. Scale it from first to last place. I bet we get some better games from every angle. If these overpaid gentlemen can't live off the $1 Million salary then let them get a job in the off season like members of some of the early NBA and MLB teams had to do. Put those college degrees to work. Oh, sorry Lebron, Kobe, K. Brown, K. Garnett, and so on.
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12-09-2007 @ 9:28PM
Dave said...
I suppose that's one way to look at it, but the better point is that someone currently limping around on cruthches like a cripple doesn't need to be analyzing what others in the league are paid one way or the other. Arenas is harmless for the most part, but the reality of the matter is that he's plain and simply a weirdo and a loudmouth who's got to have an opinion on everything (met more than a few of those in my time). Definitely a dynamic player capable of great performances (awful ones too), but until he leads the ineffectual Wizards to something beyond the second round of the playoffs he should probably talk a hell of a lot less.
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12-10-2007 @ 12:34PM
Mr. Puck said...
Gilbert just play ball,most the stuff you say you can't back it up.Just shut up and play.
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12-14-2007 @ 4:28PM
Karen said...
What worries me is that you people are actually worried about these people. You're worried about Gilbert's blog that makes him look like a totally functionally illiterate idiot talking about other totally functionally illiterate idiots.
He has a complete inability to express himself properly. THAT'S what worries me.
As a fellow Arizona Wildcat I am embarrassed at Gilbert's total lack of understanding of the bare basics of written expression in the English language.
I can barely understand a word of his blogs - he changes tenses multiple times in the same paragraphs and I don't know if he's talking about himself or someone else.
Gil - you sound like you are...just...dumb. I recommend that you re-take high school English and consider reading a book some day.
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12-15-2007 @ 12:09AM
Dave said...
I don't wholly disagree with you, Karen, as I'm a voracious reader myself, but famous pro athletes that literally make tens of millions of dollars a year don't need to read books in an attempt to sharpen writing skills and improve their level of articulation. Being idealistic and genuinely wishing that folks would work harder to improve themselves is a noble undertaking, but really, what part of that don't you get? I don't read his personal blogs and have no specific opinion of them, but you're apparently taking their content way too seriously as expecting Agent Zero to be particularly well-spoken or well-written is slightly less misguided than expecting one of your professors to win Arenas' starting spot in Wizards training camp next fall would be. Lighten up, dear, most people have average intelligence at best and that very simple reality of this world isn't going to change anytime soon.
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