I’ve always been a big Gilbert Arenas fan. It’s mostly due to the fact that he came up through the Warriors system, and was one of the many bright young stars that we let go. Warriors fans have always had to live through the many star players that have moved on, because we love our team, but we rarely win so you have to root for something. We rarely blame the players that left, as most our frustration is focused on the front office’s meager attempts to keep them.
That’s a completely different topic though. Reading today about him has me eerily excited to see him on the court again, well hopefully he can stay out there. Although his $100 million contract seems pretty ridiculous at the moment, if he comes back to his former All-Star form the Wizards could actually be a contender.
New Wizards coach, Flip Saunders, went to check him out in Chicago last week and stated “He gets wherever he wants to on the court. His quickness is back.” Coming off three knee surgeries in 1 ½ years he has a lot to prove, and probably not a patient fan base after putting a big chunk of their apples in his basket (bank account). I just hope when this year is over he won’t be battling Elton Brand for the biggest waste of cap space for a second straight season. It also has been reported that Agent 0 is getting his shooting touch back. With Flip Saunders bringing tempo better than Timberlake can bring sexy back, the return of the hibachi will make the Wizards a fun team to watch whoever they play!
I’m not saying this team is going to win it all, but with Arenas, Butler, and Jamison leading the way they should be tough every night. It’s the same situation with Minnesota deciding on Rambis as their new coach, they will be fun to watch except the Wizards actually have some solid players. They also made some moves that have drastically improved their depth by adding Mike Miller, Randy Foye, and Fabricio Oberto. Deshawn Stevenson was injured most of last year he also gives them a little extra depth. I’m not saying they are going to knock Boston, Orlando, or Cleveland off, but they will definitely be a force if Agent 0 is like his old self. In case you forgot just how good he was, here is NBATV’s top ten Arenas plays from the 2006-07 season.
Maybe they saw how well it worked out for the Angels by overpaying on Gary Matthews Jr. to be their fourth or fifth outfielder. One thing I still can’t figure out is, why wouldn’t the White Sox just let him not get claimed? If they let him fall through waivers, which he probably would have with his terrible numbers this season (.264 BA, 14 HR, 62 RBI over 108 games). This is also his second straight declining season, which makes this even more baffling. If and when he cleared waivers, they could have signed him to a different contract over the off-season and easily could have paid him less than $10 million a year. They are three games out of the division race at the moment, and I don’t see how this will help them other than having a “good player” to fill in when other players have their rest days. If they made the move because they had Thome, Dye and Contreras coming off the books in 2010, then why not wait until the off-season to make this move to try not to upset the clubhouse hierarchy? If anything, this move will hurt them financially and chemistry wise, unless he has a Matt Holliday-like turnaround in his new surroundings. There’s one big difference, Rios doesn’t have Pujols or have the excuse of going back to a familiar league! Good luck with that one Chicity.
Most casual fans that follow any of these sports can tell you how good those top three or four guys are or who the Michael Jordan of that sport is, but if probed further they probably couldn’t tell you much of anything about the rest of the field. For a team sport, you most likely know the key guys on your team, and follow them throughout a season learning more about the “new guys” as you go. It naturally makes you feel closer to a given player when you see them on a regular basis, and can get behind them on a (us vs. the league basis). There’s also the feeling of representing your city or nearby city. In the action sports industry, the only time you would hear about most of the participants in the X-Games is in videos sold at board shops, magazines, or on Fuel TV. There isn’t as much of a city affiliation except their favorite spots to rip, unless that athlete happens to come from your area. The accessibility to the action sports athletes is far less, which makes it harder for the general population to get behind these athletes since they don’t feel as connected to them.
It’s just like golf, as you watch a tournament and don’t see Tiger or Phil at the top of the leader board, then you probably won’t be as interested in watching the rest of the event. Same thing goes for some of the X-Games events as the general public rarely knows any of the contestants are so why would they keep watching after they’ve seen a few of them do the most difficult new tricks already.
It was refreshing to see a player that seemed to be the typical American with a bag full of problems like most of us. Nothing is more American than the way he could put down Jack Daniels, cocaine, and Budweiser! He once told the media that when he was 23 years old he drank a fifth of whiskey a day for that entire year. He was continually in and out of rehab for his alcoholism, and was married and divorced four times since he’s been on tour (more on the ex’s later).
Like many competitive athletes there is nothing better than winning, and that nearly always led John to some gambling troubles throughout his career. He estimated that he’s gambled away $50 to $60 million over the past 15 or so years. He once lost his $1.5 million winnings from the WCG-American Express tournament by going to Vegas and playing on a $5,000 slot machine. With all these ups and downs we have rooted for him to pull through and give us another show or another comeback from whatever had plagued him.
The charges were later dropped, and so was the marriage especially after he found out that she was ten years older than she had claimed. His fourth wife Sherrie seemed pretty sane when she attacked him with a steak knife. He showed up to the tournament the next day nice and scratched up. She plead guilty and served 5 months in prison.
Sep 3, Oregon @ Boise State
A great early season match-up of two highly talented and ranked teams with realistic goals of winning their respective conferences. Alabama is coming off a banner conference season that ended with a terrible stumble to the finish line. They lost their conference championship game to eventual National Champions Florida, then lost the Sugar Bowl to a serious underdog in Utah. The underclassmen left over from last year will be aiming to correct their painful losing streak after starting the season 12-0. The Hokies are by far the overwhelming favorites to win the ACC-Coastal over Georgia Tech as well as the overall Conference title this year. The Hokies will begin as a preseason top-10 team due to a perennially strong defense and the emergence of QB Tyrod Taylor. Should be interesting to see where these teams start the season in the polls, as each has been ranked as high as #6 in preseason polls.
By
cali4dre
chappy81
dyslecix
mceezy
Doin Work 