r2k64
January-3rd-2007, 12:22 PM
I just stumbled across a really nice article about Gilbert and thought you guys might want to get a chance to read it. Good read.
Arenas for the people
WASHINGTON – Surprise, surprise, Gilbert Arenas (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3540/) says, most of his professional peers use their MySpace pages to sift through the pool of possible companionship. For him, though, there's been a different calling. Along the way, the Wizards star discovered his personal page – where he asks himself the eternal question of bball or 900 girls making out with you? (bball, of course) – had transformed him into the patron saint of lost basketball causes for young players.
"Every kid who's gotten cut, whose coach has passed them up, (writes) to me," Arenas said Tuesday.
Sometimes it amazes Arenas how much time he takes to write them back, how their stories and struggles keep him close to his core. Perhaps part of the reason is that Arenas still sees so much of himself in them, still finds so much more in common with those fledgling teenyboppers than the most glamorous names in the sport.
Arenas still sees himself as the kid whose mother abandoned him as a baby, who struggled to get scholarship offers and didnt get picked in the first round of the NBA draft – the guy that was told to get lost from Team USA over the summer. He's still the outsider, fighting his way in, mocking the whole culture of stardom with a flick of his wrist and a roll of his eyes.
Arenas dropped 60 points on Kobe Bryant (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3118/) on Dec. 17, and the Lakers star – the best in the game – still wouldn't give him his due, belittling Arenas all the way out of the Staples Center. Then on to Phoenix where Arenas hung 54 to end the Suns' 15-game winning streak on his way to 34 points per game and a franchise-record 12 victories in the month.
"It's hard to go at somebody who is the best player in the league," Arenas said. "That's just like Dominque going at M.J. It's like, 'Come on, you know you're not even in his league.'
"There's no point."
Click on the link to read the rest:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AnhZmTKprOFF8jXWG8ZQAfe8vLYF?slug=aw-gilbertarenas010306&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
And look at this part from the article:
They love him in Washington, where he belongs to the people much more than Jordan ever did here. He's planning to give away 20,000 Arenas jerseys at a late-season sellout at home, just give everyone in the house a little piece of him. For all the advice that Bryant gave him on shot selection after blasting the Lakers for 60 points, Arenas had some for Kobe on connecting with the souls surrounding the sport.
"I was telling, Caron (Butler), 'How does Kobe get his Mojo back?' Well, if he gave out 20,000 jerseys of that No. 24, oh man, L.A. would eat it up because of how powerful he is. But he doesnt do it."
Someone told me about this earlier. I really thought he was joking, but I guess not. I wonder what game this will occur?
Arenas for the people
WASHINGTON – Surprise, surprise, Gilbert Arenas (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3540/) says, most of his professional peers use their MySpace pages to sift through the pool of possible companionship. For him, though, there's been a different calling. Along the way, the Wizards star discovered his personal page – where he asks himself the eternal question of bball or 900 girls making out with you? (bball, of course) – had transformed him into the patron saint of lost basketball causes for young players.
"Every kid who's gotten cut, whose coach has passed them up, (writes) to me," Arenas said Tuesday.
Sometimes it amazes Arenas how much time he takes to write them back, how their stories and struggles keep him close to his core. Perhaps part of the reason is that Arenas still sees so much of himself in them, still finds so much more in common with those fledgling teenyboppers than the most glamorous names in the sport.
Arenas still sees himself as the kid whose mother abandoned him as a baby, who struggled to get scholarship offers and didnt get picked in the first round of the NBA draft – the guy that was told to get lost from Team USA over the summer. He's still the outsider, fighting his way in, mocking the whole culture of stardom with a flick of his wrist and a roll of his eyes.
Arenas dropped 60 points on Kobe Bryant (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3118/) on Dec. 17, and the Lakers star – the best in the game – still wouldn't give him his due, belittling Arenas all the way out of the Staples Center. Then on to Phoenix where Arenas hung 54 to end the Suns' 15-game winning streak on his way to 34 points per game and a franchise-record 12 victories in the month.
"It's hard to go at somebody who is the best player in the league," Arenas said. "That's just like Dominque going at M.J. It's like, 'Come on, you know you're not even in his league.'
"There's no point."
Click on the link to read the rest:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AnhZmTKprOFF8jXWG8ZQAfe8vLYF?slug=aw-gilbertarenas010306&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
And look at this part from the article:
They love him in Washington, where he belongs to the people much more than Jordan ever did here. He's planning to give away 20,000 Arenas jerseys at a late-season sellout at home, just give everyone in the house a little piece of him. For all the advice that Bryant gave him on shot selection after blasting the Lakers for 60 points, Arenas had some for Kobe on connecting with the souls surrounding the sport.
"I was telling, Caron (Butler), 'How does Kobe get his Mojo back?' Well, if he gave out 20,000 jerseys of that No. 24, oh man, L.A. would eat it up because of how powerful he is. But he doesnt do it."
Someone told me about this earlier. I really thought he was joking, but I guess not. I wonder what game this will occur?