Gilbert Arenas took a lot of heat for not keeping his promise about those fifty points, and he bounced back nicely with a pretty amazing post on his blog today. First, there's a good line about that Portland game:
I was sitting on the bench and a fan said, "Arenas, you suck!" and I started laughing. I was like, "Man, but you came here to see me score 50, because I know you aren't here for the Blazers!" And he started laughing too and was like, "Well maybe you're right."
Then there's a long, rambling discussion of his predictions, and why he makes them. It comes down to enjoying the game of basketball--and why it is that Gilbert Arenas does the things that Gilbert Arenas does. (This is one of the big questions of this NBA season! It has been addressed by respected writers.) Gilbert's own explanation is, to me, wholly believable:
I've been playing from a fan's view.
There's hundreds of NBA players, but there's a few basketball-playing fans.
What I mean is that there's a few NBA players that's actually a fan of the game of basketball. There's a few players, if you take the money away, they will still play it as hard as they do.
Only a few.
"Gilbertology" and "Gilbert being Gilbert" means Gilbert enjoying his time in the NBA. From predictions that I say I'm going to do, to pranks, that I have fun doing with my teammates.
I'm going to enjoy it because you never know when it's going to end.
Can't argue with that.
Arenas also tells of how he encouraged a teammate to start a gang. Worth reading the whole thing.
