Gilbert Arenas’ ego slams teammates
Gilbert Arenas has played in 27 games in the past three seasons for the Washington Wizards, including 12 this year. According to Arenas, that’s plenty of playing time to start slamming his teammates for poor play, even though he is currently shooting 39% from the field. Yes, he does lead his team in points and assists, but when a player holds the ball for 20 of the 24 seconds on the shot clock, stats become irrelevant. Sound familiar Allen Iverson fans?
PHOTO CAPTION: A rare photo of Gilbert Arenas without the ball
The Wizards are currently 3-9 after getting destroyed by the San Antonio Spurs last night 106-84. After the game, Arenas sounded off on his teammates saying they had “hidden agendas,” noting that eight players on the team are free agents following the season.
“I guess when you start losing everyone wants to start pointing fingers everywhere else,” Arenas said. “I converted my game to try to get people involved, but at the end of the day, to be honest, this is the same team since three years ago. We added a couple of pieces, but everybody else is basically the same player.
“I’m sitting here thinking ‘Do I have to go in attack mode like I was two years ago to get us over this hump?’ I hope not. I hope we’re strong enough mentally that we can get over this.”
Gilbert is supposed to be the leader of this team. Venting to the media about how you feel about your teammates is not a chapter in Leadership 101: Intro to Leadership. It actually alienates the leader from the team.
Wizards center Brendan Haywood had this to say. “It’s very frustrating because out talent isn’t winning over our egos,” Haywood said. “If you normally score 20 and you don’t get your 20 but the team wins, who cares? Let’s try and win.
“That’s what the Celtics do. Paul Pierce can have 12 in the fourth quarter. [But] if they’re up, he don’t care. That’s what we gotta do. Check your ego at the door. Move the ball. Play some defense.”
Haywood is exactly right. Arenas has a lot of growing up to do if he ever wants to be the player Paul Pierce is. In my opinion, Gilbert will never get it. Just like Iverson never got it. Both are talented players who care more about themselves than the team. It’s not a winning attitude.
The Wizards have tried to turn Gilbert into a PG. He is NOT one. He is Kobe… He is Carmelo… In the sense that he is scorer. Let someone else play th point and turn Gilbert loose.
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[...] “I’m sitting here thinking ‘Do I have to go in attack mode like I was two years ago to get us over this hump?’ I hope not. I hope we’re strong enough mentally that we can get over this.” Please read the rest of the article: Gilbert Arenas’ ego slams teammates (OTR.com) [...]
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That definitely should not have been said to the media. However, I actually agree with what Arenas said. If you watch the first 8 or 9 games, Arenas was looking to get others involved before himself. When his team wasn’t hitting shots or hit a dry spell, he would try to shoot them out of it. Arenas has not played well – but at the same no one else has either. Why isn’t Caron Butler playing at an all-star level? Where is the defense of Stevenson and Haywood? Their bench players have a shoot-first mentality. Overall, this is a TEAM issue. I think it needs to start with Flip Saunders teaching this team to believe in themselves.
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I agree wiht the above comment.. This is much better team with Gilbert scoring the ball vs. trying to play PG. The guy is 30 ppg scorer not Jose Calderon…
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Gilbert is nowhere near the AI level of selfishness… his team just sucks that fuckin bad… look at the rest of the NBA. They all whine.
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