Gilbert Arenas is back. After nagging injuries and surgeries limited him to playing in just eight games in the past two seasons combined, the Washington Wizards’ brazen captain returned to action against the Pistons last Saturday, hoping to breathe some life into what has been a wretched season. His return will certainly provide a pick-me-up for the god-awful Wizards, but what could Arenas possibly accomplish by coming back with just 8 games left in an atrocious season?
The Wizards are on course for one of the worst seasons in recent memory—with just 17 wins, they sit a whopping 38.5 games back from the league-best Cleveland Cavaliers, the team that they had challenged in the playoffs just two seasons prior. Even if Arenas scores 50 points a game (don’t put it past him), the pathetic Wizards still won’t sniff the playoffs. Though he says his knee feels fine, he risks re-injury by playing at full intensity in games that have no meaning.
Still, it’s good to have Agent Zero back. Before his injury, the Wizards hung with Cleveland as one of the rising powers in the Eastern Conference, and Arenas had become a bona fide star, winning fans over with his swaggering, bombs-away style on the court, and his comical, endearing blog posts on nba.com. He even earned the nickname “Hibachi” for his tendency to “catch fire” and go on unstoppable scoring streaks, torching opponents with a potent mixture of long-range bombs and strong drives to the hoop.
But even though the Wizards were successful with Arenas at the helm, some old-school, “right-way” basketball purists always murmured that the team would be better off without him, claiming his flashy eccentricities and gaudy on-court showmanship detracted from the chemistry of the team as a whole. Arenas was a national icon and an All-Star, but some still believed the Wizards might be better off with sidekicks Caron “Tough Juice” Butler and versatile workhorse Antawn Jamison running the show.
Those detractors are silent now.
The Wizards have been downright awful without their fiery shoot-first point guard, stumbling to the second-worst record in the league behind an pathetic mixture of bored veterans and nubile rookies. The Wizards have been mathematically eliminated from qualifying for the playoffs. Gil or no Gil, there’s really no season left to salvage.
Instead of vainly attempting to jolt some life into a moribund Washington club, Arenas should focus on next season, when the Wizards will be expected to mount a turnaround on the strength of his return. He really shouldn’t waste his exceptional talent for entertaining pageantry and flair (not to mention scoring points) at the end of a season that even the players have stopped caring about.
So, Gilbert, as much as everyone loves seeing you on the court again, please just go home and ice your knee. You have nothing to gain, and every time you hit the floor, the city’s basketball fans will collectively wince and hold their breath with fear that you’ve dashed next season’s hopes as well.
