Ever since Gilbert Arenas made a name for himself as the NBA’s most lethal jester—matching his flashy, daring, and effective play with quirky off-court antics—the Wizards have been a relevant presence in the Eastern Conference. But for the past two seasons, Arenas has been largely absent due to injuries, and several of his sidekicks (Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison) have spent significant time on the bench with him. Without their principals, the Wizards languished at the bottom of the East. Now bolstered by a healthy roster—other than a banged-up Jamison, who will miss the rest of the preseason with a sprained shoulder—and the off-season additions of veteran sharpshooter Mike Miller and slashing two-guard Randy Foye, the Wizards certainly hope to improve on their 19-win showing last year. How much better they will actually be is anyone’s guess.
If the Wizards are to rejoin the star-studded ranks of the East’s elite, a large part of the burden will rest squarely on Arenas’s shoulders—and he seems more than ready for the challenge. The onetime jokester came into training camp with his game face on and has barely cracked a smile since. Once known for his outlandish sense of humor and odd interviews, Agent Zero refused to talk to the media at all until the league fined him and the Wizards $25,000 apiece last week. Finally breaking his silence, he explained, “I don’t feel like speaking anymore. I just want to go out there and play.”
Luckily, the crop of young Wizards who have risen to prominence in his two-year absence have enough personality to fill the void. Guard DeShawn Stevenson (known for his irreverent “beef” with LeBron James and Jay-Z during the 2008 playoffs) showed up to camp with an array of near-incomprehensible tattoos on his face. He inked a crack on the left side of his forehead, because, as he put it, “I feel like people always try to break me, but I don’t crack.”
Even more bizarre is the ink he put on his neck—a portrait of Abraham Lincoln right on his Adam’s apple, flanked by two fives. Stevenson’s connection to Lincoln is unclear (outside the fact that they both sport tremendous beards). The weirdest, however, is the backwards “P” he put just below his left eye. “It’s for Pittsburgh, that’s my favorite team,” he said, and claimed that the backwards letter appeared to be facing the right way from about ten feet away. Whatever his reasons for the odd tattoos, Stevenson is probably happy to get more attention now that Gilbert Arenas spends his free time silently staring at a wall in preparation for the next game.
As long as the roster is full of players like second-year forward JaVale McGee, a springy, lanky shot blocker whose Twitter page (under the handle @BigDaddyWookie) features gems such as “if evander holyfield can forgive tyson for biting off his ear everyone should b in peace…there should b no hate in the world,” the zany spirit of Gilbert Arenas lives on. A serious-minded Arenas will be tough to get used to, but the rest of the team seems more than willing to make up for his unexpected media silence. The next step: seeing if these loony characters can actually win together.
Ask Sean about his tats at squigley@georgetownvoice.com.
