In a few years we may look back on Game 5 of the 2010 Eastern Conference semis with little more than simple amusement. It was supposed to be a defining moment for LeBron James, the time when, bad elbow or not, he willed them to a 3-2 series lead and eventually on to his first NBA title. Instead an old but still heart-willing Boston Celtics went into Cleveland and won a game few expected them to, won again in Game 6 in Boston and ended James’ career as a Cav.
At the time, the Cavs’ loss registered as a knock to James’ legacy. So often it was the team that surrounded him that was not up to the task. One need only remember the Eastern Conference finals exit against Orlando from the year before to cite an example of the cast not being up to the range of the star. But this year’s Game 5 (and to a lesser extent, Games 4 and 6) was on James. Not only did he have a bad game. He looked like we had never seen him before, as if he was going through a crisis beyond the basketball court. He looked resigned, defeated, like a goner. He was.
The greatest players, even Michael Jordan, have all tasted defeat. But what makes Jordan the greatest basketball player ever is not just that his losses on the big stage were so few, but that he always believed he could win no matter the circumstances. That is what separates Jordan, Bird, Magic, and Kobe to name a few from everyone else. Today, the same cannot be said of James. He may well win a bushel of titles in Miami but he will never garner the respect winning “on his own” with good but not great supporting players deserves. And any talk of LBJ as the greatest ever is over.
James’ signing with Miami has created a whole lot of negative karma and not just in Cleveland. Few outside of South Florida want to see him succeed now even though now one has to believe he’ll eventually win a championship. “The Decision” show itself was so contrived that some have likened it to a pro wrestler turning from good guy to heel. The analogy is not far from the mark although I think it gives James too much credit. The question now is will success in South Beach change our opinion of him? LBJ must think so and he’s probably right. Because “The Decision” revealed more than a future place of employment for a 25-year-old star. It showed once again that we, as fans, are suckers.
We tuned in (a whopping 9.6 rating for the 15 minutes leading up to James’ revelation). How could we not? Our addiction to sports and sports news runs so deep that we hung on every new free agency development like dispatches from a war zone where a loved one is serving. Except for us, the week (wow, an entire week) of free agency and The Decision felt more real and more important than a war. And that should be deeply disturbing. I would like to think few came away feeling good about the whole thing, but I’m not so certain.
In the recently published book Although Of Course In The End You Become Yourself, A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace, the man himself speaks of an endpoint to our addiction when we fail to discipline ourselves regarding how much time we spend being passively entertained and society itself grinds to a halt. We’re not there yet and perhaps the true lesson of “The Decision” is that we may never get there. We’ll keep tuning in, trying to commune with people we can’t touch and who can’t touch us. We’re eager to see if Wade and LBJ can play together and how the Heat will fill out its roster.
The corporatization of sports is inescapable. I’m old enough (but not too old) to remember when outfield walls were one solid color and not a patchwork of advertising. Still, I live in LA. I can barely stick my head out the window without being bombarded with another frickin’ Geico ad. But the degree of cynicism powering The Decision was on an entirely different level. It was pure greed in a tattered guise of goodwill.
Of course, the James’ camp doesn’t see that. They point to the ratings, the $2.9 million of free advertising time and $6 million in ad revenue raised (all of which was supposed to go to charity, although I’ve only seen $2.5 mil as going to Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Where did the rest go?) as a reason to down the line subject us to another one of these things. Will next year be “Melo’s Moment”? Oh wait, there might not be a next year thanks to the anticipated lockout. Don't worry, NBA, we'll still be here.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
Coach Wooden
I met John Wooden a couple of times. The first meeting, when I was eight, came in his office at UCLA. He had retired the year before but kept an office at school. My father, 84 years now and counting, was doing some promotional work at the time that incorporated the Pyramid of Success. I'm not sure how he did it, but he managed to get us a few minutes with Coach. Wooden was very warm and engaging. He offered me jelly beans from a jar on his desk, talked to us for about 20 minutes and signed my Pyramid of Success which I still have somewhere.
The second time I met up with Coach was at one of his basketball camps in Thousand Oaks. All the campers had one-on-one time with Wooden and when I reminded him we had met before he claimed to remember me. I didn't doubt him.
One would be hard pressed to find a player more identified with Wooden than Bill Walton. The one time I visited Bill's home in San Diego for a story on Luke, Big Bill gave me a book. Not one of his own, but one of Wooden's. He signed it: "To John, Learn from the master teachers. Go Bruins. Bill Walton UCLA '74."
In my interview, Bill managed to compare Jerry Garcia to Wooden and I can't read the quote without hearing the Big Redhead's voice. "It's the creativity and the imagination, the electricity, the rhythm, the explosiveness, delivering peak performance on command, making other people's lives fun, creating joy and happiness for others, the leadership, the willingness to make the hard decisions, keeping everybody together. They are definitely the same person."
Walton and Wooden are linked forever, but the one relationship Coach had with a player that to this day has fascinated me was with Kareem. I don't think Wooden ever referred to Kareem by his Muslim name. It was always Lew or Lewis. That bugged me and I'm not sure if Kareem has ever addressed it. Regardless, Kareem had great affection for Coach. And I'll always remember the last time I saw the two of them together. It was at the Stanford game in 2007 in which UCLA celebrated the 40th anniversary of the 1967 team. At halftime, the team gathered at halfcourt and when the ceremony was over Kareem escorted Wooden back to his seat. There was a purity in that moment that overwhelmed me. The middle-aged Abdul-Jabbar towered over the cane-assisted nonagenarian as the two walked off the floor not arm-in-arm, but with hands clasped.
Goodnight, Coach.
The second time I met up with Coach was at one of his basketball camps in Thousand Oaks. All the campers had one-on-one time with Wooden and when I reminded him we had met before he claimed to remember me. I didn't doubt him.
One would be hard pressed to find a player more identified with Wooden than Bill Walton. The one time I visited Bill's home in San Diego for a story on Luke, Big Bill gave me a book. Not one of his own, but one of Wooden's. He signed it: "To John, Learn from the master teachers. Go Bruins. Bill Walton UCLA '74."
In my interview, Bill managed to compare Jerry Garcia to Wooden and I can't read the quote without hearing the Big Redhead's voice. "It's the creativity and the imagination, the electricity, the rhythm, the explosiveness, delivering peak performance on command, making other people's lives fun, creating joy and happiness for others, the leadership, the willingness to make the hard decisions, keeping everybody together. They are definitely the same person."
Walton and Wooden are linked forever, but the one relationship Coach had with a player that to this day has fascinated me was with Kareem. I don't think Wooden ever referred to Kareem by his Muslim name. It was always Lew or Lewis. That bugged me and I'm not sure if Kareem has ever addressed it. Regardless, Kareem had great affection for Coach. And I'll always remember the last time I saw the two of them together. It was at the Stanford game in 2007 in which UCLA celebrated the 40th anniversary of the 1967 team. At halftime, the team gathered at halfcourt and when the ceremony was over Kareem escorted Wooden back to his seat. There was a purity in that moment that overwhelmed me. The middle-aged Abdul-Jabbar towered over the cane-assisted nonagenarian as the two walked off the floor not arm-in-arm, but with hands clasped.
Goodnight, Coach.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Lakers Chances
Jeff Van Gundy had an interesting thought late in the Lakers loss to San Antonio on April 4th. The gist was that if Kobe has a poor shooting night and the Lakers are without Bynum they become a very beatable team. Well, Kobe played today and for the third straight game had trouble shooting the ball. I think it's still the finger but his knee injury certainly doesn't help. He had very little lift today and had trouble going to the hole.
Kobe is banged up. Bynum is still hurt. Odom, Artest, Farmar, Sasha and Brown all have injuries as well. The Lakers are hurting and their bench has been a joke for a good month now. But the fact remains that since the All-Star break LA has not played with any rhythm and little purpose. With today's loss, Orlando holds the home court advantage should the two teams meet in the Finals.
So who is to blame? Well, I would start with the coach. By his own admission, PJ has said when guys start tuning you out it's time to move on. A coach not only has to prepare a team for each opponent but to get that team geared for the playoffs. For months now, even when they were relatively healthy, the Lakers have looked poor on defense. They've shown flashes. Last month's game at Houston was a revelation, at least the second quarter. But most of the time the effort is not there. It's Phil's job to coax that effort out of his team. It's Phil's job get the team to move the ball on offense. It's Phil's job to sit Fish when he's not contributing. It's Phil's job to inspire.
Today was another very uninspired effort. Even when they closed the gap late in the fourth, the Blazers' Andre Miller got a layup to put Portland back up by five. I've been hearing about the Lakers defensive philosophy all year. The idea of guards funneling opponents to the middle. It doesn't work. Pau is a mediocre shot blocker and a terrible pick-and-roll defender. Bynum is slow to come from the weak side.
As I've said so many times before, the Lakers seem to survive by Kobe bailing them out with his unbelievable shot making while they give up layups on the other end. And now Kobe can't even make free throws. He better get well soon or the Lakers might be toast in the first round. They can't simply rely on their offense keeping them in games. With five minutes left today, they had scored four points in the fourth Q and were something like 4-20 from three on the game.
Just once, I'd like to see LA come out and dominate from beginning to end in a game. Look at some of the first quarters the Cavs have had this year, 40-45 points against some teams. By my account, the Lakes have played maybe three quality games since the beginning of March. Three! Wins at Phoenix and San Antonio and one against Utah at home. Mixed in those 20 games are the three game road losing streak against Miami, Charlotte and Orlando, a two-point win over Toronto and three-point win over GS (both at home), embarassing losses at OKC, NO and ATL, a 19-point loss at home against the Spurs, and today's loss against a Portland team without Brandon Roy.
LO says every team turns on a switch when it comes to the playoffs. The best thing you can say about the Lakers now is they've been saving energy for a month and a half with their switch set at "off".
Kobe is banged up. Bynum is still hurt. Odom, Artest, Farmar, Sasha and Brown all have injuries as well. The Lakers are hurting and their bench has been a joke for a good month now. But the fact remains that since the All-Star break LA has not played with any rhythm and little purpose. With today's loss, Orlando holds the home court advantage should the two teams meet in the Finals.
So who is to blame? Well, I would start with the coach. By his own admission, PJ has said when guys start tuning you out it's time to move on. A coach not only has to prepare a team for each opponent but to get that team geared for the playoffs. For months now, even when they were relatively healthy, the Lakers have looked poor on defense. They've shown flashes. Last month's game at Houston was a revelation, at least the second quarter. But most of the time the effort is not there. It's Phil's job to coax that effort out of his team. It's Phil's job get the team to move the ball on offense. It's Phil's job to sit Fish when he's not contributing. It's Phil's job to inspire.
Today was another very uninspired effort. Even when they closed the gap late in the fourth, the Blazers' Andre Miller got a layup to put Portland back up by five. I've been hearing about the Lakers defensive philosophy all year. The idea of guards funneling opponents to the middle. It doesn't work. Pau is a mediocre shot blocker and a terrible pick-and-roll defender. Bynum is slow to come from the weak side.
As I've said so many times before, the Lakers seem to survive by Kobe bailing them out with his unbelievable shot making while they give up layups on the other end. And now Kobe can't even make free throws. He better get well soon or the Lakers might be toast in the first round. They can't simply rely on their offense keeping them in games. With five minutes left today, they had scored four points in the fourth Q and were something like 4-20 from three on the game.
Just once, I'd like to see LA come out and dominate from beginning to end in a game. Look at some of the first quarters the Cavs have had this year, 40-45 points against some teams. By my account, the Lakes have played maybe three quality games since the beginning of March. Three! Wins at Phoenix and San Antonio and one against Utah at home. Mixed in those 20 games are the three game road losing streak against Miami, Charlotte and Orlando, a two-point win over Toronto and three-point win over GS (both at home), embarassing losses at OKC, NO and ATL, a 19-point loss at home against the Spurs, and today's loss against a Portland team without Brandon Roy.
LO says every team turns on a switch when it comes to the playoffs. The best thing you can say about the Lakers now is they've been saving energy for a month and a half with their switch set at "off".
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Books
"And then Amalfitano walked into his devastated front yard and looked up and down the street, craning his neck he didn’t see any car or Rosa and he gripped Dieste’s book tightly, which he was still holding in his left hand. And he looked up at the sky and saw the moon, too big and too wrinkled, although it wasn’t night yet. And then he returned to his ravaged backyard and for a few seconds he stopped, looking left and right, ahead and behind, trying to see his shadow, but although it was still daytime and the sun was still shining in the west, toward Tijuana, he couldn’t see it. And then his eyes fell on the four rows of cord, each tied at one end to a kind of miniature soccer goal, two posts perhaps six feet tall planted in the ground, and a third post bolted horizontally across the top, making them sturdier, the cords strung from this top bar to hooks fixed in the side of the house. It was the clothesline, although the only things he saw hanging on it were a shirt of Rosa’s, white with ocher embroidery around the neck, and a pair of underpants and two towels, still dripping. In the corner, in a brick hut, was the washing machine. For a while he didn’t move, breathing with his mouth open, leaning on the horizontal bar of the clothesline. Then he went into the hut as if he were short of oxygen, and from a plastic bag with the logo of the supermarket where he went with his daughter to do the weekly shopping, he took out three clothespins, which he persisted in calling perritos, as they were called in Chile, and with them he clamped the book and hung it from one of the cords and then went back into the house, feeling much calmer."
The Part about Amalfitano, 2666 by Roberto Bolano
Who hasn’t, even among book lovers (especially among book lovers), thought of clothespinning a particularly irritating tome? Or burying a book in one’s garden (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/05/20/fashion/20090521-poison-slideshow_6.html)? To let nature really have at it, in the same way it erodes rock or bone. As Roberto Bolano acknowledges, the idea was Duchamp’s. The surrealist once encouraged his sister to first buy and then fasten a geometry book from strings hanging from her balcony. He called it “Unhappy Readymade” with the idea being for the wind to “go through the book, chose its own problems, turn and tear out the pages.”
I’m hoping Pau Gasol won’t be tempted to do the same with 2666, the book Lakers coach Phil Jackson recently gave him. I read Bolano’s final book last year and now rank it among my favorites, often brutal, but beautifully so. At first I wondered whether Gasol received the English or Spanish edition. But the LA Times said it was the 898-page edition which means English. As my friend Steve points out, the paperback Spanish edition runs around 1100 pages. It sometimes takes longer to say things in Spanish, although I’m sure Gasol would prefer to read en Espanol.
Phil’s annual rite of giving out books to members of the team got me thinking about what books I’d give to my beloved Lakers including ones from my own library. So here it is just in time for their return from an eight-game roadie:
Ron Artest – The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll
From one New York City hustler to another. I love this book. I first read it growing up out here in LA and when I lived in New York I used to read it on the subway on my way to parties and the like. I have the thin, pocketsized paperback with the gangly, seated Carroll on the cover. There’s another one with the late JC in a tank top with his arms just popping out. God just molds some people to be junkies. The caveat is not to give Ron Ron the Leonardo DiCaprio cover edition. I like Leo and all but his basketball playing in the film version set hoops films back 20 years.
Shannon Brown – Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Not expecting a book report from Shannon any time soon, but title seems apropos for this year’s slam dunk champ.
Kobe Bryant – No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
When you think about it, Kobe is like the NBA equivalent to Anton Chigurh, a cold-blooded killer with a code who leaves nothing in the chamber (see Nike ad). “You’re asking that I make myself vulnerable and that I can never do,” Chigurh says to Carla Jean Moss moments before dispatching her. “I have only one way to live. It doesn’t allow for special cases.”
Andrew Bynum – The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (lifetime subscription)
It’s hard to finds a book for a 22-year-old making 12.5 million a year. This subscription gives him the ability to argue going under the knife versus in-season, three-month rehab. Sit down, Gary Vitti.
Jordan Farmar – Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
People in Los Angeles are afraid to merge on freeways, or in Jordan’s case consistently hit the three.
Derek Fisher – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Clutch shooter. Union rep. Caring father. Great guy. Fish is all of these things, but like Jay Gatsby he’s got a dark side as well. He occasionally flops and some consider him to be a dirty player. The guy is crafty. For all we know, he could be secretly be running a bootlegging operation.
Pau Gasol - 2666 by Roberto Bolano.
Honorable Mention, Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar. The title eludes to the fact that you can play around with the order of Cortazar’s narrative, reading it straight through or following his suggested skips at the end of each chapter. It reminds me of Pau’s recent play. He’s great one night. Skip ahead and he goes 5-14 and misses six free throws.
D.J. Mbenga – The Day of Creation by J.G. Ballard.
Ballard’s tale of a doctor who discovers a third Nile is hallucinatory read set in a fictional land that could be Mbenga’s native DRC. Not that he pines for his homeland.
Adam Morrison – Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower
I actually gave Adam a book once (Greil Marcus’ Lipstick Traces). This time I'm giving him Tower's book of short stories to send him on his way to his next destination. Plus the title sounds a bit like a summation of AmMo’s career. Note: Nothing about Che. I know he’s exhausted the subject. Honorable Mention: Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary by Bertrand M. Patenaude.
Lamar Odom – The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner
Just looking at the title sitting on his shelf should make LO’s mouth water. Honorable Mention: Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Josh Powell – Edisto by Padgett Powell (no relation)
I don’t know much about JP other than he can roll out of bed and hit a fifteen footer. But he’s from Charleston, SC, a jumper away from the setting of Padgett’s best novel.
Sasha Vujacic – Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
I’m going big guns here. The current Mr. Maria Sharapova needs to know how a Russian woman thinks and this classic offers the best insight.
Luke Walton – Wooden, A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court by Coach John Wooden with Steve Jamison (Bill Walton autographed copy)
Learn from the master teachers, Luke. And no parties in Papa’s house.
The Part about Amalfitano, 2666 by Roberto Bolano
Who hasn’t, even among book lovers (especially among book lovers), thought of clothespinning a particularly irritating tome? Or burying a book in one’s garden (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/05/20/fashion/20090521-poison-slideshow_6.html)? To let nature really have at it, in the same way it erodes rock or bone. As Roberto Bolano acknowledges, the idea was Duchamp’s. The surrealist once encouraged his sister to first buy and then fasten a geometry book from strings hanging from her balcony. He called it “Unhappy Readymade” with the idea being for the wind to “go through the book, chose its own problems, turn and tear out the pages.”
I’m hoping Pau Gasol won’t be tempted to do the same with 2666, the book Lakers coach Phil Jackson recently gave him. I read Bolano’s final book last year and now rank it among my favorites, often brutal, but beautifully so. At first I wondered whether Gasol received the English or Spanish edition. But the LA Times said it was the 898-page edition which means English. As my friend Steve points out, the paperback Spanish edition runs around 1100 pages. It sometimes takes longer to say things in Spanish, although I’m sure Gasol would prefer to read en Espanol.
Phil’s annual rite of giving out books to members of the team got me thinking about what books I’d give to my beloved Lakers including ones from my own library. So here it is just in time for their return from an eight-game roadie:
Ron Artest – The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll
From one New York City hustler to another. I love this book. I first read it growing up out here in LA and when I lived in New York I used to read it on the subway on my way to parties and the like. I have the thin, pocketsized paperback with the gangly, seated Carroll on the cover. There’s another one with the late JC in a tank top with his arms just popping out. God just molds some people to be junkies. The caveat is not to give Ron Ron the Leonardo DiCaprio cover edition. I like Leo and all but his basketball playing in the film version set hoops films back 20 years.
Shannon Brown – Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Not expecting a book report from Shannon any time soon, but title seems apropos for this year’s slam dunk champ.
Kobe Bryant – No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
When you think about it, Kobe is like the NBA equivalent to Anton Chigurh, a cold-blooded killer with a code who leaves nothing in the chamber (see Nike ad). “You’re asking that I make myself vulnerable and that I can never do,” Chigurh says to Carla Jean Moss moments before dispatching her. “I have only one way to live. It doesn’t allow for special cases.”
Andrew Bynum – The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (lifetime subscription)
It’s hard to finds a book for a 22-year-old making 12.5 million a year. This subscription gives him the ability to argue going under the knife versus in-season, three-month rehab. Sit down, Gary Vitti.
Jordan Farmar – Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
People in Los Angeles are afraid to merge on freeways, or in Jordan’s case consistently hit the three.
Derek Fisher – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Clutch shooter. Union rep. Caring father. Great guy. Fish is all of these things, but like Jay Gatsby he’s got a dark side as well. He occasionally flops and some consider him to be a dirty player. The guy is crafty. For all we know, he could be secretly be running a bootlegging operation.
Pau Gasol - 2666 by Roberto Bolano.
Honorable Mention, Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar. The title eludes to the fact that you can play around with the order of Cortazar’s narrative, reading it straight through or following his suggested skips at the end of each chapter. It reminds me of Pau’s recent play. He’s great one night. Skip ahead and he goes 5-14 and misses six free throws.
D.J. Mbenga – The Day of Creation by J.G. Ballard.
Ballard’s tale of a doctor who discovers a third Nile is hallucinatory read set in a fictional land that could be Mbenga’s native DRC. Not that he pines for his homeland.
Adam Morrison – Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower
I actually gave Adam a book once (Greil Marcus’ Lipstick Traces). This time I'm giving him Tower's book of short stories to send him on his way to his next destination. Plus the title sounds a bit like a summation of AmMo’s career. Note: Nothing about Che. I know he’s exhausted the subject. Honorable Mention: Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary by Bertrand M. Patenaude.
Lamar Odom – The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner
Just looking at the title sitting on his shelf should make LO’s mouth water. Honorable Mention: Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Josh Powell – Edisto by Padgett Powell (no relation)
I don’t know much about JP other than he can roll out of bed and hit a fifteen footer. But he’s from Charleston, SC, a jumper away from the setting of Padgett’s best novel.
Sasha Vujacic – Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
I’m going big guns here. The current Mr. Maria Sharapova needs to know how a Russian woman thinks and this classic offers the best insight.
Luke Walton – Wooden, A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court by Coach John Wooden with Steve Jamison (Bill Walton autographed copy)
Learn from the master teachers, Luke. And no parties in Papa’s house.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
I like the Horns
Alabama barely beat Auburn, LSU, and Tennessee. I like Texas to win 17-10 and for Colt McCoy to have a big game. Texas had a couple of close calls as well and I know a lot of people in Austin even doubt the team. They're not a great team and not as good as the VY championship team. But Alabama is not great either and in the Battle of Macs, I'll go with the QB that has won more games than any in the modern history of college football.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Gil
Just before Christmas, as I was snaking my way along Sunset between Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica, I thought of Gilbert Arenas. Off to my right in the canyon below was Pali High (home of the Dolphins!) where we had conducted a photo shoot with Gil shortly after his last season with Golden State. Arenas had done some pretty crazy stuff his first two years in the league. Before he was actually given some decent burn he used to practice dunks jumping off the trampoline with the Golden State mascot (a feat he repeated at the 2007 All-Star Game weekend). He bought an Escalade for around 50 grand and then used another 50 Gs to trick it out even though he was the 31st pick in the 2001 Draft and making non-guranteed rookie money. During halftime of a game against San Antonio, Arenas was so upset with his play that he walked into the shower in full uniform and turned on the water. He supposedly played the second half in his wet uni.
The last exploit was the theme of our photo shoot. Gil stood in uniform on a Pali High handball court while the photographer's assistant threw bucket after bucket of lukewarm water on him. It was late afternoon and getting cool in the canyon, but Gil didn't care. He was a photographer's dream, putting up with being drenched for a good hour and a half. His girlfriend, Laura Govan was there as well.
Arenas' off-the-wall personality and his back story about growing up with his dad in LA and sleeping in the car when they first arrived from Florida made for a pretty good piece. And Gil was a good quote. When I interviewed him I went through the first round of the 2001 Draft naming all the guys who had been drafted before him. With the tape recorder running right in front of him he went off on several of the picks. He said a monkey could shoot better than Gerald Wallace and justifiably called Jeryl Sasser "terrible". He was especially miffed with the Celtics who had three first round picks and took Joe Johnson, Kendrick Brown and Joe Forte (ouch). "If I could pick one team to score 100 points against it would be Boston," he said.
The day the story went to print I got a phone call from Arenas while covering a tennis tourney in Indianapolis. Gil was pissed. He claimed that all the things he had said about the other players in his draft were off the record. Of course, he never said anything like during the interview and his girlfriend was there the entire time. He claimed that the next time he faced each player he dissed he was going to have to throw down with them. I tried to reason with him but he just wanted to vent and went off on what I thought was a very fair and positive story. The thing that really killed me was that he had just signed a 60 million dollar deal with the Wiz. He finally had all this respect. But as many people have said about Arenas, he's never trusted his success. As Mark Heisler suggested in his story on Arenas this past Sunday, Gil's always feared that everyone is going to discover that he's a fraud and abandon him just like his drug-addicted mom did when he was a little kid.
As Arenas went on to bigger and better things with Washington, became an All-Star and a cause celebre among the media (especially bloggers), I've always kept this idea of Gil in mind. Even now,in the wake of his gun trouble, I really don't think he's a bad guy. When I relayed my story to people who know him they said that Gil challenges everyone, even friends or teammates (look at his relationship with Deshawn Stevenson). He's got to know if you're on his side or not and even those that are in his court are perpetually tested. It's a matter of trust, is it not?
Occasionally people that have everything (fame, money, respect), if they want to go higher, they need to drum up controversy or sharpen their edge. That's what makes someone like Kobe so great. Maybe that's what MJ was looking to do with his HOF acceptance speech. Arenas isn't nearly the player those two are, but he's achieved some pretty big things in his NBA career and he's nobody's fool. While he does foolish things, deep down he's thinking 'Hey, it's just me, Gil, Hibachi, Agent Zero.' I'm not saying bringing guns to an NBA lockerroom was a totally calculated move, but on some level, how could it not be? His whole career, from his free throw routine to his use of the media, is defined by his ability to provoke and bewilder.
So what happens now? In the wake of Tiger mania, the press is quick to dole out advice and/or punishment. Jemele Hill thinks Arenas and Crittenton should be suspended for the season and that the Wiz can use this episode to void Arenas' hefty contract. I think he'll get a month suspension (Steven Jackson received 7 games for his gun going off in a nightclub). I doubt the Wiz can play a morality card with this and ax Arenas. I just don't see it happening. As Washington should have learned long ago, when ride with Gil you get the good and the bad.
The last exploit was the theme of our photo shoot. Gil stood in uniform on a Pali High handball court while the photographer's assistant threw bucket after bucket of lukewarm water on him. It was late afternoon and getting cool in the canyon, but Gil didn't care. He was a photographer's dream, putting up with being drenched for a good hour and a half. His girlfriend, Laura Govan was there as well.
Arenas' off-the-wall personality and his back story about growing up with his dad in LA and sleeping in the car when they first arrived from Florida made for a pretty good piece. And Gil was a good quote. When I interviewed him I went through the first round of the 2001 Draft naming all the guys who had been drafted before him. With the tape recorder running right in front of him he went off on several of the picks. He said a monkey could shoot better than Gerald Wallace and justifiably called Jeryl Sasser "terrible". He was especially miffed with the Celtics who had three first round picks and took Joe Johnson, Kendrick Brown and Joe Forte (ouch). "If I could pick one team to score 100 points against it would be Boston," he said.
The day the story went to print I got a phone call from Arenas while covering a tennis tourney in Indianapolis. Gil was pissed. He claimed that all the things he had said about the other players in his draft were off the record. Of course, he never said anything like during the interview and his girlfriend was there the entire time. He claimed that the next time he faced each player he dissed he was going to have to throw down with them. I tried to reason with him but he just wanted to vent and went off on what I thought was a very fair and positive story. The thing that really killed me was that he had just signed a 60 million dollar deal with the Wiz. He finally had all this respect. But as many people have said about Arenas, he's never trusted his success. As Mark Heisler suggested in his story on Arenas this past Sunday, Gil's always feared that everyone is going to discover that he's a fraud and abandon him just like his drug-addicted mom did when he was a little kid.
As Arenas went on to bigger and better things with Washington, became an All-Star and a cause celebre among the media (especially bloggers), I've always kept this idea of Gil in mind. Even now,in the wake of his gun trouble, I really don't think he's a bad guy. When I relayed my story to people who know him they said that Gil challenges everyone, even friends or teammates (look at his relationship with Deshawn Stevenson). He's got to know if you're on his side or not and even those that are in his court are perpetually tested. It's a matter of trust, is it not?
Occasionally people that have everything (fame, money, respect), if they want to go higher, they need to drum up controversy or sharpen their edge. That's what makes someone like Kobe so great. Maybe that's what MJ was looking to do with his HOF acceptance speech. Arenas isn't nearly the player those two are, but he's achieved some pretty big things in his NBA career and he's nobody's fool. While he does foolish things, deep down he's thinking 'Hey, it's just me, Gil, Hibachi, Agent Zero.' I'm not saying bringing guns to an NBA lockerroom was a totally calculated move, but on some level, how could it not be? His whole career, from his free throw routine to his use of the media, is defined by his ability to provoke and bewilder.
So what happens now? In the wake of Tiger mania, the press is quick to dole out advice and/or punishment. Jemele Hill thinks Arenas and Crittenton should be suspended for the season and that the Wiz can use this episode to void Arenas' hefty contract. I think he'll get a month suspension (Steven Jackson received 7 games for his gun going off in a nightclub). I doubt the Wiz can play a morality card with this and ax Arenas. I just don't see it happening. As Washington should have learned long ago, when ride with Gil you get the good and the bad.
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