During the preseason, we were led to believe that Gilbert Arenas chose to sit out against the Knicks in order to give teammate Nick Young a chance to showcase his skills. Young dropped 24 points in the game, cashing in on what looked to be a thoughtful gesture from a teammate. Arenas was laughing with reporters about the situation after the game, but we chalked that up to Agent Zero being giddy because his plan had worked so well.
Boy, has that story changed. In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, via CBSSports, Arenas said he faked the injury because he was scared of getting booed, not so he could rest his surgically repaired knee or help out a teammate. Here’s what he told SI:
I was really scared of getting booed,” says Arenas. “It’s a little crazy because I was here with Kwame Brown when Kwame was scared to go out there. I used to be like, Man, it’s just boos. Now here I was six years later, and I was him. I was scared to go out there.”
Huh? We all know the gun incident tarnished Arenas’ reputation, but is he serious? First of all, we know how sports fans are. You do something stupid and you’re going to get booed for a little while — mainly on the road. If you’re helping the home team win, they forget in a shorter amount of time than it takes Ron Artest to get his first technical of the season.
When you factor in that Gilbert went on to talk about how open he is to mentoring John Wall and stepping aside and allowing him to run the show, it seems to me like Arenas is fishing for sympathy. There’s playing the “I’m a changed man” card, and then there’s saying you’re afraid of getting booed. The latter is a little too much if you ask me.
