Now that's the Arenas I wanna see!

[bird_dirt]

Arenas says he's ready to go

Gilbert Arenas says he's back to his explosive self but is wondering if it's the Wizards' fault that it has taken him so long to get back to normal.

Arenas, who worked with trainer Tim Grover in Chicago this summer, told The Washington Times that his injuries are in the past.

"Nobody could guard me before, and can't nobody guard me now," Arenas told the newspaper. "If I hadn't come up here, I'd be starting off the season with a 95 percent chance that I'd be sitting out more games. ... [Tim Grover] saved my career."

Coming off three knee surgeries in 1½ years, Arenas played in only two games last season.

Grover painted a grim picture of Arenas' health when the Washington Wizards guard arrived at his training complex in Chicago this July.

"A lot of things weren't firing -- his glutes, his hips, thighs," Grover told the newspaper. "I wouldn't say his condition was the most severe, I wouldn't say it was the best. ... But if I were to classify it on a scale of one to 10 with 10 being the most extreme, I'd say he was definitely in the seven, eight category."

Grover has several high-profile NBA clients, including Dwyane Wade, O.J. Mayo and Tracy McGrady. Arenas has resisted overtures to work with Grover in the past, but finally decided to give it a try this year.

While Arenas praised Grover for saving his career, he blamed the Wizards for giving him too much control over his failed comebacks from surgery the past two seasons.

"If you have a kid that loves basketball, that eats, sleeps, drinks and thinks basketball and all he knows is basketball and he gets hurt and he's your franchise player, you need to hold him back from himself," Arenas told the newspaper. "If I'm saying I feel good and you know it's supposed to take six months, instead of letting me at four months run ... they should have held me back. Rather than saying, 'Let's let this guy do what he wants and use him to sell tickets' -- sometimes you have to protect players from themselves. I don't feel like I got that type of protection. But, I don't judge them for that. Some things just happen. I told them I felt OK because I wanted to play, and they did what they did."

Arenas has worked hard this summer to try to get back on the court.

"It was a pretty extensive process," Grover told the newspaper. "We had to get his range of motion back in the leg, did a lot of acupuncture, a lot of work. We put a game plan together and attacked it from as many angles as we could. Gil would work with four or five individuals from my staff each day. ... It was, 'OK, Gil, you're going to be spending a good six to seven hours a day in here and a lot of treatment, and it's all pieces of the puzzle to putting you back together to being the player you were before -- and better.' "

Arenas averaged 27.7 points per game from 2004 until 2007, becoming one of the NBA's most dynamic players. But he has played just 15 games the past two seasons because of his injuries.

Arenas said his goal isn't to be an All-Star player this season. Instead, he has loftier goals.

"All-Star's not my goal. I never wanted to be an All-Star. All-Star is the 24 hottest players at that time. All-League? That's my goal," Arenas told the newspaper. "All-League is only 15 players. So All-League and to play as many games as possible. That's it."

just a few points i'm taking out of this article:

1. hopefully, this is only the beginning of the wizard's issues with gilbert. the more noise he makes, the more of a distraction he becomes and the worse the wizards will be. as an "up and coming" team, with many people making the wizards a chic pick to knock the hawks down from the 4th spot in the eastern conference.

2. what was said: "Nobody could guard me before, and can't nobody guard me now," Arenas told the newspaper.

what should've been said: "Nobody could guard me before, can't nobody guard me now, and i can't guard anybody else either" Arenas told the newspaper.

3. "Grover has several high-profile NBA clients, including ..... Tracy McGrady". yeah, how's that one been working out so far? hope tracy and arenas are on the same program.

4. "....he blamed the Wizards for giving him too much control over his failed comebacks from surgery the past two seasons." really? is that what you really want? you really want the team to tell you what to do all the time and make all your decisions for you? you don't feel you should hold yourself the least bit accountable for what you do to your body? sounds like he's a socialist to me, and right there in washington to boot! honestly, though, i think if the wizards held total control over how and when he played, he'd be blaming them for either holding him back too much, or playing him too much to try to sell tickets.

this just illustrates that hopefully the wizards will be damned no matter what happens with arenas, so hopefully it will only get worse for them and hold them back further in the east.

[Bahamut]

As long as he's in our division, I prefer the injured Gilbert Arenas :snowballfight:

[capstone21]

As long as he's in our division, I prefer the injured Gilbert Arenas

The wizards are an interesting team if they are healthy. They had a nice offseason but the guys they got in the trade do not defend and the guys they already have with the exception of Butler do not really defend either. They are going to have to outscore their opponents because they certainly will not be stopping them.

[Bahamut]

I wonder if the injury bug has paid a visit to Dwight Howard?

If so, it should be time to raise that division championship banner in Philips :help wanted:

[Eddielives]

Gilbert is once again running his mouth, this time about how his training staff mishandled him. What a total douchebag.