Weekly Recap - January 18

I'm gonna try to do this every Monday. I know I'll forget a lot, but you're more than welcome to leave comments...

Gilbert Arenas

BIG week for him. Having been charged with - and pleaded to - a felony, the door is now officially open for the Bullets to void his contract. I have very mixed feelings on this of course. On the one hand, it would clear up a ton of cap space, and that combined with the likely jettisoning of Antawn Jamison and/or Caron Butler would put the team in a good spot to be major players this offseason. This seems to be the must reasonable course of action.

*Make two trades: 1. Butler and Brendan Haywood for Jermaine O'Neal and Miami's two first round picks; and 2. Jamison for Zydrunas Ilgauskas, ideally with JJ Hickson thrown in as well (You can see the whole trade here). This would clear up over $20 million in cap space to go after the greatest free agent class in history AND give the Bullets three first rounders, including their likely top 5, Miami's likely mid-20 and Toronto's likely late-teen early-20 (Toronto's pick is lottery protected). Meaning opportunities to take three good young players (so long as they draft well...), one of whom could theoretically be John Wall, with Greg Monroe as a great consolation. Or maybe even ammo to trade for Wall.

But I digress, and admittedly with a LOT of hypothetical events. There IS another side to this. If the Bullets void Arenas' contract, they'd be committing an unheard-of (at least to me) act. (EDIT: Latrell Sprewell had his contract voided after choking his coach.) And if you're looking for employment, are you gonna go to the ONLY company in your chosen field's history to void an employee's contract? Not to mention a little thing called loyalty, but that seems to be a foreign concept in the business world. Even if you keep Arenas and do the above trades you still have money to throw at FAs, AND the three picks. That would give the Bullets the chance to get what they paid for; build around Gilbert Arenas the scorer and not the point guard.

Let's get real. We're not signing LeBron. We're not signing Wade. We're not signing Bosh. Is it really worth it to go after any of the other guys when in all likelihood the end result wouldn't include the acquisition of a player who's even the same caliber player as Arenas? Not if I'm in charge. I DID say that it's time for the team and Arenas to part ways, but upon further review, it just doesn't make sense. Make those two trades though...

(P.S. Jamison and Butler are my dudes, but this team DOES need to be blown up. How many teams have ever had the opportunity to do that AND keep their franchise player?)

(P.P.S. Is that not the most depressing image of Gil you've ever seen?)

NFL Playoffs Observations

-The NFL HATES the Ravens. Probably will until Ray Lewis dies.

-The NFL LOVES the Saints. Probably will until Haiti gets a franchise (Though it would've been nice if the Cards left Arizona).

-Vikings-Saints is gonna be interesting (note how the NFL got exactly what it wanted. These were the top two seeds in the conference, I know. Just making an observation). New Orleans vs Brett Favre. I got Favre.

-Everyone took the Jets too lightly. I'll include myself in that list, even though my gut DID tell me to go with the Jets. I need to trust my gut more...but enough about me. That defense is a BEAST, and Darrelle Revis is too good. I can't imagine how good they'd be with Kris Jenkins. By the way, Jerricho Cotchery is one of the most under-appreciated talents in the league. Jets-Colts will be a good one.

-FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GET RID OF KICKERS. Not to take anything away from the Jets - they won the game fair and square - but games between grown men with athletic ability shouldn't be decided by puny nobodies. Especially ones who look like they have a birth defect.

UNC Basketball

Summarizing that last point is UNC. They are the softest, most unprepared team I've seen in a while (relative to the talent on their roster). Roy Williams seems as if he's at a loss for what to do with these players. Their "senior leadership" is a joke (Deon Thompson and Marcus Ginyard define soft. Sorry, but that's the only conclusion I can come to from what I've seen. Will Graves...uhhh...). They have three guards on the roster, Larry Drew, Dexter Strickland and Leslie McDonald. Strickland and McDonald don't play nearly as much as they should, while some argue Drew plays too much (I'll get into that in a little bit). Ed Davis is their best player in my opinion, but far from anything reliable with the ball in his hands.

A lot of people are calling for Larry Drew's head right now. And I promise you that 99% of those people range from being basketball ignorant to unsure of how to root for a team that goes from national champions to this. I feel like Roy's plan is that his season lasts two years, this one being the first half (while the second half - next year - will culminate in a championship). Regardless of whether you buy into that nor not, it makes sense for Drew to be playing significant minutes now since he's their point guard for the foreseeable future (Strickland isn't a PG). And while he's playing like someone who hasn't been in charge of a team before this year (...) he's NOT playing poorly, all things considered. He's aggressive, and he's displayed obvious talent. Is he Ty Lawson? Obviously not. But there's no reason to hold Drew to those standards either. Allow him to develop, and become LARRY DREW. Trust, he's gonna be very good.

But Dexter Strickland and Leslie McDonald DO need to play more. Especially Strickland. But I'm not coaching the team...

College Basketball

-Damion James is the player of the year as of right now. No question about it in my mind. John Wall MUST cut down on the turnovers. I got Greg Monroe up there too.

-Much in the same matter that UNC is, college basketball is DOWN this year. Might as well admit it. Next year will be great.

RIP Gaines Adams

Gilbert Arenas Sticking To His Guns

(First off, forgive the pun, but it seemed fitting as there are COUNTLESS numbers of them out there referring to this situation. And yes, I moved the site again - almost definitely for the last time - and yes I know I'm using what some may consider a "corny" name. This was just TOO fitting and I couldn't resist.)

Needless to say (if you know me) I have a LOT of thoughts on this issue, and I'm gonna do my best to organize those thoughts here. First, the event in question as I understand it is that Arenas laid out his arsenal at Crittenton's locker and in response, Crittenton loaded and chambered a gun of his own. That seems to be the consensus between all the level-headed observers.

Let me say this now: this was a display of immature foolishness of EPIC proportions on Gil's part.

I'm not going to spend time making excuses. I very easily could, but at a point you just have to grow up (remember Arenas is the father of THREE children). I empathize with his desire to stay true to who you are, regardless of how you're perceived by anybody. But unfortunately times come about in which you must swallow your pride, and avoid cutting off your livelihood to spite your face.

The thing is, however, that Arenas had a LOT of people (myself included) that had the utmost respect for him purely because he always did things his own way, no compromises. How many of YOU are in the public eye all the time, and are lauded for your (sometimes brutal) honesty by legions of fans? Think about it.

The embodiment of all things Gilbert Arenas is the event depicted in the picture to the left. The constant struggle between what's right and what's right - between staying true to yourself and doing right by everyone - is something everyone goes through, certainly every public figure. It's been a struggle that Gil always seems to be constantly in the middle of, and as history has shown any time you ride the fence, you will suffer for it.

Right now you may be thinking that Gil's strong individualistic personality is far from the center. And it's sad that your conditioning forces you to do so. The VAST majority of people lean towards pleasing others, to varying degrees, while leaning the other way is viewed as foolishly selfish. THAT is why Arenas, and countless others for that matter (notably Chad Ochocinco), have always been so difficult for the public to understand...

I have issues with how David Stern handled this situation, and my personal opinion is that Arenas should have been suspended IMMEDIATELY upon admitting to bringing firearms into the lockerroom. I also have a serious issue with how Peter Vecsey broke the story (how vermin like that could actually call themselves journalists is disgusting). But at the end of the day, as everyone is so quick to point out, this DOES fall on Gil's shoulders. My hope is that he finds his way, in every sense of the term.