In light of the sentence handed down to Gilbert Arenas yesterday, Wizards president of basketball operations Ernie Grunfeld held a hastily organized press conference before the Wizards took the floor against Utah this evening. Here are the highlights:
On Arenas’ sentence: “I think this verdict brings a certain amount of closure to this situation, and it’s going to allow us to move forward and focus on the rest of the season, and put our focus on basketball and tyring to improve our team going forward…
The judge made his decision, obviously, and Gil said that he made a mistake in what he did, and he showed remorse for it, and the judge made his ruling, and Gilbert is going to have to do what the judge asked. And we all think Gilbert is going to learn from this, and he’s going to come back to do what he really loves to do, and that’s play basketball and be with his teammates and get out there and do what he’s really good at, and that’s perform.”
On Arenas’s future with the Wizards: “Gilbert’s part of this organization, part of our team, and he’s going be with us next year. We still feel the same way. I think people sometimes tend to forget, he’s still one of the best players in this league. He averaged 23 points and 7 assists when he was with us. He’s a dynamic player, and he’s just coming off an injury. Yeah, we plan to have him back, and we plan to have him in uniform next year.
We’re not going to void his contract. As I’ve said all along, he’s going to be with us.”
Grunfeld indicated that he has not spoken direct with Arenas or Javaris Crittenton, but he plans to have a sit-down chat with Arenas in the near future.
Has Grunfeld spoken with new team owner Ted Leonsis?
“I still report to the Pollins, and until the transaction is complete, that’s how we operate.”
On what needs to change about Arenas’s behavior: “Gilbert’s always been popular in the locker room. His teammates have always liked him… He said he used some bad judgment in this instance, and he’s paying for it right now and going forward, hopefully he learns from this situation, and I think he will.”
“He’ll reestablish himself in that locker room pretty quick because for the most part, most of the guys got along in the locker room.”
How come there were no letters of support from the Wizards front office, coaching staff or teammates for Arenas in his defense team’s sentencing memo?: “I don’t think anybody asked us to write a letter… Nobody came to us and asked us to write anything.”
On reintroducing Arenas to the community: “Look, obviously Gilbert is one of the most popular athletes to play in D.C. in a really long time, and a lot of people really had a lot of great affection for him, and he produced. He did some magnificent things on the basketball. Obviously, what happened a few months ago, some people are disappointed in. But I think when he comes back and he does the things that the judge has asked him to do, and he sets a good example, because he’s going to learn from this, and he sets a good example in the community, and then he’s going to come back. Some people are going to accept him right away, and it might take more time for others. He has to maybe get the love back from some of those people. But I think a lot of people will accept it, and there might be some who won’t.”
On whether free agents can be enticed to come to Washington with Arenas as the focal point of the roster: “Gilbert’s going to be part of this team. Everybody’s part of this team. Gilbert is obviously an outstanding player, and I think a lot of people really love the kind of things that he did, and maybe some people didn’t. Maybe he’s going to have to win back that love from some of the fans. But that’s going to be up to him and how he handles himself here going forward.”
“Good players want to play with good players, and good players want to get paid so I think that’s how it really goes.”
Grunfeld on his own job security: “I think I’m pretty good at what I do. I have a pretty good track record, and we’ll see when new ownership takes over what happens. I think we’ve done a pretty good job here, and if you look at the other places I’ve been, I’ve rebuilt several teams many times over so I’m confident in my abilities. It’s a good challenge, and I’m looking forward to it.”
And the perfect follow-up question, whether or not he would’ve dismantled the Wizards had the Arenas incident not happened:
“On paper we had some very talented players on this ball club. But you don’t always win games on paper. As I’ve said before, this team got stale as a group. Maybe they’d been together too long. But the energy wasn’t there. The camaraderie wasn’t there. The togetherness wasn’t there. And with all the players that we had, they’re all good players, and they’re playing well in certain other places, but they were not playing well as a group for us. And our record, even before this situation happened, was not a very good record. That’s not what we’re looking to do. If you’re going to have a real high payroll, which we did, you want to get some results from it, which we weren’t getting.
I don’t exactly know when we were going to have to rebuild, or when the rebuilding would’ve started. But at some point, it was obvious that this group, for whatever reasons, some people had their own agendas, and they’re all good people – it had nothing to do with any of that. But the results were not there. The talent was there, everybody, most of you in this room picked us to be one of the top four or five teams in the East and win between 45-50 games, and we felt we could do that. But it wasn’t happening for a variety of reasons. But I just think the team got stale, and the chemistry wasn’t right, and it happened even before this incident. The team just wasn’t coming together.”
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