Washington Wizards fans are used to feeling disappointment and despair entering a season. That’s nothing new.
But there is a foreboding sense of doom hanging over the cursed NBA franchise, which opens its season Thursday night at Orlando against the powerful Magic. And it’s more pronounced than typical Wizards angst — even with the glow of heralded rookie John Wall.
Gilbert Arenas is holding the Wizards hostage.
Even though Arenas missed his fourth straight practice Wednesday and has been scratched from the opener, his presence creates a sense of fear and uncertainty that goes beyond disappointment and despair — it’s more a feeling of destruction.
That’s not to say Arenas will commit some sort of dramatic act like he did last season, when he brought guns into the locker room in a dispute with Javaris Crittenton, wrecking the team and resulting in a felony conviction for Arenas. But once an act like that has been committed, it raises the scrutiny on every small drama to follow. And as we know from his history and already have seen in the preseason, there are always small dramas with Arenas.
The sullen victim act on media day. The fake injury before the preseason game so Nick Young could get a start. The uncertainty of his health going into the opener.
This could go on and on. Despite the damage from the gun incident, we are not talking about a zero tolerance policy, because the Wizards have little option other than to pay Arenas the $80 million they owe him.
As damaging as the little dramas may be — and they will get in the way of everything new owner Ted Leonsis is trying to do to change the direction of the beleaguered organization — they would, either individually or collectively, have to add up to enough to pay Arenas to disappear.
And the bar already has been set: guns in the locker room. Anything less than that appears to be OK.
Former Wizards guard and current ESPN basketball analyst Tim Legler shed light on how the rest of the NBA views Arenas.
Legler told me on “The Sports Fix” on ESPN 980 that if Arenas can change his ways and stay healthy, the Wizards could have one of the most explosive backcourts in the league.
But he also offered this assessment: “If things don’t break right for this team and you see more of the petulance out of Gilbert Arenas you’ve seen in the preseason — faking an injury to avoid playing in a game and just the way he had handled the media … it is obvious to me he resents the adulation that John Wall is getting. He resents the billboards of John Wall around town. He resents the commercials. The comments he’s making are selfish, and that could be something that could really derail this entire thing because he’s going to be there.
“You’re not going to trade Gilbert Arenas,” Legler continued. “He’s almost immovable with his contract and the problems he has had on and off the court. He’s there, and if he’s there and he is a black cloud over what John Wall is trying to accomplish and develop, this is a team that could really fall off.”
Happy Halloween.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN 980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected]
