Wall can’t hide Arenas

But few will pay attention.

Gilbert Arenas remains the focus even though his likeness was stripped from nearly every corner of Verizon Center last winter and he hasn’t been heard from since last March.

The last time Arenas spoke in public was just prior to being sentenced for felony weapons possession after bringing guns into the Wizards locker room. It was to tell a judge, “I am very sorry, you know, that this all happened. Every day I wake up wishing that it didn’t.”

Since then, he’s spent a month in a halfway house, done 400 hours of community service, trained again with Tim Grover in Chicago and wowed new Wizards owner Ted Leonsis during a pickup game on the Verizon Center practice court.

Arenas also hasn’t said a word — not about the perspective he’s gained during his time away from the NBA, not about how he plans to win back the Wizards franchise and fans who may have deserted him after last season.

When camp opens, those off-court questions — and whatever mood the mercurial Arenas is in — will overshadow any talk about Wall or the Wizards’ potential to grow and win games. That’s a blow to the efforts the Wizards have made to re-energize the mood around the team this offseason.

Leonsis implored fans to “re-embrace” Arenas when he took over, but Arenas has been left to handle things from there. The Wizards aren’t giving him any special treatment, but he’ll receive plenty of special attention on media day. Washington hopes the headlines he’s sure to make will be good ones — or if they’re not, that they’ll go away quickly.

In his last non-courtroom interview before his sentencing, Arenas told Esquire Magazine that David Stern said to him, “I’ve got to get you out of the limelight because you’re not gonna let it go. When you come back, then we build.”

The Wizards are waiting until training camp opens to lay the first brick.