Arenas, and ESPN looks back at the top players and coaches of the 2000s

I don't have much to add to the completely embarrassing news about Gilbert Arenas.  Tracee Hamilton sums it up pretty well in today's Post.


Talk about the "Curse of Les Boulez" - times two in this case.


One, how embarrassing for a team that used to be the Bullets, a name the late Abe Pollin changed over disgust with gun violence especially in DC but also over the assassination of Yitzak Rabin, to have guns waved in their locker room.  Guns apparently drawn in the locker room by two professional athletes.  Pretty pathetic.


Two, the lame Wizards are now stuck, really stuck, with Arenas.  There is no way they can trade Arenas in an attempt to jump start a team off to a 10-20 so they are on the hook for the remainder of his $110 million contract.  That contract was the original reason he was tough to trade, but who would want a guy who brings - and may wave them around - guns to the locker room.  


Finally, this instance obviously raises serious concerns about Arenas the person.  His professionalism, dedication, and maturity are all in question.  I guess I need to give him and Javaris Crittendon the benefit of the doubt; maybe guns weren't drawn. But either way, Arenas is damaged goods - and I'm not talking about his repaired left knee - and the Wizards are stuck with a player who is NOT the professional and leader they thought they had when Pollin signed him to that mega contract three years ago.


To paraphrase Chief Justice Earl Warren, after reading about man's defeats you can read about man's triumphs at the link below on the best of college basketball in the last decade: Looking back at the top players and coaches of the decade.

Abe Pollin

Sad to hear about the death of Abe Pollin, the long-time owner of our hometown Washington Wizards.  Pollin led a long and productive life, and should be celebrated for what he did for DC and especially downtown Washington. 


The old Washington Bullets won him one NBA championship, the 1978 team led by Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes, but Pollin will long be remember for his citizenship rather than his team ownership.  Or for hiring then firing the greatest basketball player of all time from the front office, a gutsy move at the time that paid off in the win and loss column.


When I moved to DC in 1993, much of the area where the Verizon Center stands was empty, literally a vacant lot (a parking lot) that had not been rebuilt in the wake of the 1968 riots.  Prime real estate in the capitol of the free world - within walking distance of the White House - stood empty and abandoned for 25 years. That part of town was an ugly, empty monument to suburbia, a cynical reminder that folks in our area had abandoned the non-federal part of DC.


As many of you know, using mostly his own money Pollin built the 'phone booth' there, and overnight the neighborhood between Pennsylvania Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue became the center of a new downtown - complete with a chic urban nickname, Penn Quarter.  


That part of town has too many chain stores for my liking, but it is also full of cool and very good restaurants - Zaytinya, Jaleo, Rasika, Austin Grille, etc. - and has become a destination.  Bottom line, it brought and kept people in DC and was the catalyst for some pretty dramatic urban renewal.


All of that was made possible by Abe Pollin.  And though they never won Pollin another championship, at least the Wizards were worth watching the last few years.  It was great to see the Wizards win tonight in a small salute to Pollin (and what a coincidence that the opposing team, the 76ers, were coached by DC-native Eddie Jordan, the coach who helped make the Wizards a consistent play-off team the last 5 years).  


Here's to Abe Pollin and his contributions to our fair city.  Everlasting be his memory.