Superstar Be: Gilbert Arenas Photos, Part 2

As promised, this set is more about Gilbert interacting with fans. Now, I know some of you must be wondering why I do this. Do I have some sort of fanboy crush? No, not at all. It's just that the league (as do MLB and the NFL) markets its players so heavily. All the pictures you'll find of most NBA athletes tend to be very posed or are used to sell something. What I like about jumping on, say, a flickr.com and searching for "Gilbert Arenas" is that I'll get a quick, honest look at a player through the pictures there. Sometimes, you'll see a piece of personality seep out that you don't see in the interviews, as the player interacts with a fan that is different than normal. Other times, the entertainment is watching the fan interact with a piece of celebrity, which is why I usually include a picture of a fan holding an NBA jersey or figurine or something. Regardless, the photos of Gilbert on ,say, the schoolyard or the Usher concert are there because Gilbert wants to be there, the fans want to be there, and no one paid either of them to take the picture. I find that refreshing and unusual.

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Superstar Be: Gilbert Arenas Photos, Part 1

Filling in a blog gap from ages ago, here's pictures of Gilbert Arenas being interviewed or at public events. For the sake of time, fewer comments from me; you can provide captions as you wish (within reason). Part 2 will be photos of Gil interacting with fans.

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Instead of picking one picture, I direct you to many photos from the Arenas 25th Birthday bash, including Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Doug E Fresh, and assorted models here.

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Another excellent photo collection of Gilbert + other NBA celebrities, including many many Eva Longoria shots, Hasselhoff, Mary J. Blige, and Ellen Pompeo.
2007 All-Star Game

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Same person, this time at the 2006 All-Star Game: similarly cool set here. Sorry about the formatting; I tried and tried and couldn't fix it.


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This picture needs some explanation, besides Gilbert wearing khakis, ha. In his younger years, Gilbert played at the Rucker in the Entertainer's Basketball Classic.
Check the whole set; includes Fat Joe, Carmelo Anthony, JR Smith, The Game, etc. here.

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Photoren has some great shots of other celebs as well. See more of his work here.

Salvage Value: Jemele Hill, Gilbert Arenas Follow-up

For those of you who read Newsweek, its cover story pointed out that ESPN's Page 2 Jemele Hill played a significant role in getting Don Imus's comments to a large audience. It's surprising to me that ESPN has been so under the radar in acknowledging this, especially with Page 2 being so quiet nowadays. Understandably, though, because of ESPN's ties to ABC, they probably don't want people thinking that their journalists are going around savaging hosts from the competition. (Imus worked for CBS radio and MSNBC TV, if I am not mistaken). Here's the exact quote:

"...Young black journalists were among the first to demand that Imus be ousted. Thursday evening, one day after Imus's comments, Jemele Hill, an ESPN reporter, posted the Media Matters link on the National Association of Black Journalists' e-mail list... In a matter of hours, black journalists in newsrooms across the country were clicking on it, and getting angry. The next day the NABJ demanded an apology from Imus, then called for him to be fired."

Read them for more of the surrounding text.

Also, I received a bit of notoriety here for my Gilbert Arenas SuperStars Be post. It's fair; if I'm going to write a post with strong opinions, I expect to get them back. But just to clarify; I love nerdiness and geekiness. I love late bloomers and underrated prospects. Just look at my Shay Doron post as an example.

Coming from anyone else, my post would be Gilbert-hating. Coming from me, it's excess affection that should make Gilbert double-lock his door as a precaution and hope that I'm not a big John Amaechi fan, ha.

SuperStar Be: Gilbert Arenas

One of the hallmarks of this blog is waiting until a story is stone-cold to pick its bones. Some of that is intentional; I want to write something that's not just repeating the latest news. And that means waiting until more of the story comes out.

Well, the vulture strikes again, as I finally have gotten to Gilbert Arenas now that he's injured and his team is looking like it will lose in the first round of the playoffs. But I bet you the Wizards win 2-3 games: look at who they play. The Bulls? Raptors? I don't see either young team being consistent enough to sweep the Wizards.

Gilbert Arenas Be Black and...Nerdy
Or geeky, depending on where you stand on the age-old nerd/geek typology. Let's examine the evidence, from that Esquire article eons ago:
OCD traits: plays video games non-stop, collects many different items
Awkwardness in Intimacy traits: does not like women "touching him" in his words
Odd pursuit of greatness traits: has a hyperbaric chamber in his house, tries to win 3-point contests shooting 1-handed

Looks like a solid case to me! I think that Gilbert really isn't as complex, behaviorally, as bloggers have made him out to be. Brian from Yaysports has been on this from nearly Day 1, and I agree with him. Although, I don't think anyone else but MCBias is pushing the nerd/geek hypothesis.

Gilbert Arenas Be an Underappreciated Late Bloomer
I believe this may be a reason for Gilbert appreciation among bloggers. If you look around the sports bloggosphere, you see a lot of people who took odd paths to a writing career. It's not the kid straight out of school who's writing the top blogs. It's your 28 year old single who came out of school and ended up doing work that wasn't what he/she went to school for, and for pennies at that. If, instead, they came out of school, instantly started making 100K, and dated/married all the cheerleaders/athletes, or what have you, they wouldn't be blogging.

Similarly, Gilbert started slow in high school, college, and the NBA before becoming a success there. He has a chip on his shoulder about all the setbacks he faced initially in each field, and it shows. Frankly, that's attractive to a lot of people. Men follow guys with chips on their shoulder, as long as the chipster can back up his talk. Women desire a guy with an edge, the "outsider" who isn't too outside. And Gilbert pulls off this delicate dance in an enviable way, most of the time. Although that verbal attack on LeBron James makes me think that Gilbert isn't as mentally secure and confident as Gilbert should be for the great seasons he's had. In fact..

Gilbert Arenas Be Sad
There's something about Gilbert's eyes, even when he's smiling, that saddens me. Maybe it's just a physical phenomenon, and not the way he feels in his soul. But the man grew up with his father as his only parent, homeless here and there, and with a father who was emotionally distant at that. He holds onto things way too long; the chip is a little too deep in his shoulder when he talks about the rejection of the NBA (2nd round draft pick) and USA basketball (being cut from the squad). As a human being, I worry about Arenas as he ages and loses his athletic gifts; I have a feeling he won't age happily or contentedly. Being driven is a blessing when you're trying to get to the top of the mountain; but it won't let you examine the scenery at the top as you slide down the other side.

Sheesh, there MCBias goes, pitying another millionaire. Get a grip, MC; shouldn't you be making fun of those overpaid, oversized humans? Maybe next time I'll pick a superstar who deserves to be savaged. We'll see.