Arenas Won’t Forget Snub
Gilbert Arenas will use the initial snub as motivation.
The Washington Wizard guard didn’t make the Eastern Conference All-Star team until NBA commissioner David Stern chose him to replace the injured Jermaine O’Neal.
Arenas is the league’s fourth-leading scorer at 28.3 points per game. He’ll play in the All-Star game tonight for the second consecutive year, but payback comes when the regular season resumes next week.
“Somebody’s going to have to pay for me missing the initial,” Arenas said. “And that’s almost every Eastern Conference team out there.”
Arenas was left off the list of All-Star reserves picked by Eastern Conference coaches last week while four players from East-leading Detroit were named.
“Some people say all five of them should have gotten in,” Arenas said. “This is All-Stars, not All-Star teams.”
Wizard Coach Eddie Jordan said Arenas has incentive to play well in Houston.
“Now that he’s going, he still has a little chip on his shoulder,” Jordan said. “He knows coaches didn’t vote for him and didn’t choose him.”
Not being chosen came as a shock to Arenas, who vowed to watch “Bambi II” instead of the selection show after word leaked that he hadn’t made the team.
“It was disappointing because when you calculate, I was the fourth-leading scoring in the league,” he said. “I was All-Pro last year. That means top 15 in the whole NBA, but I’m not top 12 in the Eastern Conference. That’s what was hurting me.”
Arenas has been among the league’s top scorers all season, with at least 30 points in 24 games and 40 points in seven of those. Only LeBron James, Allen Iverson and Dwyane Wade join him in the top 20 in scoring and assists. Arenas is among the league leaders in steals, three-pointers and free throws.
“He’s done everything that you ask an All-Star to do,” teammate Antawn Jamison said. “It was definitely disappointing for his peers not to recognize the job he’s been doing, pretty much being one of the best guards, not only in the East, but in the NBA.”
Arenas is the Wizards’ captain, a role he reluctantly accepted before this season because he wasn’t convinced he deserved it. But Jordan felt Arenas had matured through his first four NBA seasons.
“He’s always been a solid kid,” Jordan said. “Now he’s more of a professional, more focused. He’s matured off the court too. His teammates respect him. They know he’s a competitor and wants to win.”
Yet when Arenas was left off the All-Star team, Jordan was ready to “do some damage control.” He wasn’t sure how his guard would respond.
Arenas talked excitedly about going to the All-Star game before the Wizards (26-25) lost to Dallas on Wednesday. He told teammates about the specially designed shoes he would wear as a tribute to the U.S. Olympians.
“He told me he didn’t really enjoy last year because he thought it was going to be something that occurred every year,” Jamison said. “This opened his eyes a little bit. He wants to go enjoy it and have fun.”