Every time I get depressed about how terribly one of my favorite teams is doing I just think about how awful it would be to be a fan of, oh, let's say the Washington Wizards. (Note: This also works with the Oakland Raiders, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Pittsburgh Pirates and did I mention the Oakland Raiders?).
So after I came back from a week when the closest I came to watching anything resembling sports was a drunken excursion to a spring training game, only to find my March Madness bracket in tatters and the Celtics getting dominated in the third quarter again, I was reassured that there are some worse off than me thanks to the news about Gilbert Arenas.
You might remember that last time Agent Zero — or I suppose he is going to be Agent Six from now on — was headlining the news was after he and teammate Javaris Crittenton got into a dispute over a gambling confrontation and brought guns into the Wizards' locker room back in December. Arenas was suspended for the rest of the season, but it was not until last Friday that he was finally sentenced to 30 days in a halfway house and two years of probation?
And yet, Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld insisted that Arenas will be back with the club next season. Way to punish the guy, Washington.
Remember way back at the beginning of the season in October when people believed Washington was going to be a title contender thanks to the return of Arenas, paired with Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison along with new acquisitions Randy Foye and Mike Miller.
Now? Wizards fans who have been forced to sit through a season with the scandal involving their most popular player, the trades of the other two−thirds of their "Big Three," and a current team−record losing streak are faced with this prospect heading into next year: Gilbert Arenas will still be the face of the franchise.
Instead of looking forward to the continued emergence of Andray Blatche, a good chunk of cap space and whatever rookie the team gets in the top five of the draft, Wizards management is trying to sell the fans that it can still win with Arenas aboard. Forget what type of player he is, and ask whether this is really the type of person you want representing your team and your city.
And remember that this isn't just any city — this is Washington, D.C. It is a city where crime is so prevalent that former Wizards owner Abe Pollin was compelled to change the team's name from the Bullets to its current moniker in 1997, just so it would be less associated with the violence that the nation's capital was known for. Something tells me that if Mr. Pollin were still alive he wouldn't be welcoming back Arenas with open arms.
I understand that the Wizards are basically stuck between a rock and a hard place. They couldn't give Arenas away right now, and it is not like it is easy to buy out a player who still is owed $80 million for the ridiculous contract he signed in 2008. But let's look at it from the other angle. How can Washington head into the 2010−11 season with Arenas in its lineup? What do you tell the fans, the players who do their job the right way and the coaching staff that has to deal with the myriad distractions that Arenas is sure to bring?
So as it stands now, things are not exactly looking all that rosy for Wizards fans. But hey, at least they don't have to root for the Raiders. Oh wait, did I mention that already?
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Ethan Landy is a senior majoring in English. He can be reached at Ethan.Landy@tufts.edu.
