Gilbert Arenas’ Son Alijah Will Be the Next Kobe Bryant: Metta Sandiford-Artest

Fans are often too reactive and hyperbolic to what they just saw. A young quarterback throws for four touchdowns, and suddenly he’s the next Tom Brady. A center fielder with a sweet swing is the next Ken Griffey Jr. It happens across all sports. And the catch: The backlash comes just as quickly.

We just saw it in Sunday’s Super Bowl… Drake Maye, the second-year quarterback for the Patriots, had, by any definition, a rough game. The Seattle Seahawks’ defense dominating his New England Patriots to secure their second Super Bowl title. Maye finished just behind Matthew Stafford in the MVP voting, too. All season, he was built up with comparisons made to Brady, even. Now that he stunk it up in the Super Bowl, the haters are basking in Maye’s poor postseason.

We need to pump the brakes on all of these crazy comparisons and let young players develop at their own pace. That’s an apt message for Metta Sandiford-Artest (formerly Metta World Peace, and before that, Ron Artest), who has made a wild declaration about Alijah Arenas, the USC freshman and son of Gilbert Arenas.

Arenas helped his Trojans win at Penn State by scoring 24 points and hitting the game-winning shot with 0.7 seconds left. “The kid is the next Kobe,” Artest declared.

“I don’t think he needs to change his number to 24 or anything like that. I think he can just be the next Alijah, but the kid is the next Kobe. MVP by Year 5 or 6 — well, he’ll have a tough time because you still got Wembanyama, you still got some other players in there,” he added.

Hope you were sitting down for that one. When it comes to hot takes, this one from Artest was the equivalent of Da Bomb sauce from Hot Ones. You should probably drink a glass of milk just to be safe.

Alijah Arenas has a bright future, and the game-winner in which he drove and spun twice in the lane had a high degree of difficulty. However, let us also look at what he has done so far in six college games. Yes, that’s all he has played since recovering from a medically induced coma following a car crash this past summer.

Alijah is averaging 13.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.2 assists, and he’s shooting 35.4% from the floor and 27.6% from 3-point range. He has had his two best performances in back-to-back games, though, dropping a career-high 29 on Indiana five days before his 24 against Penn State. Alijah also saw a big jump in his minutes in those two games, a good sign that he’s getting closer to 100% physical fitness.

When we take into account Alijah’s performances so far, it shows us how wild Artest’s proclamation is.

Of course, he played alongside Kobe, even winning the 2010 title together. He knows all about Kobe’s legendary work ethic, ability, and killer instinct, too. That makes him uniquely qualified to make such a statement. However, Alijah Arenas, who was a top-15 prospect coming into the season, has a lot of competition just among his fellow freshmen ballers to be known as the next big thing.

There’s AJ Dybantsa, the BYU forward who has long been the projected No. 1 pick. There’s Darryn Peterson, Kansas’ electric wing. There’s Cameron Boozer of Duke, the current Player of the Year favorite and son of Carlos Boozer. Last but not least, Caleb Wilson, the UNC forward who was instrumental in helping the Tar Heels overcome Boozer and his fourth-ranked and previously one-loss Blue Devils on Saturday night.

This is a historic freshman class, and no matter what Alijah does the rest of the season, there’s no way he’s going to be drafted above those guys. Then again, Kobe, who skipped college altogether, wasn’t drafted until the 13th overall pick. So maybe that doesn’t mean so much.

Alijah Arenas is clearly talented, and there are many reasons to be optimistic about his future. He has had pro-level training for years, thanks to who his dad is. And at 6’7″, he has the size and athleticism to be a real difference-maker.

His last two performances are extremely encouraging. But please, let’s pump the brakes on comparing him to an all-time great after two good games, because once you put that out there, anything less than a Hall of Fame career will be seen as a disappointment.

Alijah is only 18 years old. Let’s let the kid develop on his own timeline without having to do it under the Black Mamba’s shadow.