“My first game against Vince Carter made me think I could not play in the NBA”: Gilbert Arenas recalls his debut match against the 2000 NBA Slam Dunk champion and Olympics gold medalist

In an episode of “No Chill with Gilbert Arenas”, Gil discusses his early apprehensions when he faced Vince Carter in his debut match.

Gilbert Arenas is one of the most underrated players in the history of the NBA. He was selected 31st by the Warriors in the 2001 draft. He won the “Most Improved Player” title in the 2002-03 season. In addition, Arenas has 3-All Star appearances and ended his career with over 11,000 points.

In an episode of his podcast, Jaden Hardy asked him – “How did you prepare yourself, when you got there?” Gilbert Arenas had a very candid reply for the youngster – “I’m not even going to lie to bruh. My first game we played against Vince Carter. I’m in there cocky. He missed like two straight shots, so I’m already like I knew he was trash.”

Also Read – “Vince Carter was supposed to be the next Michael Jordan”: Gilbert Arenas believes the 2000 NBA Dunk contest and Olympics champion could’ve been a top-3 player ever

Furthermore, Arenas revealed that the trash talk did not sit well with Carter and said, “Then he got mad, and got into the post-spin move and cocked it, BOOM. I’m on the court like – yo did y’all see that. Then I had to realize I was in the NBA – Oh, my bad. It was the best thing I’d ever seen.”

Gilbert Arenas introspects his own abilities, compares his athleticism to that of Carter and Richardson.

After the dunk, Arenas became apprehensive of his own abilities as a player. He said, “But what ended up happening was, reality kicked in and I’m like – he just did that to Jason Richardson and I can’t even play in this league bruh.”

He further added – “I got so depressed from the dunk realizing I don’t have this type of athleticism. So I spent probably the first part of the season thinking – I can’t do this.”

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Arenas eventually found his stride when he was advised to focus on his strengths. He said, “I was doing that to myself, and then someone said, why you keep looking at them for what you can’t do? You have speed, you can shoot, you can score. Now, look at the game like that. Can those players stop what you do? So then I had to refocus from the stars and start going to the two.”

Gilbert Arenas played for a number of franchises. After his years with the Warriors, Arenas took his talents to the Wizards, Magic, and the Grizzlies. He decided to call it quits in 2013 after playing with the Shanghai Sharks for one season.