Think back to high school. Every class had that one kid who goofed off, showed up late, or just didn’t show up at all. And then, when it came time to write a paper or take a test, they got low grades and failed. But they still complained that they weren’t taught any of the material. It was everyone else’s fault but their own. That’s Gilbert Arenas for you.
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Arenas had a long and prosperous NBA career and is now a successful podcaster. When he’s not hosting one of his own podcasts, he’s a guest on other shows. So he usually has a microphone in front of him.
The problem is that this man will just say anything, and he never gets fact-checked or held accountable. Arenas’ latest came when he went on as a guest on Julian Edelman’s Games with Names pod this week.
Arenas was told by the former Patriots receiver that the NFL holds its rookie symposium to educate the freshers on the dangers of being a famous athlete when it comes to financial matters, women, gambling, etc. “Do they do that in the NBA?” Edelman asked.
“No,” Arenas said as he shook his head. “And even if they did, you’re talking about a bunch of kids that are 18, 19, and 20. And everything that you just said to them sounds exciting.”
That’s pretty shocking, and a complete dereliction of duty on the NBA’s part if it’s true. The only problem is, it’s not true. Not even a little bit.
The NFL replaced its Rookie Symposium in 2016 with the NFL Rookie Transition Program, taking a page from the NBA’s book. Yes, the NBA has run its own Rookie Transition Program, a joint venture with the National Basketball Players Association, since 1986.
Arenas also said that the NBA doesn’t have former players speak to warn rookies about the problems that affected them. Except, they do.
The former guard has even been used by the program as an example to rookies of what not to do. This came after he was arrested and suspended for keeping guns in his locker in 2009.
Perhaps Arenas doesn’t remember being educated because he just wasn’t paying attention. His former University of Arizona teammate Richard Jefferson once spoke on it after Arenas wondered how Jefferson was drafted ahead of him.
Jefferson had said Arenas “was an immature a-hole” and that he stopped a workout because he didn’t want to mess his sneakers up. Jefferson and Lou Williams also recalled when Arenas got in hot water for saying in front of a room full of rookies that he would be a pimp if he weren’t a basketball player.
Arenas then doubled down and changed that to “a mother****** international pimp,” according to Williams. Needless to say, that caused pandemonium in the room.
Arenas has been a knucklehead his entire career. He has been arrested multiple arrests, had scandals, and off-court issues. Somehow, he’s managed to prosper despite that. But when the 3x All-Star talks, let’s take his words with more than just a grain of salt.
