Hands up, everyone who thought former Longhorn LaMarcus Aldridge (above, left) would double the point total of Gilbert Arenas this afternoon in DC? Aldridge and G Jarrett Jack each tallied 18, while Arenas went 0 for 8 from treyville, scoring 9 points in the Wizards’ 94-73 loss to the Blazers.
Agent Zero — who’d previous guaranteed that he’d drop 50 on Nate McMillan’s side, had some interesting thoughts after DC’s 4th loss in 5 games, as did his coach, Eddie Jordan. From the Washington Post’s Ivan Carter.
“It’s easy to lose focus when you’re just drilling us that if we make a mistake we’re going to be coming out,” said Arenas. “Truthfully, that’s how you lose concentration. You lose focus because you’re scared to actually play basketball. His standpoint is that since we lost Antawn (Jamison), we have to pick it up somewhere else and that’s defense.”
“My reaction to that?” Jordan said. “That I emphasize defense? No reaction. Next question.”
Later, Jordan added: “You guys approach me with what Gil said about defense. I don’t know why you ask me that. It’s stupid. Plain stupid. The whole idea of us asking them to play defense better. Is that a problem? It’s ludicrous.”
The next time the Owner With A Boner is compelling to take a swipe at Flash, he’d be well advised to hire Amanda from You Go Live In Utah as his ghostwriter.
I like trash-talking to some extent. While I don’t respect it, I don’t mind a bit of “your defense sucks” or “Shaquille O’Neal couldn’t hit a free throw if his fellow Dade County deputies held a gun to his head” or whatever. What I don’t like is when it just gets to be one guy being a douchebag to another guy about things that aren’t really to do with the game. Like if Dirk said something like “hey Dwyane Wade, your name is kind of retarded”. Or “even worse is the fact that you are such an egomanical head case that you named your daughter Zaire Blessing Dwyane Wade.” Now, I can’t imagine Dirk saying anything like that. Because it’s a personal attack and it has nothing to do with his game. Wade’s a great player so why even waste time talking shit about Dirk? You won the trophy, dude. Go film another cell phone commerical and bask in the glory. I would.
Along with beating the drum for a Jason Kidd-to-the-Lakers trade (along with Vince Carter’s eventual move to Orlando), the New York Post’s Peter Vescey came up with the following this morning :
How nice that David Stern selected Carmelo Anthony and Josh Howard to step in for injured All-Stars Yao Ming and Carlos Boozer. The commissioner credits Alan Hevesi for being the driving force behind his decision.