Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas opted out of his National Basketball Association contract Tuesday, giving up a 12.8 million-dollar deal to become a free agent on July 1.

Arenas, a three-time All-Star who has undergone two operations on his left knee in the past 14 months, beat a June 20 deadline to file paperwork with the league under contract terms.

“It is something that he said he would do and it’s something that we expected,” Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld said. “This was just a formality.”

Arenas can begin to talk with other clubs in three weeks and has said he seeks a rich long-term deal but would take less money to stay in Washington so the Wizards could have more money to re-sign forward Antawn Jamison.

Arenas has averaged 22.8 points and 5.5 assists in a seven-year NBA career, but managed only 19.4 a game in just 13 appearances for the Wizards this past season.

Here are Gilbert’s final 2007-2008 numbers:

• 13 games
• 32.4 minutes per game
• 39.8% from the field
• 28.2% from 3 pt
• 77.1% from FT
• 3.9 rebounds per game
• 5.1 assists per game
• 3.8 turnovers per game
• 1.8 steals per game
• 19.4 points per game

Yes, a down year. But let’s take a look at Gil’s career numbers to this point.

• 431 games
• 37.2 minutes per game
• 42.7% from the field
• 35.8% from 3 point.
• 80.9% from free throw
• 4.2 rebounds per game
• 5.5 assists per game
• 3.3 turnovers per game
• 1.8 steals per game
• 22.8 points per game

So, as you can see. This is going to be one HELL of a free agent signing for someone this upcoming offseason!

Don’t miss Gilbert’s latest blog entry.  He still has a lot of confidence but know’s it is going to be tough!

We still love Gilberts confidence, despite him playing hurt.

“It’s never over until it’s over,” said Gilbert Arenas, playing with a bone bruise in his knee. “They said there are eight teams that have done it [come back from 3-1]. We are going to be the ninth.”

Let’s do it Gilbert!  Get a win on the road and you are back in business!

Well, we haven’t commented much on the latest “Gilbert Happenings”, but now we are.

First of all, I’m sure you all did NOT miss this quote when Gilbert found out they were playing the Cavs in the first round.  Gilbert said something along the lines of, “Yeah we want to play the Cavs, everyone wants to play the Cavs.  They are nothing more than a 50/50 team since that trade.”  I like the confidence Gilbert, but why awake a sleeping giant?  You can think it - just don’t say it!

At a practice before this series Gilbert says,

“I’m an assassin. I get buckets,”

I love that one!  The Cavs then came to play in game 1 and shut up the Wizards a bit.  Lebron dominated despite Gilbert playing pretty well.  Game 2 was absolutely horrible.  Our guy played bad, the whole team played bad, and the Cavs won by 30.  Yes, 30.

Well, that’s it for now.  Would love to comment more but if I can’t talk positive about Gilbert, I won’t talk at all 

Our guy, Gilbert Arenas is talking again. This time it’s a bit of change. Alot of people have talked about Gilbert’s upcoming contract, and how big it will be. According to him, that is not so true:

“We know what’s at jeopardy, so I told them give [Jamison] what he wants, and I’ll take the pay cut. I know he’s part of my success. I’m part of his success. We have this 1-2 combination, and it’s effective in this league. We know we make each other better, and someone has to sacrifice. This might be one of [Jamison’s] last contracts, and hopefully I’ll get another one. At the end of the day, if I don’t, I know I did the right thing.”

We’ll see.. Gilbert, don’t worry brother, you are going to get paid!

Our favorite blogger is back. Gilbert Arenas has wrote a new blog on his site, and he is none to happy.

Here it is:

It started the week before, during the Orlando-Miami trip. I was planning on playing that trip, but we pushed it back a little. So, me and the trainer decided to work out that trip and see how I felt that Sunday against Detroit.

We just wanted to put a timeframe in our mind and instead of keep giving out dates, we just thought that if we were ready by Detroit, then, OK, time to come back.

So we pushed it hard all those days of practicing and coming in early, trying to get in shape and then on Saturday night we went to the Ritz Carlton to get a workout in because we couldn’t get in the gym in the Verizon Center because they had the NCAA tournament there.

Duke was getting smashed on and we couldn’t get into the practice facility because it was being used as a media work room so everybody could write about how Duke was getting smashed on.

Anyway, we went to the Ritz to go work out. It felt good. I worked out, I got a little cardio in, got some shots up and then I told the trainer, “I’m thinking about going tomorrow.” The trainer said, “OK.” So, that night I’m going to sleep thinking, “OK!”

I told the trainer to tell Eddie that I didn’t want to start and just wanted to play 20 minutes.

So he said, “OK, will do.”

“Cool!”

Everything was in motion.

The next day I went to shoot around in the morning and went a little hard in shoot around. Usually I don’t really do much during shoot around, I leave the intense stuff for A.D., but this time I wanted to get a little rhythm.

After shoot around I asked the trainer, “Should we work out now or work out before the game to get warm?”

He said we’ll work out before the game. So I was still thinking, “OK, cool. Everything is in motion still.”

I went home and ate my pre-game lunch, got my nap in, watched a movie; you know, the whole pre-game ritual. Everything was on the up-and-up.

When I got dressed to go to the arena, I decided that since I wasn’t going to be on the bench that night, I didn’t need a suit. So I put on a nice little sweater, and the collar coming out the v-neck with the tie. I looked good. You know, at the end of the day it’s a nice little elegant outfit.

I’ve been wearing the ties and sweater look and getting kicked off the bench the last four games. They’d rather have me look European and wear a white t-shirt and an overcoat than wear a nice, put-together shirt/tie/sweater combo. They don’t want that, they allow the European look. I don’t understand it, but I had to roll with the punches because the next time I didn’t wear a sports coat on the bench it was a $10,000 fine.

I got to the game and went to the training office to start my routine. The trainer was on the phone with the doctor and I was thinking, “Isn’t the doctor going to be here in 20 minutes anyway? What’s the point in talking to him?” But I didn’t know at the time that the doctor was prepping him on what to tell me.

Since he was on the phone, I figured I’d go get my warm-up shots in so I pulled Drew Cleary, our strength coach, to help me get some shots up and get warm.

I’m in there getting warm and DeShawn was with the cheerleaders … practicing his dance routines … for his 80’s party that he’s going to throw. That was funny. I guess he has a special way he wants to come in and make his grand entrance. That’s not what you want to see on game day, but hey. He wasn’t practicing the Superman dance though, that’s another dance we’ll save in case we meet the Cavs in the playoffs.

Anyway, I got my shots up and when I was finished Drew went to work with Antawn and I made my way back to the trainer in the locker room. By the time I got there, the doctor had arrived and was with the trainer.

They were like, “Let’s go to the office down the hall.”

I was like, “Why don’t we just go to the training room? Why go down the hall when the training room is right here?”

So they were like, “Alright.”

Caron was the only other person in there so I got up on the table and they started checking my knee, telling me that the swelling is down and it looked good. He did the motion work and asked me how it felt and I said that ever since I’d been going hard on it the pain and achy-ness was going away.

He’s like, “OK, OK, OK.”

And then he says again, “Let’s go into the office.”

I’m like, “OK, let’s go.”

We get to the office down the hall and he starts talking and I should have seen it coming. I see it in movies all the time where they give the pep-up talk and then BAM. He was like, “Everything is looking good. We’re heading in the right direction. I’m very confident in the knee. All my worries are over. Right now, mentally, you should be thinking about the Eastern Conference Finals. Get your mind ready for the Eastern Conference Finals because there’s no team out there that this team in scared of and nobody wants to see a seven game series with you playing.”

So I’m lathered up thinking, “Yeah, boy! Let’s go out there and get it started!” I’m jumping out the seat, ready to go.

And here comes the curve …

“Yeah, well, you know, let’s give this thing another week or so and you know, we’ll check you back then?”

I was like, “Huh? Another week?! I was planning on playing today. My mind, my mental, is ready for right now!”

He was like, “I don’t think we should rush into this.”

I was like, “Trust me, I’m mentally ready right now.”

Him: “I don’t think you’re ready. We need to test it one more week.”

Me: “What’s one more week going to do? I don’t grow facial hair in a week! Nothing happens in a week. My knee isn’t going to get that much stronger in a week. A week!”

Him: “There’s going to be six games in nine days, I don’t want that pounding to hurt you.”

Me: “Come on, this is not what I want to hear right now.”

He starts looking at a calendar, I’m looking at a calendar, then I put my calendar away because at that point I knew I wasn’t going to convince him. It just frustrated me. All this anger was kicking in then.

That’s when I threw all my clothes out of my locker, yelling, “I don’t want it! This jersey is never going to be played in this year!” Then the media was there and I was like, “You don’t need to keep asking me when I’m going to be playing again, because I’m not playing no more this year!”

Then I stormed out.

At the end of the day, I had to go home anyway to pick up a collared shirt and a sports jacket. It’s about a 35 minute drive each way. On the way home I was listening to music and I started to calm down thinking, “Let me hurry up and get back, they’re thinking I’m going to be mad and stay home.”

Which I was mad, but I really wanted to watch the game at the end of the day.

So I came on back and got there at the end of the first period and then I waited until the period was over and went out there on the bench at the beginning of the second period.

It was just me and my car … speeding — something that I shouldn’t be doing.

Then I got that thought that I know everybody gets once in a while, I was like, “You know, what if I just ran my car into this pole right here?”

I don’t know why I thought that, but I kept going with it.

“Then I can jump off the road into this lake and just swim … or drown. Whichever one comes first.”

It was really devastating. I was thinking, “Mannn, again?!”

But I listened to Young Jeezy’s verse in “They Know” to get me past those bad thoughts … plus, I’m sane. I’m a sane person, I wouldn’t do that to myself.

I’ve been saying that I’ve been coming back all these days and it hasn’t happened, so I might as well say I’m not coming back and they might clear me. I’m going to do a little reverse psychology on them. You know what I mean?

Me: “I ain’t gonna come back, I don’t know why we’re working out.”

Doctor: “You’re cleared!”

Me: “Haha, gotcha!”

It’s one of those things that it doesn’t work in my favor either way. I say it feels good, they say I’m not ready. I say it hurts, they say do some more rehab.

I don’t know. Maybe when we get back to D.C. I’ll play, I don’t know. But I can tell you one thing, my first game is not going to be on the road, my first game is going to be in front of the D.C. crowd.

Being a Sixth Man
Coming off the bench will help me get my game back because I know I can still be a high-volume scorer off the bench in about 20 minutes a game. I can do that until the end of the season. I shouldn’t start the rest of the season, even though I’ve been in the system for five years and have done a fine job keeping the team run, I shouldn’t take away from Antonio. I can come off the bench and still lead this team as far as we need to go.

People don’t understand that it takes time to get a rhythm. To be honest, I don’t know if I can get a rhythm fast enough to be the player I know I can be by the end of the season with so few games left. Especially going back to my history of how I start seasons, I don’t start the seasons as powerful as I’d like to.

They want me to practice more, but I’d like to get back to game speed faster by “practicing” in games. It’s not like we’re going up against any powerful scoring point guards the rest of the way. I can just use the games to get a rhythm and get my wind back. Plus, our team practices aren’t as intense this late in the season, so the games are really the only way for me to get my rhythm to where I’m a superstar level.

It’s going to take me at least 15-20 games, and there’s not 15-20 games left. That’s what I’m fighting against.

I hope I can get back on the court, but if I can’t, they can do it without me. Their confidence is sky high right now and if we get a good draw, it’s very possible.

The Cavs Rivalry
It would be three times in a row if we get them again. We’re 1-2 against them in the regular season this year.

The LeBron-DeShawn incident was funny. I can tell you, I enjoyed the game. Sometimes when you want to hype yourself, you got to attack the big dog. That’s what DeShawn did and he took the challenge.

I don’t know what happened in the past, but it was sure visible that game. They were just going at it back and forth. It was funny because LeBron, DeShawn, Caron, Damon Jones, Brendan … they were all just going at it. It was like another playoff game from years of build up.

I can’t wait to match up. Hopefully we match up with them again.

Forget Restructuring the Playoffs
In the West somebody is going to have 50 wins this year and not make the playoffs.

I heard somebody say on ESPN, “It should just be the top 16 teams in the league that go to the playoffs, regardless of conference.”

I’m like, beat it. The West is just doing exceptionally well this year, you don’t have to scrap the whole system.

It just depends on the year.

A Couple of Birthdays
I finally went out and left my house and actually went to the club for Caron’s birthday party. It was nice, the food was great and there were a lot of people there.

Kim Kardashian was there … Carmen Electra was there … I was there. Everybody had a good time.

My son’s birthday party was a different story.

That was the bomb. I spent a total of $30.

I went to Safeway and bought him a nice little cake, and then I went to 31 Flavors and bought me a cake. I needed a little ice cream cake of my own.

Then I had Doritos in the house, and the milk and orange juice in the house. So snacks and beverages were covered.

Then I bought two lollipops, because if my son has a lollipop my daughter would want one too.

Then I bought a balloon without the string, because I couldn’t find somebody to put the string in.

And I bought one candle.

While we were singing “Happy Birthday,” my daughter was singing, “Happy Birthday to me,” even though it was her brother’s birthday.

“Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me.”

I have a big deejay booth downstairs in my house and we had a lot of fun. I played music and they danced and they spilled and they ate everything.

What do you all think? Let us know!

Come on Gilbert, just come back to Washington. We all love you brother. Recently, our guy Gilbert Arenas talked about his plans to opt out of his contract with the Wiz. After to knee surgeries, are you sure you want to try testing the market Gil? Gilbert had this to say:

“Yes,” Arenas said. “I’m still gonna be the No. 1 free agent. I mean, on a bad leg I average 22.

“The contract is not the reason for coming back,” he explained. “The contract is what is on my mind when I’m thinking about coming back. Let’s be real. If I get hurt again, who’s gonna want to pay somebody who’s had three knee surgeries? So that’s the part that’s going in the back of my head right now.”

Our guy, Gilbert Arenas plans to return to practice on Tuesday for the Washington Wizards, which is hoping to be another positive step towards his long recovery from knee surgery. Gilbert had this to say: “They cleared me to go out there and go full speed,” the three-time All-Star guard said Monday. “But I am just going to take it slow.”Gil’s knee has been bothering him for almost a year, and he elected to have surgery last April. He decided for an aggressive regimen, so he could be back for the start of the season. He played eight games and had to have surgery on his knee on November 21st.

Despite Arenas’ injury, the Wizards were contending for the Southeast Division title until Butler was sidelined a month ago with a hip injury. After a long slump, Washington has rebounded to win four of its past five and move within one game of .500, good enough for sixth place in the Eastern Conference.