Brand Questions Future in Philly

If you listen to Philadelphia 76ers forward Elton Brand tell it, the squeeze is on. With the NBA trade deadline approaching on February 18 the 10-year veteran took what appeared to be a demotion – however temporary – right before the All-Star break when Philly head coach Eddie Jordan benched Brand to start the second half in a loss against the Toronto Raptors. The Sixers were getting smoked by the host Raptors and with a small lineup were able to come back from a plus-20 deficit to make it a game in the dying minutes. After the contest the comeback was of no comfort to Brand who openly questioned his immediate future in Philadelphia.

 

“Maybe they’re getting prepared for something else,” Brand told reporters of the decision to go small versus the Raptors. “I don’t know. Maybe I won’t be here or something.”

 

No doubt Brand is on the block and that has pretty much been the case since he failed to produce in his injury-riddled debut season with the 76ers last year. This time was supposed to be different for him and better for the club, who managed to sneak into the playoffs last spring without him. Alas, with the team sitting at  a paltry 20-33 mark and losing ground in the playoff picture - despite a recent five-game winning streak - Brand is available along with center Sam Dalembert and franchise player Andre Iguadala.

 

The addition of guard Allen Iverson, while good for ticket sales, did nothing to bring an already fractured locker room together. A.I.’s recent absence in the midst of the pre-All-Star winning streak (he was on personal leave for four of them) speaks volumes about his true worth on the court. That said Brand hasn’t brought much more to the table for the Sixers. Ditto for Iguadala and Dalembert. The difference is that Iguadala and Dalembert are still young and would benefit greatly from a change of scenery. The hopes are not as high for Brand and Iverson.

 

Brand could be compared to retired forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim, a talented double-double performer who couldn’t lead teams to wins. He played in just one playoff series during a 12-year career and before joining the Sacramento Kings for his last tour, held the record for most number of games played without making a playoff appearance. Brand doesn’t hold quite the distinction, but his great career numbers have been tempered by team failures. In fact, the only other active players with career averages of 20 points and 10 rebounds are Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan. All three have deep playoff experience and all three have at least one championship ring to show for it. Brand is the exception.

 

“I’ve dealt with something like this before,” said Brand of the line up mixing and matching. The squeeze. “I’m not going to sulk. It’s hard to play like that but I’m in there focused and trying to win the game.”

 

As per usual with Brand the comments were followed with a smile, but it was a knowing smirk… or at the very least suspicious. He smells smoke he does, just as he did in the United Center many years ago with the Chicago Bulls. In Staples Center while with the Clippers he felt the writing was on the wall three seasons ago and left as a free agent before the burn. Now in Philly’s Wachovia Center and just two-years into a maximum contract Brand’s name is being bandied about again. Sixers brass have been adamant that none of their stars will be let go in a fire sale but when the ship is sinking, the heaviest weight is usually the first overboard. Despite the bloated contracts of both Iguadala and Dalembert, Brand’s history of injury and postseason aversion leaves him as the piece the Sixers organization is most anxious to let go.

THE BASKETBALL SAMURAI: Back to Basics for Arenas

It is estimated that Gilbert Arenas will lose in the neighborhood of $150 large for every game he is suspended indefinitely by the NBA. Meanwhile teammate Jarvis Crittenton has been asked to stay away from the team with pay. It’s the clearest example of how the money and status holds us all to a higher standard, and Arenas has become the face of the reckless nature of today’s young athletes, though that collection is small in comparison to the large majority of NBAers that don’t cross the line.

That grey line.

That blurred line.

Let the irony not be lost on the Arenas situation; a player who gleefully and blatantly used and perused media and all its devices to hype up his “Agent Zero” and “Hibachi” alter-egos and seemed to cut them off just as easily. Those same devices have been used in recent weeks to vilify and condemn him, all while Arenas seemed more and more determined to make statements through them.

The initial snuff-off of his deeds in a locker room scrum.

The finger guns blazing during a pre-game introduction.

The twisted metal of communication, lost loyalties and backbiting.

Ugly stuff. The “WTF? gun salute” was enough to make NBA commissioner David Stern invoke the suspension after initially opting to wait until the authorities had their way with a full investigation. Losing buckets of money by the day under Stern’s order forced the Arenas plea bargain last week, one that will see him sentenced on March 26. Stern did what he should have in the first place as protector of the NBA, which is to move along the process, force hands and dispose and wash over the problem as quickly as possible.

Like the Tim Donaghy fiasco. That was a work of art. The NBA’s handling of the Arenas drama was not.

The league did stay true to its word in acting quickly after Arenas’ plea, suspending both he and Crittenton for the remainder of the season. (For Arenas’ it was another $7M hit. For Crittenton it meant contemplation of action against the league through the players union, apparently convinced that his refusal to back Arenas’ “joke” theory would grant leniency for an on-the-fringe player.) Even then a spin from some corner merged painting Arenas as tactician, confirming first that his contract would not be void and then solidifying it by offering himself up as lamb to the remainder of this season’s NBA schedule.

Could it be because there seems to be, however slight, some signs of allowance made to Arenas by somebody within the Wizards organization that made it possible for his guns to be smuggled into the Verizon Center? Is the club at fault to any degree, whether by ranked official(s) or a simple security guard at their station? Or was it that easy for Arenas to just walk into work with an arsenal ready to be laid out for practical jokes and the like? How many other players are moaning this morning in anticipation of new proposals, restrictions and guidelines regarding conduct and firearms? How many are cursing Arenas for the persecution he has opened them all up to? How many have been privately thanking their respective God that it wasn’t them? How many team officials are thinking the same thing and changing “understandings”?

Or is Arenas really this… alone?

In a North American society that praises the almighty bullet as an ally in the fight against local crime, security and protection it isn’t surprising that the NBA reflects some of that culture. And with multi-million dollar athletes from the hood walking targets in nearly every city they arrive in, protection and security are real and critical concerns. That Arenas’ guns were used in opposition to those issues is what makes him stand out from the long history of guns in the NBA, not all of it righteous.

Is Arenas to be believed as he maintains his showcasing of two gats to Crittenton by way of feigning the settlement of a gambling g debt was a prank gone insanely wrong? Based on his history it is entirely in keeping with his character, though that thick grey line that exists in professional sports was absolutely crossed with this bonehead move. In the small picture Arenas’ actions and subsequent taunting practically dared the NBA to suspend him and the remainder of the season sounds about right. In the bigger picture for the Wizards in a year there should have been celebrating Arenas’ return from two years worth of injury, returning as a playoff power and celebrating and honoring the life of recently deceased owner Abe Pollin they are instead figuring ways in which to blow the team apart and start anew.

Arenas can be blamed for much of the malignment but the culture of losing that has permeated throughout the roster is real and stained and is the result of many. The handling of Arenas’ injuries – both by himself and the club - and premature returns long ago left the team in leadership disarray. Many observers in the basketball world wondered aloud what form the Wizards would take upon Arenas’ return. The question was posed mostly as a wins versus losses debate. In this version of the equation everybody loses.

But none more than Arenas, which is the way it should be some would argue. As a grown man and league veteran there will be no tears shed for his plight. He could very well be remembered as the guy who put an end to the horror show that has been playing out under new head coach Flip Saunders (and before him Eddie Jordan), who surely buys another year of assessment after this mess. That change was induced by a public relations explosion of this magnitude is worthy of note, as is the way in which the locker room seems to be divided on support for their fallen comrade. Early in the process Arenas lashed out at team brass accusing them of a lack of support in the early days of this story breaking. The Wizards responded by tearing down the larger-than-life banner of Arenas that hung outside the V.

Antawn Jamison, the veteran forward who at one time held this Wizards team together in Arenas’ absence, has been publicly fed up and expects to be traded. Forward Caron Butler seems like a centerpiece but while his skills are solid he isn’t top dog material. Still, he is the best they have until the NBA draft when college standout John Wall will be drafted to one of several bad teams. The Wizards will be at or near the top of that group, which is why the Arenas-induced fire sale that is on the horizon will have an amazing effect on the future of the franchise.

Which will not include Gilbert Arenas.

By the time he returns Arenas will have missed the larger part of three prime years of basketball. His impressive branding, once a significant selling point to the package is now back to square one. His locker room respect has taken a hit too.

There are conflicting reports about the particulars of the confrontation between Arenas and Crittenton. It seems like more a case of those choosing to squeal or not. In his own guilty plea 10 days after Arenas’ own deal was reached, Crittenton’s lawyer painted his client as a man in fear for his life after threats by Arenas were issued over the debt. For that bit of squealing Crittenton’s charges were reduced to possession of an unlicensed firearm and a year of unsupervised probation coupled with community service. It certainly killed Arenas’ “it was all a joke” defense, which would have surely been the consensus of the locker room if a) that were indeed the case, b) if it were truly a team that wanted to get past it and c) if the locker room wasn’t so split.

Add “feared” to the adjectives now used to describe Arenas. A young black multi-millionaire with a gun, collecting locker room debts while playing pro ball for a team that not too long ago changed its moniker from Bullets to Wizards because of the extreme gun violence that had riddled the city. A city that has some of the toughest gun laws in the United States of America. How that knowledge didn’t give him the good sense to at least invite Crittenton over to his house for “tea” instead is a mystery. It’s an uneasy rap for a guy who now joins the Tiger Woods and Mark McGwire’s of the universe as a dude with a story he might never live down. A story that became larger than himself. Jalen Rose was the first to tell me that sports doesn’t build character, it reveals it. I’m not ready to put Arenas on the same shelf as Woods and McGwire because his motives seem less sinister even if the results were not. Do his ghosts run as deep as Woods? McGwire? Hell, Kobe Bryant? I’m not sure what, if anything, this episode has told us about Arenas that we didn’t already know. There is no unknown.

Prank? Invitation to a John Woo-style locker room showdown? Speculation on the inner sanctums of sports wet holes can be a tough crack, but even by leaning towards Arenas’ assertion that it was all a joke gone terribly wrong, what right could have possibly ever come of it?

The world won’t get to see Arenas play ball again for some time, but he will be back. The contract is guaranteed. So too is the fame. So too is the March 26 court date set for Arenas’ sentencing on his plea deal regarding the possession of an unlicensed pistol. The surgeries, the media beating, the financial hit, the guns… if he can find a way past it all Arenas’ return could mark one of the biggest comebacks in NBA history. Arenas once chronicled his climb up the basketball world in a popular shoe commercial a few years ago. It was a tale of how he beat the doubters and came from nothing to become one of the best players in the NBA. It was the story behind his wearing the number “0”.

It’s the only place to start.