Agent Zero Says He’d Take Pay Cut to Stay With Wiz

By Bethlehem Shoals
Now this is the Gilbert Arenas I know and love. I’m all for the deranged blogger, the prankster, and the creative self-promoter. But what moves me most is when Gil sees fit to just do how he feels about basic conventions of the league. Like, you know, having an agent, or now, selling himself as a free agent.
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These three quotes are all from J.A. Adande’s column today, all from Agent Zero:
-- “Just sign Antawn first and then I’ll take the pay cut, to keep the team intact.”
-- “Going to a team like the Lakers, Dallas, any championship team, I’d have to take a pay cut to go there. The pay cut is, if I leave I have to take a pay cut, if Antawn comes back, I’d have to take a pay cut.”
-- “At the end of the day, I’m still the top point guard out there in free-agency market.”
Adande’s piece downplays the seriousness of the pay cut offers, but still, this is pretty amazing. Here’s one of the premier players in the game, spouting off about taking less money to keep his team together, or go win somewhere else—all the while maintaining that his worth is not to be questioned. As with most things Arenas, this is somewhere between madness and genius, part spouting off and part savvy strategy. Of course he’d still like that max deal, the one he planned on getting when he decided to opt out last summer. The question is, why the nod in the other direction? Is this humility, at least acknowledging that he’s been hurt and not on everyone’s radar? Or an attempt to lure any and all parties out of the woodwork, thus setting off some sort of bidding war that still keeps him in D.C. (or gets him to a contender)?
Dismiss this at your own peril. Jamison does, calling it “typical Gilbert ... He’s letting everybody know he’s willing to make a sacrifice to do that.” Eddie Jordan is nonplussed. But at this point, we should all know better than to think Arenas just talks for the hell of it.↵