Let Us Not Get Too Carried Away With the ‘D.C. Is Better Sans Arenas’ Chatter

So I’m getting to this one day late. Sue me and pretend it never happened.↵
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↵As you know, the Wizards have spent all year without Arenas, and did well. Then Arenas limped back in, and they lost their way. Then Arenas shuts it down, and they win. The conclusion that many have come to: The WIzards are better off without dear Gil. And over at The Bog, you’ve got Zero himself confirming this version of things. At least for now, the team is better without him:↵↵⇥I knew they were playing better basketball without me this year. But sometimes as a competitor, you want to go out there and play, too; you want to be a part of it.↵↵Slate has also jumped in, informing us that Arenas is a flawed player, no LeBron, and quite possibly overrated because of his antics—which, really, make him more worse than LeBron than he needs to be.↵
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↵Let’s all step back for a secnd. Sure, Washington moves the ball better sans Arenas. And both Butler and Jamison are severely underrated. But a backlash against Arenas—that seems to miss the point. The guy is a total weirdo who, when healthy, plays his ass off and can win a game by himself. Sorry, but the Little Wizards That Could aren’t taking out Detroit, Boston, or even Orlando. They couldn’t hang with the Hawks at home. If there’s any success in this team’s future, they need to live and die by the Arenas wild card. Or at least acknowledge that, if this sports is at least somewhat about entertainment, no one fills that quotient like Agent Zero.↵
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↵Washington, you enjoy your solid but unspectacular team with a natural-born ceiling built into it. Go ahead and cast off Arenas, and wonder why .500 ball seems to be your unshakable lot. That is, until another LeBron or Chris Paul magically shows up on the doorstep of the Verizon Center and makes everything perfect.↵