Did Politics Keep Arenas Out of China?

In the wake of what Ziller called “the political defanging of Team USA”, there’s been some scrutiny of exactly when Jerry Colangelo met with the team in relation to various public anti-genocide statements by, among others, Kobe and LeBron. We’ll probably never know what was said, and how much Colangelo was playing pragmatist (as opposed to demagogue), but it’s certainly a compelling back story to the Redeem Team.↵
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↵Ziller also raised the possibility that Gilbert Arenas was sent packing because of his outspoken-ness. I found this strange, seeing as Gil has never been explicitly political -- just totally unpredictable. Now, in Agent Zero’s latest post, we get some insight into the man’s politics:↵↵⇥It’s hard for me to vote, because since I’ve been in the NBA I’ve been in the upper class so I’ve been a Republican. If you have any type of money, you’re a Republican, period. So, it’s hard because you see a better looking president in Obama – I don’t even want to say because he’s black, but he just looks the part – and then you have McCain who is Republican and I’m like, man. I know Obama is going to raise taxes on the upper class from 20-60 percent, that’s what I’m looking at.↵↵Truth About It sees this -- and the part where Gil reveals that he doesn’t reigster to vote because he wants to avoid jury duty -- as sign of Gil’s “immaturity.” When you take all of this together, you wonder why Colangelo would ever have perceived Gil as a problem. Unless, professed politics aside, Arenas was considered just too much of a loose cannon to take on what, given the host for the Olympics, has essentially become a diplomatic mission.↵