"Agent Zero" is much more than Nil

I am a hockey fan, first and foremost. Baseball and Football are most likely tied for second place, but hockey is no question number one in my heart. I like basketball, don't get me wrong. I don't love it, but I happen to enjoy the game. College basketball, in my opinion, is a better game to watch than the pro game, however I do follow the NBA and enjoy it. I also enjoy watching my hometown Wizards. After a lifetime of heartache and after watching a few Wizards Games this year, I can not say I have ever been more excited and pumped up to watch them play then I am this year. Why you ask? Two words, one person. Gilbert Arenas.

Can Gilbert shoot the rock or what? Eleven times this year he has hit a quarter/half/ or game ending shot. He has hit game winners from 25 feet and out. He has scored 50 points over four times so far, three of those games against the high flying Suns and Steve Nash, another against perennial contender Dallas, and a 64 point performance against the Lakers. There is only one way to make people stand up and take notice of your talent in any sport and that is to beat the best teams in the league by having career nights. This year, Arenas has risen to the occasion and delivered for the beleaguered fans of DC. After all these years of futility, Washington's pro hoops team has a bona-fide star, and not just someone who claims to be among the elite--Chris Webber, I'm talking to you.

Arenas was drafted in the second round by the Warriors. He felt slighted because he believed he was better. When he hit the free-agent market, Arenas had a choice between his hometown Clippers and far away Washington. He couldn't decide, so he did what any logical person would have done. He flipped a coin. He flipped that coin 12 times. Clippers 11, Washington 1. So what did Gilbert do? He signed with the Wizards. Huh? When telling that story, Arenas apparently referred to the fact that he never follows the rules or listens to fate. He listens to his heart.

Well, after getting snubbed for the All-star game a few years ago(which he is a shoo-in for this season) and getting left off the Olympic team in 2006, Agent Zero (which just happens to be Gil's jersey number, a reminder that few believed in his abilities in the past) has responded with by far his best season. He is second in the league in scoring at over thirty points per game, has the aforementioned clutch shots and has four 50 point-plus games under his belt. (That one was against Kobe and the Lakers and he went for 64 only makes his heroics that much sweeter) Arenas now has the Wizards making serious noise in the Eastern Conference, not to mention has given Washington a SuperStar basketballer for the first time since the days of Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes. Don't agree with me? Then let's handle this like Gilbert would... How about we flip for it?