Gilbertology -- toned down?

[fishercob]

I couldn't find the Gilbertology thread. Mods, feel free to find and merge.

I thought this was pretty significant: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4016230

Yes, one of the best-known and most-quoted examples of a star professional athlete conveying his thoughts to the world via his blog is hanging up his keyboard. The Washington Wizards point guard said so himself Wednesday when asked whether he plans to resume writing now that he's ready to get back to balling.

"I started looking at it as, before, it was fun, and everybody has fun reading it. And then it's like everything I said, everybody started using it as firepower, instead of saying it's just entertainment. You know, people started using it, trying to take bits and pieces instead of enjoying the blog," the three-time All-Star said. "So once I started seeing that, I just started visualizing, eventually, this is going to be the double-[edged] sword thing. It made me and it's going to kill me, so I might as well stop."

Could it be a sign of maturity from our star-crossed superstar? Could playing defense be next?

[Wizards2Lottery]

LAME!

The blog was fun.

[miller31time]

Better yet, keep writing the blog AND play defense!

[newslowsad]

Thank god. The blog got real old.

[WizStorm]

Personally, it would be a shame if Gil actually follows through and stops keeping up with his blog. It provided a rare, unfiltered insight into an NBA player's life.

The only harm that Gil's blog was causing was to the "takes everything too seriously" fan. It was simple fun and in no way impacted Gil's performance on the court.

[Induveca]

I think it's a good call. Likely he just wants to stay focused.

[Ced67]

http://thankjesus.ytmnd.com/

I think its a good idea. And I to hope that this is a sign of maturity. Hopefully defense and leadership will be following soon.

[hands11]

I think it's a good call. Likely he just wants to stay focused.

It's a great call. This was one of the things I was hoping he would do and I made an issue of it back in the day along with plenty of DS bashing for his part in this kind of stuff.

Needless to say I got flamed for my comments.

It is a sign of maturity and that's a great sign.

I'm pulling for GA to take his career/game to the next level which includes being smart about
managing the team message and focus as a team not an individual. This is part of him becoming a mature leader of a team and not just a marketing icon. I can only assume EG, Tapps or other in the organization have had conversation with him about this.

Next I look for some comments that officially kill any talk of a big 3. That language will be replaced with language of TEAM and TEAM goals and how it's going to take all of us. The old Joe Gibbs mantra. Haywood will be elevated as one of the core leaders and the team will start to commit, talk and focus more on strong D. We now have 4 key vets with some younger players who will be 1B players such as Blatche, DMAC, and Nick. DSong is in there somewhere but as a vet bench player.

The young players will start to be brought into the circle of trust as they continue to grow their games and produce on a more regular basis.

This will all be greatly helped once they decide on who the coach will be so they have leadership, focus and by in from that side of the organization also.

This is all coming to come together. We are in good shape right now.

Before the season is over, we are going to see.

Haywood, AJ, CB, DMAC, GA
Blatche, McGee, DSong, NY, James, Critter and

one of Dixon, Etan or OP as the active roster.

I also believe at least one game they will start.

Haywood, Blatche, AJ, CB, GA with
DSong, DMAC, NY, James, Critter as the rotation.

What I'm interested in at this point is hearing something about Etan. They haven't call him
done for the season have they ?

[Spence]

Maturity? Gil? I think the most likely explanation is the simplest: He just got bored with blogging.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I think it's a good call. Likely he just wants to stay focused.

+1

I love the way Gil's stayed out of the media lately, and I'm overjoyed that he's focused.

Let him bring the blog back after he's healthy, the Wizards advance in the playoffs, and winning is routine.

THEN I'll be more than happy to catch glimpses of insight and Gil's various musings.

[MJG]

Maturity? Gil? I think the most likely explanation is the simplest: He just got bored with blogging.

I agree. I'm sure he'll start twittering soon enough.

[og15]

I definitely don't agree with the "sign of maturity" whatever that is supposed to mean. Not blogging doesn't make one any more mature. He could have kept blogging and just not said anything exciting or "controversial", I'm not sure if that would make him more mature or more boring Rhe act of blogging itself though has no relation to maturity or the lack thereof.

[Bickerstaff]

I definitely don't agree with the "sign of maturity" whatever that is supposed to mean. Not blogging doesn't make one any more mature. He could have kept blogging and just not said anything exciting or "controversial", I'm not sure if that would make him more mature or more boring Rhe act of blogging itself though has no relation to maturity or the lack thereof.

BUt why would he bother? I doubt he's going to turn boring all of a sudden. He's not going to blog if he cant have fun with it. He's the same guy he always was. He just finally realized that he shouldn't say certain things in public. I think it's a good sign, but we'll see what happens once he gets his swagger back. He's got a lot to prove right now and he wants to be taken seriously. I only hope he's not rushing it.

[BigA]

Gilbert realizes dealing with the flak from things he says on the blog is more trouble than its worth, working to his detriment and the team's as well. There are just too many people in the media with an axe to grind.

And if it's counterproductive to say anything interesting or provocative on the blog, why do it at all? Do we really need another athlete spouting inane cliches at us (e.g. "we've got to take things one game at a time," "we can't look past anyone," and on and on)?

I expect that he's still going to have fun with the celebrity/off-the-court aspects of NBA stardom. He's still going to be one of the most interesting guys in pro sports. But he's going to manage this more effectively, choosing his spots, going about things in a more thoughtful, balanced way.

You probably can characterize it as "maturity," or a "toned down" version of Gilbertology.

[og15]

I definitely don't agree with the "sign of maturity" whatever that is supposed to mean. Not blogging doesn't make one any more mature. He could have kept blogging and just not said anything exciting or "controversial", I'm not sure if that would make him more mature or more boring Rhe act of blogging itself though has no relation to maturity or the lack thereof.

BUt why would he bother? I doubt he's going to turn boring all of a sudden. He's not going to blog if he cant have fun with it. He's the same guy he always was. He just finally realized that he shouldn't say certain things in public. I think it's a good sign, but we'll see what happens once he gets his swagger back. He's got a lot to prove right now and he wants to be taken seriously. I only hope he's not rushing it.

I'm not saying he should do that. I was implying that if one was hoping for "maturity" from him in relation to what he does with blogging (or not blogging), then he could just have kept blogging and said nothing that could be considered "immature". But to me that would just make him boring and not any more mature. Some of the things people called him out for being immature were just related to his personality and had little to do with maturity or lack of it. Now some other things he does can be related to immaturity, but some people were expecting some politically correct interview answer type blog which would be of no entertainment value and would be garbage to me.

[barelyawake]

The idea that Gil's blogs, or his other antics, don't "affect the play of the team" seems ridiculous to me. This team is built around Gilbert Arenas. Everyone knows that (from the popcorn vendors on up). Since that is the case, he sets the tone for the team. I contend that certain teams have a culture of defense/winning. I would further contend that when a player enters that system, they get more than casual nudges to d up (from the owner, through the locker room, and down to the popcorn vendor). I would not doubt that the "culture" in the locker room with our youth is a reflection of Gil. I also would not doubt that if we brought tougher vets and a tougher coach in here, you would see a very different type of development out of our players -- in part, because of the change in culture.

But, let's take it down to specifics. When the guy you base your entire team around makes outrageous predictions, that then don't come true, can you imagine the impact that has on the team (on hundreds of levels -- both interpersonally and within the group dynamic)? How can that not, in some respect (and perhaps in an epidemic respect), affect the play of the team?

[WizStorm]

So there is not one other player in the NBA that makes outrageous claims, bold predictions and general trash talk around his teammates and with opposing players? The only reason that us fans are privy to such internal ramblings, is that Gil decided to go public and allow us a fans an insight without the PC filter.

I don't believe that that there is even a question that Gil's maturity and personality are very poor if your looking at him to be a team leader. Even Gil himself would agree that he's not a leader, he just happens to be the best player, by far, on the team. Perhaps those qualities will grow as Gil gets older, but I seriously doubt he'll ever be the rock-solid team leader as it's just not in his mental makeup.

Gil's blog simply gave insight to his quirky world. Nothing less, nothing more. It's only the media trying to stir up the next big controversy and the all-too serious fans that make his blog something more than it really was.

[hands11]

I definitely don't agree with the "sign of maturity" whatever that is supposed to mean. Not blogging doesn't make one any more mature. He could have kept blogging and just not said anything exciting or "controversial", I'm not sure if that would make him more mature or more boring Rhe act of blogging itself though has no relation to maturity or the lack thereof.

really ?

We weren't talking about blogging and maturity. We were talking about Gil blogging and maturity.

OK, I can see some people want to twist and parse this statement 6 ways to Sunday.

Those of us on the side of thinking him not doing it is a good idea and a sign of him maturing is just that. It's just about that. It's in the context of GA, now, deciding this. It's not about anything in general about the idea of blogging or any of 1000s spin off ideas about this.

I hate it when people do that is a forum like this. If we were face to face it would get resolved quickly because of everything that speaking face to face adds to communication.

It's really not only about GA not blogging it's about some of the things he would say in his blogs. This is one piece. It just a sign of his maturing. All kind of other factor are in play and other things need to happen also. It's also about messaging in other media. Like it or not, great teams tend to have great leaders who for the most part play it pretty vanilla a lot of the time in public. They don't give their opponents extra motivation. At least in team sports it is like this.

We aren't talking Ali and boxing here. If it was a one on one sport and you want to talk smack and back it up, more power to you if that is who you want to be. But this is a team sport and the best player on in a team sport should be a leader and those leaders rarely put there team in a bad position by predicting individual accomplishments or put the spot light on themselves when they win. It's about the team.

You want individual attention.... Do a commercial.

Magic would never predict 20 assists but Magic had plenty of flavor and wasn't boring at all.

[barelyawake]

So there is not one other player in the NBA that makes outrageous claims, bold predictions and general trash talk around his teammates and with opposing players? The only reason that us fans are privy to such internal ramblings, is that Gil decided to go public and allow us a fans an insight without the PC filter.

At some point, talking needs to be backed up by actions (or have a record to stand behind to qualify the speaker as an expert). If not, then the speaker starts losing all cred. If it continues, then everything said becomes a joke with no merit. When that is what you are basing your franchise around, it sends a message that it is all "happy hour." Gil really lost me with the video game promo during the playoffs.

We need some vets in here who have won something. We need a Stephen Jackson badly to set the tone. We need vet bigs who have gone against Shaq in a five game series. Because currently, the tone with our youth appears to be Laugh-in. You think Blatche would have the gall to joke around in the locker room with Duncan beside him? And you can't tell me that, in part, isn't because of Gil. And it's not good enough to cop-out and say "I'm not a leader," when the team is based around you. You are the head, hope and voice of the franchise. That makes you, de facto, a leader. Obviously, we have needed a true, tough leader. But, we also need Gil to stop displaying weakness by making an ass out of himself for attention. We need our youth to develop. And how do students learn when the "class clown" is constantly pulling the fire alarm?

[hands11]

So there is not one other player in the NBA that makes outrageous claims, bold predictions and general trash talk around his teammates and with opposing players? The only reason that us fans are privy to such internal ramblings, is that Gil decided to go public and allow us a fans an insight without the PC filter.

At some point, talking needs to be backed up by actions (or have a record to stand behind to qualify the speaker as an expert). If not, then the speaker starts losing all cred. If it continues, then everything said becomes a joke with no merit. When that is what you are basing your franchise around, it sends a message that it is all "happy hour." Gil really lost me with the video game promo during the playoffs.

We need some vets in here who have won something. We need a Stephen Jackson badly to set the tone. We need vet bigs who have gone against Shaq in a five game series. Because currently, the tone with our youth appears to be Laugh-in. You think Blatche would have the gall to joke around in the locker room with Duncan beside him? And you can't tell me that, in part, isn't because of Gil. And it's not good enough to cop-out and say "I'm not a leader," when the team is based around you. You are the head, hope and voice of the franchise. That makes you, de facto, a leader. Obviously, we have needed a true, tough leader. But, we also need Gil to stop displaying weakness by making an ass out of himself for attention. We need our youth to develop. And how do students learn when the "class clown" is constantly pulling the fire alarm?

Exactly. GA is still key to our greatest ambitions for this team and also our greatest fears.

It's because of this that any sign of him moving in the right direction is a good sign. There is a lot more then being able to ball when it comes to being the best player on a team that wins it all.

It's like Nick in a some ways. We know Nick can ball but..... it's what he hasn't been doing that stands out. I'm not saying Nick is Gil. Gil has way more personality but in a lot of ways they are similar players.

Also, I can't help but think of LeBron. The chosen one. King James. I will never call him King James.
To much self promotion for me. But it is a fine line. I totally ok with KG and he has been promoted plenty.

I also think of Shaq. In a lot of ways I think Shaq set a standard that is bad for a lot of the younger stars. The Shaq way isn't going to work well for many people. Shaq was unique. He was so physically dominate over other that he could be a goof and a marketing machine while still winning it all. But Shaq also had great coaches and other players to help pull the wagon.

But for me. I'm more of a Tim Duncan fan of how to do it. Tim just gets it done. He is vanilla but he wins. He has some flavor but he doesn't play it up. I'm old school I guess. I hope Duncan breaks LaTravel in two.

As for adding a player, I agree. A Derick Fisher would help a lot. It's what having and AD helped add. I think EG did well to upgrade talent ( at least as a prospect for the future ) and health by getting crit for him but we also lost something that needs replaced by a more mature Haywood and GA. But that maturity from a guard position is key. This is why so much is riding on Gil. If he cant do it, we need to get a mature PG to run this show and move him to SG or trade him for a better star. Right now, I would take Wade for him if I could.

How far this team goes has everything to do with the maturity level of the team and that has everything to do with Gil. We have talent. What we need are mature NBA players. That is why AJ rightfully called the kids..... kids. But even he see that Nick is starting to get it, so he gave him some props after last game.

People have complained about how AJ, CB and Tapps have done it this year but if the results end up being that the younger prayers finally get it, then you can't argue with their methods. Maybe they actually know what they were doing. Some of this wouldn't have been so public if we had changed coaches in the off season. But since we changed during the season and our team was so short handed, it was all on stage to be seen.