Arenas entered the NBA in 2001, which was a very interesting draft year, because it was a recognized draft sub-score, and Jordan's hand-picked Kwame Brown in the Wizards did not tear off the label of "parallel goods" until his retirement. What is more interesting is that the small year is the small year, but it has formed a "cold spring", the more the players who rank lower in the ranking, the greater the movement, the greater the attendance, and the higher the achievements. Looking back now at 2001, you'll see that Gasol has more reputation than Brown and Chart Eye Chandler, who was also the best newcomer of the season. Battier in sixth place made steady progress, Joe Johnson in tenth place came in top — even now playing, Richard Jefferson in 13th place made his first time in the Finals, Randolph at no. 19 eventually developed into a first-class big forward, and Tony Parker, who was second-to-last in the first round, already had four championship rings.
This is not the end, once the Jazz's main center Oku from the second round of the 01 draft, the overall 38th pick. And the craziest killer of the year was Arenas, who was selected by the Warriors with the 31st overall pick in the second round, this crazy guard who can be called superhuman, counterattacked all the way, first took the starting qualification, and then cut 50 points and even scored 60 points many times, and was selected as an All-Star and the best team second team.
Now look at this super defender with a comedic personality, a maverick cold-blooded killer in a No. 0 shirt, what do you think? Perhaps, you will only think that the reason why one of the NBA's most explosive scorers was selected by the league at 31 is just a joke by God, he let this "Agent 0" quietly enter, do not show the mountain leak, and then Taoguang cultivated obscurity, thick and thin, and made big things.
Legend 0
At the peak, Arenas played very murderously, buffalo-like strong physique, sharp eyes, start and break through very explosive, often when he entered the inside line, the opponent's big man also had a hard time resisting his powerful attack. But such a confident all-round defender was not recognized for a long time playing.
When he played at Grant High School in California, many people thought he was reckless and ungodly, predicting that he would not be able to play on NCAA First Division teams. But in fact, Arenas entered the NBA's major university of Arizona, and also reached the NCAA Finals, unfortunately losing to Duke. In college, he chose the No. 0 shirt, and since many people didn't look favorably on him and felt that he was useless, he chose to start from scratch and prove those people wrong. In the period leading up to the 2001 draft, his prospects were good, he was considered to be able to make it to the first round, and he was confident himself. However, with the passage of time, Arenas' market has been bearish all the way, and the advantages of being able to play two positions in the backfield have been considered to be largely unclear positions, and playing a position is not refined, but has become a disadvantage.
On the night of the draft, the expectant Arenas listened to Stern read all the names of the rookies in the first round, but did not cry after he was among them. In the end, Arenas, who was selected in the 31st place, entered the NBA with great disappointment, and began his journey of being grossly underestimated and desperately trying to prove himself. He said: "I want to make people who despise me regret it, I want to make the teams that did not pick me in front of me regret it. The Warriors, who set sail in the NBA, still picked the No. 0 and started from scratch again. He was no stranger to this lonely feeling of constant effort and hard work.
Fortunately, Arenas had good luck. Generally speaking, whether a second-round rookie can be signed by the team is questionable, not to mention the extravagant playing time, or even the start. But Arenas got a contract, playing time, and starting position in the rookie season, and the so-called no pole Tai lai is just that.
After the start of the rookie season, for the first two months, he did not have much chance to play, but because the Warriors' starting point guard at the time, Larry Hughes, was suddenly injured, the backcourt was short, and the team only had to catch the ducks on the shelves" and pushed the newcomer Arenas into the main position, and this stubborn and conceited young man was "giving a little sunshine and shining", giving him the main position to shine. This season, he played 47 games, averaging 24.6 minutes, which is a huge workout value for a rookie, and he also handed over a very satisfactory technical stat sheet, averaging 10.9 points, 3.7 assists and 4.7 steals per game, which means a surprise for a rookie defender. At the end of that season, Arenas was not selected for the all-rookie team, but was also nominated. Needless to say, Arenas gained the most precious confidence and strong forward momentum.
The following season, he exploded, not only playing all 82 regular season games as a starter, but also averaging 18.3 points, 6.3 assists and 1.51 steals per game, earning him the Most Improved Player of the Year award, which also fundamentally changed his career destiny. At the end of the season, he became a free agent, was competed by multiple teams, and eventually signed a six-year, $65 million contract with the Wizards.
The Ugly Duckling finally became the White Swan, and a low-pick player who entered the NBA in the second round became a front-line figure in the league. Seeing himself join the NBA's "10 Million Annual Salary Club" — it was pretty much the salary of an NBA superstar at the time, but Arenas wanted to do more, he wanted to be a real superstar.
Washington became another place to start. It's not surprising that he averaged 19.6 points per game in his first season with the Wizards, but he climbed like a bamboo in the next three seasons. He averaged 25.5 points per game in the 04-05 season, reached a career-high 29.3 points in the 05-06 season, and 28.5 points in the 06-07 season, becoming the NBA's top three scorer. He was named to the Eastern Conference All-Star Team for the first two years as a substitute and in 2007 as a starter. He also made the NBA All-NBA Team for three consecutive years, with the first two years being the third team and the second team in 2007.
He had the best first step in the league at the time. Because of the terrible amount of training, the strength advantage is terrible, the upper body is extremely strong, close to 193 cm in height and can be forcibly pulled up anywhere high-speed jump shot, resulting in him can use his personal ability to force the jump shot opportunity under any circumstances, and the shot can be thrown. The typical "unable to limit, only counting on his own bad hand" scorer is a bit like the current No. 0 Lillard – but bigger and stronger in comparison.
Staples Night
It is not an exaggeration to say that Arenas is conceited, he always thinks he is the best. Others said that Kobe Bryant was the best player in the NBA at that time, but Arenas was not convinced, he felt that if he really played, he would not lose to Kobe. On December 17, 2006, the Wizards came to Los Angeles, and on Kobe's turf, Arenas went on a killing spree, slashing 60 points, which was the highest score of the season at the time, and Bryant was in good shape that night, but "only" 45 points, which was still slightly inferior to Arenas.
It was a night that belonged to Arenas, and his hands were hot at the beginning of the game. In the first 12 minutes, Arenas scored 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting, while Bryant scored only 2 points from the free throws. In the second quarter, Kobe Bryant woke up like a sleeping lion, came up and hit a three-pointer, and scored consecutive points, and the hot fight continued. In the third quarter, Arenas regained the mountain and struggled to cut 12 points, including a 3-pointer in the 31 seconds before the end of the quarter, maintaining the Wizards' advantage at 10 points. Bryant's momentum did not diminish, scoring 8 points in the first 3 minutes of the start of the second half, and in this 12 minutes, he scored 16 points. In the first three quarters, Bryant's scoring advantage extended to 5 points, but the team has been behind. Not surprisingly, this battle of crazy killers will end with Arenas scoring 44 points, Kobe Bryant scoring 41 points, and the Wizards winning on the road. But the drama is that the lakers who are behind are catching up all the way in the fourth quarter, and by the last 39 seconds, they have narrowed the gap to 5 points, and then dragged the game into a brutal overtime, so there is Arenas' final crazy 60 points.
In overtime, "Agent 0" cut melons and cut vegetables like bamboo, cutting a total of 16 points, in the middle of 3 minutes, a person swung a knife to cut 14 points, super firepower. Bryant scored just four points in those five minutes.
With 49 minutes, 17-of-32 shooting, 5-of-12 three-pointers and 21-of-27 free throws, Arenas scored 60 points this night, setting a personal high scoring record in Wizards history (a record not equalised by Bill until 15 years later), the last time was Pearl Monroe scored 56 points in 1968. "It's destined to happen. I'm a natural scorer, so I should have a day like this. Adidas said Bryant lost a little unconvinced, "First, you have to see that he has 27 free throws, and our whole team has 30. Think about this. ”
But in any case, this battle of lightning and thunder, stone breaking, Agent 0 thus established his status as a super scorer. The battle also gave Arenas a surge of confidence. Less than a week after scoring 60 points, the Wizards took on the limelight of the Suns, and Arenas played almost the entire game, shooting 21-of-37 and 6-of-12 from three-point range, scoring 54 points and leading the team to end the Suns' 15-game winning streak through overtime 144-139
On January 15, 2017, Arenas dedicated another classic. In the Wizards' victory over the Jazz, the General scored 51 points, and what is even more impressive is that when he threw a deadly three-pointer before the end of the game, he did not wait for the ball to enter the net to celebrate, which showed his super self-confidence.
Less than a month. Three times cut 50+, such a scoring spectacle, very rare, if it were not for March of that year, Kobe Bryant cut 50+ in four consecutive games, the craziest killer of that season, none other than Arenas.
But for the Wizards and Arenas, neither the 06-07 season was perfect. Because in the game against the Bobcats on April 4 of that year, Arenas was seriously injured on the meniscus of his left knee and had to withdraw from all the remaining games of the season to undergo surgery.
Unexpectedly, this basically put a halt to Arenas' crazy career.
Disillusioned General's Order
Throughout the 07-08 season, he missed 69 games due to a knee injury and played only 13 times. He averaged 19.4 points, 5.1 assists and 3.9 rebounds in eight starts. In five off-the-bench games, he averaged 14.6 points, 3.8 assists, 3.2 rebounds and played 21.8 minutes.
At the end of the season, Arenas jumped out of his final year worth $12.8 million contract. In 2008, wizards renewed their contract with Arenas, signing a six-year, $110 million contract. However, he only made 2 appearances in the following season.
In the 2009-10 season, Arenas returned from injury, and after the start of the new season, the General also showed good form, averaging 22.7 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game, and everything showed signs of recovery. But such good days did not last long, after playing 32 games, Arenas was suspended indefinitely by the league because of the "gun gate" incident, and was eventually suspended for 50 games.
This happened, so that Arenas completely slipped from the top, since then, he has not scored more than 15 points in a season. Even the Magic, the Grizzlies, and even the CBA's Shanghai team did not get back to their former state. The great general who was once invincible and arrogant can only be found in his memories.
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