Amnesty please! Remembering the Gilbert Arenas-Rashard Lewis trade
The 2010-2011 season was a pivotal year for the NBA. Few seasons had as much day to day drama and as many memorable moments. The Big Three joined up in Miami, Derrick Rose broke out with an MVP season, the Thunder made their first Conference Finals, the Mavs stunned the Heat in the Finals and… Gilbert Arenas got traded to Orlando for Rashard Lewis! Fans of both Washington and Orlando probably won’t reflect on this trade with much nostalgia.
Today is the seven year anniversary of that retrospectively extraordinary trade. Let’s be honest, it was pretty extraordinary even then. How often does a trade involve the two worst contracts in the NBA getting traded for each other? In that respect, it was probably one of the most unique trades in league history.
How did we ever get to the point where Orlando and Washington ever thought that this swap might be a good idea? Here’s the quick version of how and why the infamous Arenas-Lewis trade went down.
The path to the trade
From 2004 to 2007 Gilbert Arenas was legitimately one of the 15 or 20 best players in the NBA. In that span of three season Arenas averaged 27.7 points per game on above average true shooting efficiency while playing an insane 41 minutes per game (per Basketball-Reference). He deservedly made three All-NBA teams in that stretch.; Agent Zero was no joke.
Just a few weeks before the 2007 playoffs however, Arenas suffered a torn left meniscus and had arthroscopic knee surgery to repair the tear. Arenas’ surgery was the first of three on the same knee within a two year span. He never really recovered from the meniscus tear, hurting himself during rehab in November of 2007 and subsequently re-injuring the knee in September 2008. Gilbert was barely able to stay on the court from 2007 to 2009, playing a total of 15 games .
In July 2008, despite already undergoing two knee surgeries, the Wizards re-signed Arenas to a six-year monster deal worth $111 million, which was actually less than the possible $127 million max he was eligible for. Even then, the contract was an enormous risk. Arenas returned healthy for the start of the 2009-10 season, but only played 32 games. After a dispute with Javaris Crittenton during a game of boo-ray led to the infamous standoff between the two men in the Washington locker room, Arenas received an indefinite suspension from the league office. He eventually missed 50 games.
Unlike Arenas, Rashard Lewis never had the kind of injury issues or off court drama that ran him out of town. The Magic originally acquired Lewis back in 2007 in a sign-and-trade with the Supersonics (R.I.P.), locking him up for $116 million over six years. Lewis was a key component of the incredibly fun 2009 and 2010 Magic squads. Orlando was a legit championship contender in those years and played a proto small-ball style that blitzed the league on both ends of the floor.
By the fourth year of his deal though, Lewis had become totally ineffective. His decline coincided with Orlando’s (relatively) shaky start to the 2010-2011 season. And so the Magic looked to reshuffle the roster and offload their most expensive player… by trading for an equally expensive one!
Pulling the trigger
For the Magic, the Arenas trade capped off a flurry of transactions. Hedo Turkoglu returned to Orlando after his year-long pizza binge in Toronto and Phoenix along with Jason Richardson and Earl Clark (later a Mike D’Antoni favorite with the Lakers). Marcin Gortat, Mickael Pietrus and Vince Carter (before his late career revival) all went to the Suns in return.
ESPN’s retrospectively hilarious report documenting the Magic’s trades contains some memorable quotes from players and management. Even the title of the report is itself amazing: “Magic get Gilbert Arenas in Banner Day.” Let’s just say that Dec. 18, 2010 was far from a banner day for anyone involved.
Orlando Magic GM Otis Smith had these words to say about acquiring Arenas: “…I always say that sometimes good people do stupid things, and that [Gilbert’s] right on the top of the list. But I feel comfortable with who he is, knowing him since he was 19 years old.” It certainly looks like Gilbert wasn’t the only one doing stupid things back then.
The Magic stabilized after their rough start, finishing within the league’s top ten in both offensive and defensive efficiency. They ended the season with 52 wins and the No. 4 seed in a top-heavy Eastern Conference and Dwight Howard was MVP runner-up. Orlando’s gamble to get back into the championship picture didn’t pay off though. After pulling the trigger on two major trades, the Magic never made another deep playoff run in the Dwight era. Arenas was an unmitigated disaster coming off the bench, shooting an impossible 34.4 percent in 49 games (per Basketball-Reference). The Magic lost to a mediocre Atlanta team, with almost everyone on the roster but Dwight Howard shooting horrifically from the field.
After the end of the 2011 Lockout the Magic used the amnesty provision on Arenas. He attempted to make a comeback with the Grizzlies the following season, but it didn’t work out; his 17-game stint in Memphis was the last stop of his NBA career. What an unceremonious end to a once bright career.
Lewis’ time in Washington was generally a catastrophe as well. He posted an awful season in 2012, shooting 39 percent from the field and an absurd 24 percent from 3-point range. Unlike the Magic though, the Wizards had no expectations upon acquiring Lewis Lewis. They were rebuilding around Wall, the perpetually frustrating Andray Blatche and current Warriors bench stars Nick Young and Javale McGee (what a core!). Trading Gilbert was more about hitting the reset button than getting a decent player back in return.
Next: The San Antonio Spurs and their trifecta of point guards
The Wizards eventually traded Lewis to the Hornets after the 2012 season. The Hornets bought out the final year of his contract, and Lewis subsequently signed with the Miami Heat. Unlike Gilbert, he had a slight revival late in his career. He was a member of the 2013 squad that won the championship. And the next season, he started all five games for the runner-up Heat in the 2014 NBA Finals. Not a bad way to go out.