Every NBA team’s greatest point guard of all time
By Nick Villano
Washington Wizards — Gilbert Arenas
2003-2011
25.0 points per game
5.7 assists per game
4.2 rebounds per game
Hey, we’re ending with another controversial pick! We’re more than 9,000 words into this, and you’re still here, so we leave you with the one and only Gilbert Arenas. Looking back at Gilbert Arenas’ career as a whole, it’s a strange one. “Agent Zero” was a budding star with the Warriors, but the Wizards came out during restricted free agency and offered him a $60 million contract.
After battling injuries in his first season in Washington, Arenas turned into a superstar in his second year in the nation’s capital. He made a great pairing with Larry Hughes, two guards who averaged close to 50 points per game. Hughes and Arenas also averaged close to five steals per game, both finishing in the top six in the league in the category. They ended up making the playoffs for the first time since they were the Washington Bullets.
After two more seasons where Arenas was one of the best scoring guards in the league, it seemed like the Wizards were in position to take another step towards a championship. Despite Arenas scoring numbers, the Wizards had trouble building around Arenas, and it was clear he tried to put the team on his back on a nightly basis. That caused Arenas to put too much stress on his body, and it began to break down. He had two injury-riddled seasons before coming back for one more superstar run in 2009-10. He was eventually traded in the middle of the 2010-11 season to the Orlando Magic.
Arenas went from superstar to out of the league in what felt like the blink of an eye. He was a 28-year-old scoring 22 points per game, then two years later he was averaging 4 points per game for Memphis. Obviously, the downfall started with the gun incident, where he brought weapons into the Wizards’ locker room, and they were reportedly pulled out during an argument. He also mocked the league during their investigation, pushing the league to suspend him. Something just clicked after that, and his NBA career was over within a few years.