Gilbert Arenas and Chad Johnson: Together again

By Sam Rubenstein

Last night I crashed out on the couch while watching the Dallas-Golden State game on ESPN. Sometime before 3 A.M. I woke up and sportscenter was on. Apparently Gilbert Arenas played an NBA game last night, and Chad Johnson spoke in a REALLY bizarre speaker phone interview with Brian Kenny. My first conclusion was that I must have been drugged without my knowledge, or I’m going through LOST withdrawal, the TV is not actually on and I must be dreaming.

Apparently not.

In the not so distant past, Arenas and Chad were on my short list of favorite athletes. They were exciting offensive players on up and coming teams, and more importantly were total eccentrics who kept playing the “I’m just regular normal old me, maybe it’s the world that’s crazy?” card. And they would back up the trash talk, youtube video, interview, or blog post with performance on the field. They were clown princes of their respective leagues, but were performing big enough that you could go so far as to ask why other athletes can’t be free and easy like them.

Believe it or not, there was a time when people wished LeBron could be more like Gil. Less calculating, more “human”, just say what he feels like Gilbert. I felt that way a little bit, but also recognized that Gilbert Arenas is a great scorer and quirky personality, but not really a vital piece of NBA history, whereas LeBron is the chosen one, evolution + God, and so on. When Gil went on that rant about how he does more for a team than Kobe, Wade, or LeBron, well that was annoying. Swagger and self-confidence is great, but don’t insult our intelligence.

Chad Johnson was a dancing fool! I say this with a straight face – touchdown dances are why I started playing sports as a kid. Playing in the schoolyard, I was always focused on my next TD dance. Scoring the TD could be a problem, but the creativity of the dance was not. So basically, to me Chad Johnson was one of the most important athletes of the 21st century, particularly in the No Fun League. He also happened to be one of the better receivers in the game. Now, as his public displays of… personality (?) get weirder and weirder, it’s like I’m being forced to grow into one of those angry old man sports fans.

JUST SHUT UP AND PLAY THE GAME!

I’m pissed at both Chad and Gilbert for doing this to me. It’s YOUR fault not mine. This concludes my rant on this topic. If only there were an NBA player who could blog like THIS.