Meet the New, ‘Mature’ Gilbert Arenas

A bearded, subdued Arenas showed up to Media Day in D.C. According to teammates, however, he’s still a goofball behind closed doors. Reports the Sports Bog: “He seems upbeat to me,’ Al Thornton said. ‘We’ve been playing pickup and everything, [and] he seems friendly, smiles, joking, the usual Gil.’ ‘I see the regular Gil, the behind-the-scenes Gil,’ JaVale McGee said. ‘Of course he’s gonna be professional, he’s going the professional route as of now in the media.’ ‘He jokes around quite a bit with us in the locker room and stuff like that,’ Cartier Martin said. ‘I guess maybe he’s maturing a little bit.’ As for the beard, Gilbert and Young apparently have some sort of bet going on involving Young’s head hair and Gilbert’s facial hair. Martin described it as ‘a not-care-about-what’s-going-on-and-just-focus-on-basketball’ beard. ‘More of a Grind Mode look,’ he said. ‘Get rid of that,’ Thornton jokingly advised. ‘it’s horrible.'”