Will Arenas return this season?

January 12, 12:17 PMWashington Wizards ExaminerGeorge Panagakos

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Gilbert Arenas (right) continues to stay on the sideline
due to a knee that just won't heal.  The Wizards can only
hope to get a healthy Arenas when he does return, but as
the season progresses, the question is how much longer
must Wizards fans wait (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File).

Gilbert Arenas has received more press than most of the active players on the Washington Wizards' roster this season, and after reading a Washington Times article last night, I have to ask, has this blind media circus show been all for nothing?

Probably.  If Arenas' knee is "not even close" to playing shape, and he's already talking about "definitely playing [in the] summer league," then we can probably cross him out for 2008-09, as well as Brendan Haywood, and swallow this season with the current active roster.

Or, we could remain hopeful.  Arenas did say he would try to make a push after the All-Star break (February 15th) and attempt a return, however, as Washington Times author Mike Jones continued with that dreaded name Grant Hill, the hope of Washington fans could easily wear out.  In fact, as cited, six-time All-Star Grant Hill played more healthy and rewarded seasons than Arenas before career-altering injury, which makes "Arenas" the new dreaded name for team injuries.

Of course, you can write me off as frustrated.  Here's a team, as my colleague noted recently, that has not had a healthy Arenas for three years now.  All of the talk of, "well, the Wizards aren't healthy," or, "if they had so and so." 

Maybe Arenas won't come back, maybe it all really is a ploy to get a Tim Duncan-like draft pick next season, as user "bballmisses12" suggests by way of comment on the WT article, or maybe things really have not gone to plan for the Wizards, and this is just the icing on one heck of a bittersweet season (setbacks now in order to usher in more talent from the draft next season). 

Either way, it's enough to make a fan go crazy about Arenas, and not in the cool, sort of musical way either.  In other words, have some heart, kid.
 

Christina Hendricks plays Joan Holloway on the popular
AMC show, "Mad Men" (AP Photo/Matt Sayles).

One day before the Washington Wizards opened their season at home against New Jersey, ESPN's Bill Simmons wrote a lengthy article which began with a metaphor about how the 2008-09 NBA season had curves like "the character" Joan Holloway in AMC's popular show, "Mad Men."  The character.  Right.

Well, after last night's telecast of the Golden Globe Awards, and a second straight win for "Mad Men," and consequently, a second look at Christina Hendricks, who plays Joan Holloway on "Mad Men," I have to say, I still don't understand Simmons' metaphor, but I will begin to watch "Mad Men" immediately when the new season begins. 

You know, it was almost like Simmons deliberately inserted a picture of a curvy female first-thing into his post in order to attract the viewers attention, and, like a typical male, tapered the metaphor off hastily to get back to what we fans really care about, basketball without metaphors (the NBA's next major project after they finish "Basketball without Borders").  It's possible (and for once, no KG reference--damn).

But with respect to the show "Mad Men," and their back-to-back wins not repeated in their category "since The X-Files in 1998," one has to wonder, will it take eleven more years for the Washington Wizards to obtain back-to-back wins?

But back to task: Arenas.  This injury business is more awkward than the idea of pitting Johnny Depp and Mickey Rourke in a MySpace Artist-on-Artist (I liked it better when it was called Robert Redford's Iconoclasts), but even the Hollywood Foreign Press got Depp to speak out loud last night.  Why is it so hard for the press to secure accurate, lasting, information about players and their supposed injuries?

Jefferson led the Bucks with 32 points and 9 assists in their
last meeting with Washington (AP Photo/Jim Mone).

Washington will suck it up and prepare for a battle tonight against Richard Jefferson and the Milwaukee Bucks, with or without an Arenas in the forecast. 

The Bucks beat the Wizards in an 112-104 overtime finish in their last meeting, and All-Star Michael Redd wasn't even on the court. 

It will be interesting.  The Wizards will have to play some excellent defense, and while they are again facing a sub-.500 team, on any given...Monday, a team in the NBA can win a game (speaking of Sunday, congrats to the Philadelphia Eagles for offing the New York Giants). 

Besides, the Wizards have yet to prove they can defend the perimeter, and the Bucks are loaded from Redd, to Luke Ridnour, to Richard Jefferson, to...Tyronn Lue. Not another ex-Wizard set to put up numbers on his old team scenario!

Yes indeed.  But it was Jefferson who really killed the Wizards in their last meeting, and should the Wizards win, they are going to limit the man to under 20 points tonight, control the boards, and get the ball flowing on the offensive end.

Tonight's game will air on Comcast SportsNet at 7:00 p.m. ET.


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