It’s really hard to like Gilbert Arenas. Obviously he was a gifted athlete, but he’s consistently been either wrong or stupid. His reaction to not doing as well during Team USA camp was juvenile and pulling a gun during an argument in the Washington Wizards locker room was idiotic (in fairness, Javaris Crittenton pulled his gun too, but still).
And if that wasn’t bad enough, in the middle of the gun mess, during intros he pretended to shoot several teammates, which led the NBA to suspend him for the rest of the season.
He’s basically been an ass and a juvenile ass at that.
So his critique of Cooper Flagg’s New Balance deal is typically stupid.
Here’s what Arenas said: “If [Nike] wanted Cooper Flagg, there was nothing New Balance was going to do to keep Cooper Flagg from signing. They would throw a bag at you that’s unreal if they think that you are going to be a part of their future. So, unfortunately, he falls under the same category that Jokic fell under, that Embiid fell under, that any big man falls under. Nike doesn’t touch those big guys like that.”
If you don’t think Nike tried hard for Flagg, think again. But for Flagg, New Balance is home. It’s a significant business in Maine. He probably knows people who work there and he loves his home state.
How often does a 17-year-old kid get to have a major impact on business and employment in his home state? How do you put a price on that?
It’s not the sort of thing that Arenas would be likely to understand.
