Legendary NBA star Isiah Thomas took to X to respond to Gilbert Arenas‘ recent claim that a player was stopped if they put up 0 points but provided 20 assists. Thomas noted that basketball is a team sport, and that kind of mentality could cost players their jobs with NBA franchises, but did stress his respect for Arenas.
https://twitter.com/IsiahThomas/status/1833887796634738761
Thomas is far from the only person to disagree with Arenas’ claims but is the one with the highest profile. Arenas, who was mostly known as a scorer during his time in the league, clearly puts a lot of stock into scoring, but obviously, it is not the only way to have a positive impact on the game.
For a traditional point guard like Thomas, who is considered by many to be one of the greatest of all time at that position, providing assists and dictating the pace and level of play for the rest of the team is something he takes pride in. So his disagreement with Arenas on this matter is far from surprising.
Arenas is wrong about a player not playing well if they score 0 points but provide 20 assists. Assists are a crucial statistical figure in basketball, and any player providing that many assists is positively impacting the game.
It was a bold statement to make from Arenas. Arenas has the NBA move forward with an emphasis on scoring, with most of the popular stars in the league all being high-profile scorers. However, the popularity of score-first players does not negate the high value and impact that providers and players who perform others’ tasks do.
Gilbert Arenas Continues To Create Controversy
This is far from the first time Gilbert Arenas has come under fire for comments he has made on his show. Most recently, Arenas spoke about the players of Michael Jordan’s generation, claiming that he was the only great player at his position, and didn’t face any elite shooting guards during his career.
What many people felt was a disrespectful comment about Jordan was actually just him trying to praise Jordan for being that far ahead of his contemporaries. But Arenas has a bit of a reputation as a lightning rod in the sports media space, so he had to bear the brunt of the backlash.
On top of that, Arenas really went over the line during the 2024 Paris Olympics, when he used some racially insensitive language in comments he made about the South Sudan basketball team. He faced a lot of backlash for these comments and had several people push back on his words, including NBA superstar Joel Embiid.
Arenas has found a lot of success in his post-NBA career as a media personality. And a lot of that is based on the shock value of things he and his co-hosts say on their show. However, while shock value might aid his numbers, he shouldn’t rely on that crutch in a way that can be considered insensitive or incendiary to rile the fanbase up.
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