The Los Angeles Clippers might currently have one of the best teams in the NBA, but it wasn’t always the case for the franchise. For a lot of years, they were only remembered as the noisy neighbors to the Los Angeles Lakers.
The lack of success directly impacted free agents not wanting to play for the franchise. Former NBA player Gilbert Arenas was apparently one of them.
Arenas was originally drafted by the Golden State Warriors, but due to him being a second-round pick, there was not a lot of room for him with the Warriors. As a result, when his rookie deal was over, the former NBA guard decided to test the free agency.
Gilbert Arenas Left His Move Out Of The Warriors Up To Fate
Usually, when a player decides to join a new team, they think a lot before making a final decision. Well, Arenas has always been known for his ecstatic personality, and it was on full display when he decided to leave the Warriors.
In a recent interview, Arenas explained that both the Washington Wizards and the Los Angeles Clippers wanted to sign him. So he decided to make a decision by flipping a coin.
“Okay, so when I went to the Wizards, I never had a migraine ever in my life before. Going there, I was like ‘God, give me a sign if you don’t want me to come here’. Migraine. All lights started hurting me. Like, I didn’t know what the hell that was…So I was like, alright, let me flip a coin, it’s Clippers or Wizards. It landed on the Clippers. Out of the 10 times – landed on the Clippers like 7 or 8, right? And I’m like go against the grain. Migraine means don’t go here, the coin says don’t go here, go there. So I go against the grain. Okay, so whatever the sign said, I went the other way in hindsight.
I don’t think I would have became who I was destined to be as a player, no. No matter if I got hurt or not. My trajectory as a player, I don’t think because the Clippers didn’t have the atmosphere for success. They didn’t have their own practice gym, they don’t have their own arena, right? So that is very important to someone who’s trying to get better in life.”
Despite the coin toss landing on the Clippers a majority of the time, Arenas decided to join the Wizards.
In hindsight, the decision turned out to be good for Arenas as he became an All-Star talent when playing for the Wizards. As for the Clippers, it may have taken them a lot of years, but they will soon have their own stadium. The Clippers will hope it will finally help them in stepping out of the Lakers’ shadow.
