- Gilbert Arenas was a free agent during the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season
- Arenas was brought in for a tryout by the Los Angeles Lakers
- Arenas says he talked himself out of joining the team
Gilbert Arenas grew up in Los Angeles, but when an opportunity came for him to play for the Los Angeles Lakers alongside Kobe Bryant, he passed it up. Arenas revealed during an episode of Gil’s Arena that the Lakers had brought him in for a workout during the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season.
“I tried out for the Lakers after the lockout,” Arenas said. “… If I took 300 shots, I might have missed 10. I wanted to prove what my distance was, so I’m shooting right in front of the half-court, I went 18 for 20… The interview starts, and I talked myself out of this job.”
The 41-year-old realized that being in the L.A. market would mean the media would start to get on him for his off-the-court issues, like the gun incident, and it terrified him.
“He said, ‘Yea, can you come here now?’ And all I thought was L.A. media, the gun stuff, like, ‘Oh hell no,'” Arenas continued. “… I’m running line drills, they already know I’m in shape, (I say), ‘It’s gonna take me about two months to get in game shape.’ Because it’s March, (then) April, May, the season’s over. So, I’m sitting here talking myself out of the LA job. Because I was scared of the media.”
Arenas also didn’t want to potentially disappoint Bryant by not playing up to expectations.
“Am I the same person Kobe thinks he’s getting? I don’t wanna deal with that,” Arenas added. “I’ll go to Memphis. Left there, said I don’t think I’m ready to play this year. Go back home. Go try out for Memphis.”
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There would have been a ton of pressure to perform on the court and off it, the media would have been keeping tabs on everything Arenas did. He was coming off multiple knee surgeries and was 30 years old at the time as well, and did not want to go through all of that.
Arenas’ Time With The Grizzlies
Arenas certainly didn’t perform anywhere near as well as he did during that Lakers workout, during his time with the Grizzlies. In 17 regular season games, he averaged just 4.2 points, 1.1 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 0.6 steals per game in a backup role to Mike Conley.
The three-time All-Star barely played in the postseason either, and Game 7 of their first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers would prove to be his last in the NBA. He played a year in China and had a stint with the BIG 3 league, before finally calling it quits.
The 2011-12 Lakers Had A Problem At Point Guard
It’s doubtful that Arenas would have helped the 2011-12 Lakers an awful lot. They were actually relatively weak at point guard, with Derek Fisher, Ramon Sessions, and Steve Blake playing there at various points in the season.
Arenas in his prime would have been a major upgrade, but he had been waived by the Orlando Magic with the amnesty clause before the season and was clearly well past his prime by then. Someone who could have helped was Chris Paul, but the NBA infamously vetoed that trade in 2011.
The Lakers would end up going one round further than Arenas and the Grizzlies, as they beat the Denver Nuggets in seven games in the first round. The Conference Semifinals, though, saw them take on the Oklahoma City Thunder, who knocked them out in five games.
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