Sports 4 Dorks

On
Monday the news hit that Gilbert Arenas, he of the torn meniscus, 25 points
a game talent, and
lively blog, might decide to sit out the rest of the regular season in order
to fully mend his aching knee.

The alternative would be to come back for the season’s final
month, likely to play for a Washington Wizards team that will be fighting for its playoff
lives. Washington
has played exceedingly well since Gilbert went down, considering the
circumstances, compiling a 13-11 record while taking hold of the East’s fourth
seed.

Of course, this still leaves them but a game above the eighth-seeded
Atlanta Hawks in craptastic parity-driven East, with teams in Chicago,
Milwaukee, and Indiana likely to make at least marginal
improvements on their way toward grabbing a playoff seed.

Arenas’ return could have playoff implications, but he’s
hesitant: 

"It could be
March. It could be April. It depends on how I feel. But the bottom line is I
have to protect the rest of my career. I don’t want to jeopardize the rest of
my career just to go out and play 15 games. If we have a chance to go far in
the playoffs with me playing, I’ll say ‘yeah.’ If not, then I’ll go ahead and
shut it down. See ya."

I know I’ve
been espousing the scorched Earth policy around
here recently, but it makes plenty of sense to me for Arenas to sit down
for the rest of 2007-08, without qualifications.

He already came back too soon from a torn meniscus suffered
late in 2006-07, a second surgery to repair a new knee tear put him on the
bench in December, and there’s no shame in sitting until everything shapes up -
as Tim Duncan did back in 2000, missing the playoffs with the same injury. 

And I’m forming my opinion regardless of Arenas’ contract
situation, the All-Star has a 12.8 million dollar player option for 2008-09
that he will almost certainly turn down, and just basing it on what is safe and
right for the Washington Wizard organization, and their best player.

They’re
much worse without him, in spite of the short sample size of a 24-game run, and
they aren’t going to be taking down Boston or Detroit with him. Might
as well start anew this summer, take in his overall worth, and go from there. If
this means Washington
slips into the Draft lottery … oh, well.

So what do you think? Would you ask a doctor returning from
potentially career-ending wrist surgery to come back in time to perform a tummy
tuck, or work on a patient that is going to die on the table regardless? Should
Arenas suit up for a month, or should both the Wizards and Gilbert take in the
big picture approach?

Before you make your decision, why don’t you check out what the
people on the street think of Gilbert’s potential decision. Via The Hype Guy, who we completely forgot to
give a needed hat-tip to on
this post from yesterday.