Gilbert Arenas has a behavior of laughing in dialog. Generally, it’s just because he’s amused by his personal phrases. At different moments, it feels just like the ever-opinionated Arenas chuckles as a result of is aware of he’s about to trigger a stir. The 12-year NBA veteran is 42 now, however he’s been capturing basketball followers’ consideration—for a wide range of totally different causes—for some 20-odd years.
A penchant for deep threes, athletic finishes, and late-game heroics introduced the high-scoring guard accolades together with three All-Star Recreation appearances, a signature Adidas sneaker, and the duvet of NBA Reside 08. A 2009 incident involving weapons within the Washington Wizards locker room, and the ensuing suspension, introduced him infamy. Within the ensuing years, Arenas’s self-awareness—significantly his understanding that some folks take pleasure in him whereas others discover him unbearable—has aided his evolution right into a media persona.
After bouncing between podcasts, digital speak reveals, and occasional appearances on ESPN, Arenas unveiled Gil’s Enviornment in 2023. The Underdog Fantasy present, which airs stay from his basement, is co-hosted by Arenas and Josiah Johnson with a supporting forged of present and former execs together with Kenyon Martin, Brandon Jennnings, Rashad McCants, and Lexie Brown. With episodes exceeding two hours, Gil’s Enviornment represents his perfect product: a grandiose mix of in-depth basketball dialogue and fixed provocation.
There are quite a few former (and present) NBA gamers with podcasts in the meanwhile, however Arenas is likely to be the one one who began running a blog for the league in the course of the prime of his profession. And his understanding of the web, alongside together with his brazen makes an attempt to combine hyperbole and nuance, have helped him stand out in a congested sports activities media panorama.
Holding his edge means maintaining with what’s subsequent, too. “I’m all the time consuming info, so I’m all the time going to be forward,” he says. “I’m watching youngsters stuff, I’m watching Mr. Beast, I’m watching all realms to see if anyone strikes sooner earlier than anybody else notices.”
Throughout a prolonged dialog in March, Arenas provided his ideas on the sports activities media industrial advanced, complaints in regards to the trendy NBA, and extra.
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.
Gilbert Arenas: As with something, you don’t know the place it’s going to take you initially. So at first, it was talking on what I did all through the week. Then I spotted what sort of software it was: an in-depth notion from the participant’s standpoint. After we’re doing interviews with the media, it’s extra managed. We’re actually watching what we’re saying and it’s going to be the identical cliched issues throughout the board. Everybody gravitated to me happening NBA.com and actually simply talking on what I did all through the week. So I understood, actually early, the ability of the pen and the right way to manipulate phrases. We name it trolling now, however I understood shock worth.
[Laughs] It’s human nature. After we’re arguing backwards and forwards, we solely hear key phrases that we don’t like. If I say, “Yeah, LeBron is healthier than Jordan,” something I say after that’s meaningless. I understood that. So if I say, “I’m higher than Steph,” I do know they’re going to cease proper there—earlier than, “by the age of 25.” As soon as folks begin listening to, “I’m higher than Steph,” they’ll make it go viral. And when the people who find themselves listening to the entire thing attempt to come again and show me mistaken, they go, “Ah, we didn’t see he added…that half.”
Your willingness to say nearly something, deliberately, serves you nicely on this present period of loud voices getting probably the most consideration. When you determined to pursue media, who, if anybody, did you examine to get higher?
The Charles Barkleys and the Shaqs. You examine what makes Stephen A. Smith good. You watch what made Skip Bayless good. And then you definately think about how far they’re pushing the traces. Then, when Shannon [Sharpe] got here round, he has his cognac and cigar—plus, a few of the stuff he says, I’m like, “You’re allowed to….say that?!’”