What are your favorite moments from the Arenas era?

but mostly because of the circumstances under which I watched the game. I didn’t watch the game when it was on. It was the first thing I watched on my brand-new tivo box the next morning. My wife (then fiancee) left at 8 am on 12/23 to spend xmas with her family in VA while I stayed back in DC. I started watching the game at around 8:30 am while drinking coffee and eating breakfast. By 11:00 am I was pumped and eager to wear my Gilbert jersey out while doing some last-minute shopping in Dupont. The Suns had won…9 straight up to that point? Or something like that? And they got held up in Denver because of a massive snowfall, right?

That sense of optimism you describe was one of the best feelings I’ve had as a Wiz fan, strangely better than the home win against Chicago in ‘05 for the first playoff series win in forever. (Knowing they’d get swept by the Heat somewhat tempered my excitement that night, though the Phone Booth was rocking…)

Your number 3 is high on my list but I don’t associate it with Arenas. It’s one of my favorite Wiz memories too – I had season tickets that year. Anyone remember that it was, I think, Antonio Daniels who hit an unlikely 3 to finally put the Wiz up 75-74 or something like that? And watching the Monday night game, expecting to see a revenge-throttling and instead seeing the Wiz quiet the TD Banknorth crowd…that’s something they can never take away from us. The Celtics wanted every game against the Wiz that season, and they lost 3 of 4.

I also remember a game against the Celts in 2005 or 2006 – this is an odd one for a favorite memory. The Wiz had the ball in the dwindling seconds. Score was tied and Gilbert was at halfcourt. The crowd were on their feet before the Wiz ran a play, cheering as if he’d already hit a buzzer-beater to win it. I remember noticing that Gilbert looked around at the crowd while dribbling the ball – as if he was surprised or something. You could practically hear him thinking to himself, “Damn! I haven’t even done anything yet!” He didn’t make the long three pointer but the Wiz still won it in overtime.

-The 60 point game vs. the Lakers
-The MLK Day game vs. the Jazz
-The early-season win over the Spurs in 2005/06
-Game 3 of the 08 playoffs – the Solja Boy game
-The win over Seattle late in 07 when Gilbert banked that shot in at the buzzer – a personal favorite because Arenas carried that team when nobody else showed up
-Game 4 of the 06 playoffs vs. Cleveland, when we were losing at halftime and rallied to win
-Game 6 over the Bulls
-The home win over Detroit in 07 that put us atop the Eastern Conference

Those are just a few that jump into my head.

…..if I had watched the whole thing. Unfortunately, I forgot it was an early afternoon game and I only caught the last 5 minutes. I remember Buckantz going nuts after Arenas hit the winning shot.

My memory of game 3, 2008, is tarnished by Game 4. I paid $600 for 2 tickets to game 4, and sat courtside with my mom. It was the only game I went to that year, and I splurged and got the best tickets available. Arenas played, but did not attempt a shot in the first quarter, and barely was a factor. Then he over-helped on lEbron on their last possession giving Delonte West a wide-open shot to win. Gilbert then threw up a garbage 3 attempt to try and tie the game. It was so bad he sprinted to the hoop the moment he let it go cause he knew he missed it so bad. I cried on the METRO ride home.

Yeah, the 60 point game versus the Lakers is definitely high on the list. That road trip was unreal. Gilbert was never better.