UPDATE, BY MIKE P.

Apologies everyone, but we've taken the article down.  Mike initially said we could run it, but after seeing it online, he's asked me to take it down because SB Nation are competitors with the Washington Post.  To sum up his comments, I will give you my my favorite line from the email:

• " Gilbert was always the same guy, floating with ease among every race and every class. Looking back, the only thing that was a little disconcerting was Gilbert's need for approval from them all."

I realize that we're two days removed from Gilbert Arenas Tribute Day, and everyone kind of just wants to move on.  However, I wanted to throw out just one more Arenas tribute post for you all to read.

As part of the day, I reached out to a number of writers, journalists and fans who covered Gilbert Arenas' Wizards career closest.  I did it on short notice, so most people just pointed to the work they had done on him in the past and invited me to link it.  However, earlier today, I got a response from Mike Wise, the one guy who may know Arenas better than any other media member in D.C.  Wise was away from his email and just got what I sent him, and sent back this essay with some really powerful thoughts.  He said that I should feel free to post them and that he may use some of them for a column when Arenas returns on February 4.

His thoughts are below the jump. For anyone who cares about Arenas, I highly encourage you all to read this.

Gilbert Arenas Tribute Day is now over.  Here are the links to all the articles from today:

• An essay on Gilbert Arenas and this blog, by Mike Prada
• Arenas' top five buzzer beaters, by Jon Kelman
• Five stats that showed why Arenas was underrated, by Mike Prada
• The "Perfect Storm" that led to Arenas positive memories being obscured, by Rook6980.
• Top 10 Gilbertology lines, by Jake Whitacre
• The best Gilbert Arenas pranks, as ranked on the Arenas Scale, by Sean Fagan
• The Barbarian: Chronicling the rise and fall of Gilbert Arena, by Bullet Nation in Exile
• Ten Arenas quotes from other people, by CJ Hempfield

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As interesting as Gilbert Arenas may have been, sometimes the best way to summarize Arenas' topsy-turvey tenure in D.C. is through other people's words. We try to do that here as Gilbert Arenas Tribute Day rolls on. 

There has been a lot said about Gilbert during his nearly seven and a half year career in DC. As a result, it is very difficult to narrow down a list of the top 10 quotes about him. It is very likely that you will recall others that stick out in your mind.

However, here are the 10 that struck me as being funny, insightful and in some cases completely ridiculous. Please note that the following quotes are not listed in any particular order.

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Bullet Nation in Exile makes his BF front-page debut with this essay on the rise and fall of Arenas in D.C., as part of Gilbert Arenas Tribute Day.

[holding a basketball out]

You must learn its riddle, Gilbert.  You must learn its discipline.  For no one - no one in this world can you trust.  Not men, not women, not beasts.

[points to baskbetball]

This you can trust.

I'm into the long dark of the early morning writing for hours about Gilbert Arenas and I have to scrap all of it because an errant quote popped into my head.  I've been trying to explain the man behind the mass media demonization and suddenly Conan the Barbarian does better in 39 words than I was doing with 650 and counting.

All of you remember how Gilbert Arenas came into this league.  Why our hero wore the zero, and let his play answer the experts who predicted futility if he even managed to crack the rotation.  His life was always and only about the basketball.  He came to us on the flip of a coin without the benefit of national media coverage.  But by the dunks of Daryl Dawkins, can you imagine if he had?  What a fantastic thought in the aftermath of 'The DeCision,' Gil flipping a coin, watching it land, then turning to the camera and stating decisively, "Heads.  Which city is that?"

You should remember the 25^th birthday party.  The ice sculpture, hip-hop heavies, and everything else you'd expect at an NBA superstar's personal soiree.  But as Palmer says in the article, Arenas was the guy responsible not just for the fun, but for the ride home.  How did we go from the multi-multi-millionaire who saw his guests off safely to a team cancer?

Add up everything basketball meant to him, how it ruled nearly every waking moment of his life, then take it away, and I'll show you the deconstruction of a star.  

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We can't remember Gilbert Arenas without remembering some of the pranks he pulled on teammates during his time in D.C.  We do that in the next installment of Gilbert Arenas Tribute Day.

It is sad to think that Gilbert Arenas prank stories are now going to take on the same wistful and nostalgic tones that one reserves for one's own golden days. And by all rights that's how it should be, because we should never forget how lucky we were to have one of the most humorous athletes ply his trade in the Nation's Capital. Los Angeles can have their dour and removed superstar, Boston can have their creaky and cranky warriors and Miami may have their unintentionally funny King, but we had the guy who would steal your car keys, mail them back home to a friend and have your rims removed.

The word "prank" of course now carries with it a dark connotation, as it is forever associated with Arenas bringing guns into the locker room. But we should also remember that the organization, to a degree, endorsed the silly behavior and encouraged it. Heck, the Wizards once had a free giveaway where they gave every fan a poster of Gilbert presiding over a box of doughnuts.

Sports are supposed to be fun. I think it's one of the lessons that we forget as as we grow older and grow disillusioned with professional athletes and how games are played. Sometimes, sports and athletes can both be comical. Gilbert Arenas, whether you loved him or hated him, reminded you during his seven-year tenure that the best remedy to a dire situation is to laugh about it. Or possibly, turn a fire hose upon a teammate.

As part of Gilbert Arenas Tribute Day I propose that from here on out we rank Washington sports pranks on a scale of 1-5 "Gilberts." After the jump, I look at some of Arenas' most famous pranks and rate them according to this new system.

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Gilbert Arenas was a great player, but he achieved superstar status because he was just so interesting. As part of Gilbert Arenas Tribute Day, we remember Gilbertology with our ten favorite Arenas quotes. We're sure we're missing plenty.

If there was a Quotability Hall of Fame, Gilbert Arenas would go in on the first ballot. Sometimes his quotes made us laugh, sometimes they made us shake our head, but they were never the same old, same old. In season and out of season, Arenas always found ways to give Wizards fans something to talk about.

As he moves on, let's take a look back at his ten best quotes from his time in Washington.

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Gilbert Arenas Tribute Day kicked off with an essay on Arenas and this blog, a look at his best buzzer beatersand five numbers that show his on-court value.  Now, enjoy your lunch as Rook6980 reflects on Arenas' downfall and how it's obscured the great things Arenas did here.

He's the player that rekindled my passion for basketball.

I've been a fan of the Wizards since the Gus Johnson, "Pearl" Monroe days. I watched and cheered and sang along with the fat lady as Wes and Elvin and a mediocre 44–38 team beat the Supersonics to bring Washington it's first major sports championship in 36 years. I was there during the 80's teams that included Manute, Muggsy and Moses.

I was hopeful during the resurgence in the mid-90's with Juwan, Chris and my all time favorite Bullet/Wizard, "my giant" Gheorghe Muresan. They changed the name of my team - but I stuck around. They went through years and years of mediocre basketball ... and my passion faded. I was still a "fan", just not engaged - not involved - not jazzed. I mean, it's hard to be passionate about Otis Thorpe, Hubert Davis and Christian Laettner. It's hard to be passionate when your team wouldn't even get one invitation to the All-Star game. I was still around during the false hope of the Michael Jordan seasons. I followed all those teams - every season -  I just wasn't focused; I wasn't excited. Following the team was more about habit than anything else.

Then came Gilbert Arenas.

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Gilbert Arenas Tribute Day would mean nothing if Arenas himself wasn't once an unbelievable basketball player. Even during his heyday, there were many that tried to shoot down the notion that Arenas was an elite player. Here are five numbers that show why that's a fallacy.

Regular readers of this site know that I'm a fan of numbers in basketball.  Over the years, I've realized that there's much more to the game than stats, but that's not to say that these numbers are meaningless.  They can reveal things you don't see and put into context what you do see.  When used correctly, they can provide much more insight than the traditional stats you may see on television.

When Gilbert Arenas was in his heyday, I used a lot of numbers to show that he was potentially underrated as a player.  Now that he's gone to another team, I wanted to highlight five of my favorite stats that show why Arenas was such a great player back in the day.

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