I hate to steal Howie's thunder, but Arenas has responded to Kobe Bryant's comments via his blog.
(Note: the emphasis is mine, not his)
Out of that whole game I probably took two bad shots. And, for me not to have a conscience? You're right. When you're an assassin, you don't have a conscience. At the end of the day I thought he didn't have a conscience, but I guess he does.
For the best player in the league to downplay what I did ... I guess, I don't know. I give him all the respect in the world. He is the No. 1 player in the league, by far. It's like that. You don't need to try to shadow box my 60. It was one of them nights when I was clicking and everything was going in so, I ended up having 60. That's all there is to it.
How can you go back at a guy who scores 45 every night? You can't. There's no point of it. There's no point.
We know who he is.
I know who he is.
I'm a big fan, I'm one of his No. 1 fans, so there's no point in even throwing shots at him.
With a player like him, he just wants that challenge. I know he is going to be ready for Game 2 in Washington. With a player like him, it was his home crowd, they lost. He's just that fierce competitor. He doesn't want to get out-showed. He's the one who everybody's afraid of. And he's right.
Free Darko has covered the stark contrast between the two stars, so definitely check that out. Kobe's postgame comments seemed more like a psychological ploy than sour grapes. As such, I wouldn't call him an egotistical jerk as much as an overzealous competitor. Where Arenas is defined by his spontaneity, Kobe is defined by his preparation and attention to detail. As such, just as we excuse Gilbert's strange comments as "Gilbert being Gilbert," so to should we excuse Kobe's comments as "Kobe being Kobe." This is who he is, and like it or not, it's not out of character.
Besides, Kobe could never understand that it takes 5.