As mentioned yesterday, Brendan Haywood and Eddie Jordan apparently cleared things up at a meeting a few weeks ago. Today, we get some more information about that meeting, courtesy Ivan Carter.
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"Eddie went down there to talk to Brendan because at first, Brendan was like, 'I'm not coming to' " Washington for pre-camp workouts, Arenas said. "But they talked and Brendan's been here for the last two weeks. Whatever they talked about, it brought Brendan back."
I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Brendan was willing to go so far as to not show up, but somehow, it doesn't make me feel that comfortable. It's as if that one meeting was just a temporary fix.
These comments by Jordan don't exactly make me think he's changed either.
"Not what happened before and not what you think can happen on the putting green. It's the shot right in front of you that means everything to you.
"When I met with him it was about that meeting. It wasn't about training camp or expectations. And the next time I see him, it's going to be about that day and that's how we're going to take it.
"There are no promises, there are no motivating things, we just have to get on the same page and say: 'Today is a great day.'"
It's not that Eddie shouldn't think that way; obviously, he should. And it's not like that quote is particularly surprising; coaches say stuff like that all the time. But man, does he carry that analogy really, really far. From my limited experience doing any sort of reporting, I've learned that if a coach leans on an analogy like that for so long, it means two things. First, he is dead set on his position, and won't alter it for any reason. Second, he still knows there are reasonable alternatives for handling the situation, so he has to expound on his position more to shoot them all down.
Stubbornness on both sides is exactly why Brendan and Eddie got into a feud before. These recent comments don't exactly reassure me.
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Another quick comment on that article. I understand that only Gilbert Arenas and Eddie Jordan are available for comment, but man, did that story lack balance. Where was Haywood's side of the story? Not to pick on Ivan, who's one of the best reporters in the business, but he should at least have tried to contact Haywood. If Haywood didn't pick up or said he didn't want to comment on the meeting, at least then Ivan could have dropped a line in the article saying Haywood either "declined to comment" or "was unavailable to comment" or something like that. If Haywood can't be quoted, perhaps this story should have been put on hold until media day, where we could get every side of the story.
As it stands, this article basically reads as an Eddie Jordan piece of propaganda, and that really shouldn't happen.
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Ohbytheway, Gilbert Arenas spoke yesterday. Here's a roundup of relevant Arenas links.
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The Grueling Path on Road to Recovery. Dan Steinberg/Washington Post.
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Arenas shifting focus to elevating Wizards' status. ESPN/Associated Press.
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Gilbert Arenas SportsNation chat wrap. (Thursday).
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Gil trashes the Celtics and throws in his two cents on the Barry Bonds ball in his latest blog.
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Gilbert's interview with Deadspin.
- All of Steinz's blog updates from yesterday can be found here, here, and here