Gilbert Arenas to reunite with Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler for Nov. 18 Wizards game

The Washington Wizards will host a “Big Three” reunion on Nov. 18, the date of their home game against the Miami Heat. Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas will be honored together at halftime. The announcement was made yesterday and the Wizards made their announcements below.

I’m sorry I couldn’t write about this at the moment it happened. I can’t write during an active class. And I had to bring my homeroom students at Herndon High School in Fairfax County (that is where I teach) out to the gym to see the “No Hate Tour,” It is a touring exhibition of BMX riders and skateboarders from the X-Games who showed their tricks, sponsored by the United States Marine Corps.

Along the way, the assembly also included peer-to-peer messages about bullying prevention. In the video below, these weren’t the most advanced tricks that the BMX riders showed yesterday, but they were among the more advanced ones within the constraints of a high school gym.

After the assembly, I went back to my homeroom class for the rest of the day since another half of the school watched the same assembly. I gave them, all of them ninth grades, ice cream bars, waffles and some sparkling water bottles to keep them busy. But I still had my hands tied from writing about the news.

(I know some of my students may be reading this. GET BACK TO WORK!)

Now that I got my excuse out of the way, I’ll give my reaction to yesterday’s news.

I’m very happy to see that the Wizards are going big with the 25th anniversary season (as the Wizards). While some fans don’t like the Wizards’ teal and bronze/gold color scheme from the time, they still had success on the court, especially for much of the 2000s when they made the NBA Playoffs four consecutive times from the 2004-05 through 2007-08 seasons.

Since they retired, Jamison and Butler have been active Wizards alumni. Jamison is the Wizards’ Senior Director of Pro Personnel. Butler is an assistant coach for the Heat but has also been active around the Wizards before taking his current position.

But Arenas’ inclusion in this reunion is the most noteworthy It is significant because he hasn’t been featured prominently since the team traded him in 2010 to the Orlando Magic for Rashard Lewis. While Arenas was the Wizards’ most prominent player in the 2000s, the gun incident in the 2009-10 season and some of his Instagram posts on WNBA players in 2015 were more than enough reason for the team to keep him an arm’s length away.

In the end, it seems that Arenas and Monumental Sports & Entertainment have made amends, at least enough amends for this reunion. What’s your reaction to it? Let us know in the comments below.