Welcome Back?

386 days later?..hi there..welcome back reading..I haven't done this in a while..well sort of..just individually with people verbally..but this recent Gilbert/gun thing has me crawling out of my own head and here it goes..

Was Gilbert dumb in playing a "joke" on Crittenton?..very
Was he careless in having unloaded guns in the arena or in the DC area?...also very

But don't make it into this super huge thing crossing his personality+the incident+on court performance because it doesn't add up..not all of them..the incident has more to do with his personality than on the court stuff..

His personality is one that is rare in terms of the public visibility..the "off-beat" one..the one who kind of plays by his own rules but not in a threatening to the establishment kind of way..more entertainment than purpose.They don't give you the general cookie cutter answers..they do different things..sometimes refreshing..sometimes frustrating..

Look around the the leagues..they are out there..Gil is one..Clinton Portis..Manny Ramirez...Chad Ochocinco.. Ron Artest...the kind of people you are never really sure if they are completely serious even when they smile..

Now these guys are all well and good..but here's a variable that is like the unwritten rule in any kind of job..salary..Gil signed a 6yr $111-million deal last season..thats a lot of money..and in sports..rare air..

Only the elite(in theory) are signed to $100-million deals..Kobe Bryant money..Kevin Garnett money...Shaq money..Alex Rodriguez money..

Its alot of pressure...as an athlete you are already under tremendous pressure as is..to get a bigger contract..stuff like that..now picture getting what you've worked for all your life...now what?..there aren't too many stories of what to do when you get to the top of the mountain...

Sidebar..still not justifying what he did..just getting all the perspectives out

Now..he has that money pressure to live up to the contract..he's coming back from repetitive knee surgeries..the team was awful last year..the blanket reasoning is because he wasn't there..locked into that money..everything will be fine..right?

All that pressure is there it makes it a little hard to be carefree these days..with money comes expectations and no one is expecting him to be the same guy..the money is there..get serious and get us winning..

That seems rational because any non-rich person given a boatload of money would be the best person to be well adjusted right?..

"Well with all that money,they need to figure it out" they say...it makes zero sense..when has money ever made anything clearer than before?..in history?..very few times..

Perfect example of this that I followed closely is Barry Zito of the SF Giants..he was just like Gilbert..carefree..had his own set of idiosyncrasies playing for the Oakland A's..

then he signed the $126 million deal with San Fran..all that pressure I was talking about earlier..same thing..he lost himself in a way..the people expected it in an indirect way.

Again that doesn't translate into on the court success..Gilbert isn't the complete reason why the Wizards are underachieving thus far..people fail to realize that its a team game win or loss..the "star driven" ideology is only set up to sell more tickets because of recognition off of the combination of number and face...ask Alex Rodriguez what the difference of playing for the Texas Rangers then the New York Yankees is like...the checks are the same..his numbers are around the same too..he won the World Series with what team again?

Same with Kevin Garnett..and Kobe Bryant..very very very very rarely can a scrub team be strapped onto a back of one guy..Dwyane Wade this year is a good example of that..Kevin Garnett in Minnesota is another..can't be done often if at all..

So let that idea go..thanks..

Collectively that team is underachieving..Caron is..Antawn is..Brendan is..Nick is..Flip is..Gilbert is..

But since the pay isn't distributed evenly..blame isn't either...that I can understand..but there isn't an relationship between check amount and leadership..that team doesn't have one at all..everyone is at a loss there..but he is their best player...for what its worth..

Guns aren't a joking matter..but...no one knows where the line is not to cross..until after you cross it

I think I covered everything..I feel better now...