gil626

SoCalHoops High School & Prep News

Daily News Again: Gilbert Arenas
Gets More Than His 15 Minutes Of Fame--(June 26, 1998)

Will the rumors ever end about Gil Arenas "transferring"? Probably not. Today's edition of the Daily News just adds more fuel to the fire. LA Daily News prep sports writer Vincent Bonsignore, who covers high school basketball in "the Valley" (that's the San Fernando Valley to you non-valleyites), who knows most of the better Valley athletes, knows the coaches, and knows better, the same guy who also wrote an unusually critical article about Ellis Richardson's attempt to make it in the NBA draft out of Poly High (he didn't and wasn't even listed on most of the NBA lottery draft sites as a potential pick), which Richardson described in the Los Angeles Times the day of the draft as "very hurtful", wrote in today's edition of the paper that the speculation about Gil Arenas transferring continues to rage.

Bonsignore wrote that Gil told his high school coach that he "wasn't having fun" any longer in summer league. Bonsignore then wrote that his high school coach told Gil that if he wasn't going to play, he should tell his teammates himself. Bonsignore then wrote that Coach Levine told Gil that if he played for any other summer league team besides Grant's that he shouldn't show up at all on Grant's team. Nice touch, Vince.

We don't doubt that Gil isn't "having fun" playing summer league and needs a break. Next week he leaves for the adidas ABCD camp in Tenafly, New Jersey, where he'll be until July 10. The last several weeks he's finished up with school, had finals, played on the Double Pump "Pump 'N Run" traveling all-star team (the No. 1 team, coached by Rob Alexander, the coach at Anaheim Canyon), played on the Grant summer league team, reportedly also played a few games with Sylmar on their summer league team. Pretty busy guy. Add to that the fact right after the ABCD, he'll attend the West Coast All-Star camp at Dominguez Hills from July 11-14, then he'll play in the adidas Big Time Tournament with the Pump team in Vegas from the 17-23. No doubt he'll also play in a few other tournaments during the last week in July. Oh, yeah, add to that the fact Gil has this past week worked as a day camp counselor and coach, teaching little kids basketball at the Dana Pump Day Camp (at Balboa Park this week). Don't forget that Gil is also one of the hottest commodities around right now in recruiting: He's actively being pursued by a ton of big time college programs including Cal, UCLA, Kansas, a bunch of WCC and WAC schools, and others, and his phone has been ringing off the hook. Considering all of that, a better picture begins to emerge:

1. The guy needs some time to himself to have a little fun, perhaps away from basketball; and

2. By the time he finishes what he's doing, summer league will be over anyway.

So much for the "news" that he won't play summer league any longer.

Frankly, we think articles such as Bonsignore's aren't really "news", but a just a try at creating a story, sort of "stirring the pot." So he won't play summer league. Big deal. David Bluthenthal didn't play much last year, gave up the big time camps to play for the U.S. Maccabi team in Israel. Was that somehow tied to his decision to transfer to Westchester? No way. Lots of guys don't play summer league, some because they've got other things to do, some because they just want to avoid burnout, some because they can't.

Gil is an incredibly gifted athlete. But where he gets his education as a high school player is surely not "news".

Here's some news: We saw Gil yesterday and spoke with him briefly, and he seemed pretty relaxed and happy. Never said a word about transferring. Never said a word about any conflict with his high school coach. And his father continues to say that he'll stay at Grant. Heck, by the time he gets done doing everything he has to do, summer league will be over anyway.

There's some news.

Enough said.

And to Vincent Bonsignore of the Daily News and Paige Leach of the Times, we say: Give it a rest. Cover some games (which you both do very well); we'd much rather read about tournament stuff and how guys are currently playing, than about transfer rumors. Write about how good a player is. Write about a coach, write about a "program" but don't create news. Leave the decision about whether a player will transfer out of the papers, at least until it happens, unless the kid or his parents tell you about it first. If a player comes to you and says, "Hey, I'm thinking of transferring", and he doesn't mind it getting into the papers or on the internet, then fine. But don't go looking for transfer "news."

At least that's how we feel about it.

Enough said. Really.