gil904

SoCalHoops High School News

Yet More Gilbert Arenas News;
Howie Levine Speaks Out--(Sept. 4, 1998)

It's nice to know we're good for something here at SoCalHoops, even if it is only to spur the Daily News & the LA Times onward towards publishing more and more stories of our friend Gilbert Arenas. On Monday we spoke with Gil Sr., and reported that Gilbert Arenas would be staying at Grant. And sure enough, the very next day, both the Daily News and the Times, not to be outdone, both had the same story, although we have to hand it to Paige Leach since her article was far more complete than the one which ran in the Daily News. The consensus seems to be exactly what we were told at the beginning of the summer, in the middle of the summer, and on Monday: Gilbert will be staying at Grant.

Paige Leach got Gil Sr., to expound a bit more on the academics issue: "I felt more comfortable with him staying at Grant," Gil Arenas Sr. told the Times:

While Arenas Sr. said his son would rather play for Sylmar, the defending City Section 3-A Division champion, the decision to stay at Grant was based on academic concerns. Arenas Sr. feared that a magnet curriculum might lack some core classes required to qualify for a Division I college. "The last thing I want to hear is that Gil can't go to [college] because he didn't complete all of his core classes," Arenas Sr. said. Arenas, after recently passing geometry and Spanish in summer school at Reseda, has scored 940 on the SAT, his father said. Arenas, a 6-foot-3 All-City selection, averaged 29.8 points and 5.7 assists last season.

Well, those comments certainly didn't please Sylmar's Principal Linda Calvo, or the rest of the teachers at Grant. This morning the LA Times had an article about Sylmar's reaction:

Math-science magnet administrators at Sylmar were angered this week by the comments of Gil Arenas Sr., who told The Times his decision to keep his son at Grant was based on his fear that a magnet curriculum might lack core classes required to qualify for a Division I college. In a letter faxed to The Times, Principal Linda Calvo wrote that Sylmar's magnet students "are required to complete more than the minimum core curricular classes for entrance to four-year
universities." She ended the letter with "I can wholeheartedly assure you that he need not have worried about his child's rigorous academic preparation at Sylmar High School Math Science Technology Magnet."

Calvo said magnet students receive more guidance than regular students. "One of the really great things about being in this magnet program--or any other magnet program in the district--is that the counselor ratio is so much lower," Calvo said. Calvo said Arenas would have been one of about 350 students under the guidance of one counselor, as opposed to being one of 500 or 600 as a regular student. "Because the academic course work is so rigorous in the magnet program, the counselor sits down with each magnet student frequently to make sure he is on course," Calvo said.

Ahem. Please re-read Mr. Arenas' statement again folks. What he is quoted as saying was that he was concerned about Gil completing "all of his core classes."

It was the Times which extrapolated from that statement, and concluded, we believe erroneously, that he "feared" the magnet program "might lack some core classes."

When we spoke to Mr. Arenas, his comment to us was that Gil decided to stay at Grant because of concerns which Mr. Arenas had about the "academics." Frankly we did not understand him to be criticizing Sylmar's magnet program, but instead expressing a realistic concern that Gil could not afford not passing all of his core classes if he moved to a more rigorous environment in a new school. But then that's why the Times is housed in a huge building downtown and charges 25 cents per copy of the paper, and SoCalHoops is free. :-0).

And this morning, the Times had a sort of recap of events, which, if you read it closely, could be mistaken for either sour grapes or simple mean-spiritedness. See for yourself. The headline read "After Summer of Uncertainty, Arenas Must Win Over Grant Teammates". Here's the lead in stuff:

"So Gilbert Arenas, arguably the region's top college basketball prospect, decided this week to stay at Grant High. . . .

"After months of telling reporters--and anyone else who asked--how he didn't like playing for a Lancer team that played in low-profile off-season leagues and tournaments, Arenas has decided to stay at Grant. . . .

"After applying--and being admitted--to the math-science magnet program at Sylmar, Arenas has decided to stay at Grant. . . .

"After being banished from Grant's summer team by Coach Howie Levine because he played with Sylmar, Arenas has decided to stay at Grant. . . .

"After acknowledging this week that he would rather play for Sylmar next season, Arenas has decided to stay at Grant. . . .

"With all that has been said and done this summer, can Arenas really get back in the good graces of coaches and teammates at Grant?"

What is that all about??? C'mon. You're talking about a 16 year old high school athlete, not Magic Johnson coming back from his last retirement. Lighten up. And does anyone seriously think that a player who averaged 29.8 points and 5.7 assists is going to sit on the bench? Anyone's bench?? The question sort of answers itself doesn't it?

Gilbert simply wanted a change of scenery during the summer. Summer league, at least in LA City schools, has no enrollment restrictions. Any kid can play for any team he wants to so long as the coach will have him. And Bort Escoto certainly wasn't going to turn down a player the caliber of Gilbert Arenas. Those are the rules which were set up by the coaches. If they don't like them, they can change them. So Gilbert plays for a different team during the summer. The newspapers go nuts. Gilbert has some fun. The papers (and we) write some more articles. Gilbert has some more fun.

But hey, summer's just about over. Life goes on. Get over it. At least Howie Levine, Grant's coach for the last 20 years, had the proper perspective when he told Paige Leach in response to the question of whether Gil can "really get back in the good graces of coaches and teammates at Grant:

"I think that if he shows that he's going to be a team player, it will be easy," Levine said. Levine, who has not spoken with Arenas in more than a month, said Arenas' father told him weeks ago that Arenas would not transfer. Levine said the rumors of Arenas' transfer did not disrupt the team's chemistry or continuity this summer. "As far as our team is concerned, we had a good summer," Levine said. "The guys played well. We saw a lot of good things out of the team. We have a good bunch of guys."

And speaking of team play and Gilbert Arenas, Mike Miller at WestCoastHoops is reporting that Gilbert will be playing with Dart Stamps' Top Prospects (TPI) team at the 1998 dada Long Beach Fall Hoops Classic in the same backcourt with Casey Jacobsen (6'-6" Sr. SG). Mike also writes that the team will feature Joe Shipp (6'5" Sr. SG/SF), Jason Morrissette (6'-4" Sr. SG/SF) and Chris Osborne (6'-9" Sr. F/C), and a bunch of other really solid players. Gil has played for TPI on and off over the last couple of years, and he last played for Stamps during the spring in the Pump Easter Tourney. (See "ARC, Pump-N-Run, Slam-N-Jam & Rockfish All In One Day...Whew!--(April 4,1998)." And frankly, after the heated debate which followed Casey's last tournament at the Nike Summer Championships where he played for Pat Barrett's Southern California All-Stars against his former coach Dinos Trigonis' Belmont Shore team, we thought Casey would never ever show up in either of those two uniforms again. . . But never is a long time, and time has a way of healing. . . blah, blah, blah.

And as Gilbert and Coach Levine will tell you, never say "never."