#gilbertarenas

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Gilbert Arenas Full Highlights (Rare)
GS Warriors vs LA Lakers
April 16, 2003
The Arena in Oakland (Oracle)

- 33 pts, 7r, 5a / 10-26 fg, 1-4 3pt, 12-15 ft

After two very good college seasons at The University of Arizona, Gilbert Arenas was selected 31st overall by the Golden State Warriors in the 2001 draft. Raised in Southern California, his rookie campaign just a few hundred hundred miles north was plagued early by inconsistent floor time. With Mookie Blaylock, Larry Hughes, Bob Sura, and fellow rookie Jason Richardson occupying Golden State’s perimeter roles, Gilbert not only struggled to obtain game minutes but also found it difficult to break through in practice.

Around the 20 minute mark in the 4th oldest video on Gil’s “No Chill Productions” YouTube channel, he tells of his first break through opportunity as a Warrior. His memory did not capture some of the facts accurately, but the following is my best to summarize the story:

Amidst the second week of January (2002), the veteran Blaylock, who’d filled the backup point-guard spot in all 35 team games through January 8th, arrived at practice a half hour late. As Gilbert manned the court, Mookie found himself in a heated discussion with Warriors head coach Brian Winters. On December 15th, then assistant Winters’ obtained the head coaching job following the firing of Dave Cowens (http://www.espn.com/nba/news/2001/121.... With Blaylock and Winters unable to extinguish the fire, his last game in The Bay, as well as NBA, had been played. With one guard down, only three stood higher than Gil. Bob Sura’s comfortability in the squad’s 6th man role paved the way for Gilbert’s eventual chance at starting. Having donned suits as inactive player (“injured reserve”) during the latter half of November and entirety of December, Arenas found himself logging bench minutes in mid-January. On February 13th in Boston, struggling Larry Hughes was forced to surrender key minutes to Sura and the rookie (https://www.sfgate.com/sports/amp/War.... Two nights later, Gil made his first NBA start in a home matchup with the Spurs as Hughes nursed a sprained left ankle (https://www.nba.com/game/sas-vs-gsw-0.... He scored 8 points and dished out 3 assists in 25 minutes of play. He spent the next three contests coming off the bench, but was granted another starting spot on February 22nd in Milwaukee, posting 14 points and 10 assists. On March 1st, it was apparent that Gilbert had earned permanence in the Warriors’ opening lineup. From that point onward, he averaged 14 points and 5 assists, logging nearly 32 mpg in the Warriors’ final 27 games. Larry Hughes made his last start for the organization on March 5th. Arenas had officially joined Jason Richardson as one of the team’s top two guards. He received April’s Western Conference Rookie of the Month Award for his late-season production.

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Gilbert put together quite an impressive sophomore campaign in 2002-03. While playing and starting in all 82 games, he averaged 18.3 points and 6.3 assists on 43-35-79 (%) en route to being named the Association’s Most Improved Player. As mentioned previously, Gil was the 31st pick in his draft class, narrowly missing out on first round status. As a result, he didn’t qualify for a rookie scale contract and was therefore a restricted free agent after only two years in Oakland (https://warriorswire.usatoday.com/202... ). In July of ‘03, he signed a 6-year offer sheet with the Washington Wizards believed to be in the $65 million range. The Warriors were unable to match the offer (http://static.espn.go.com/nba/news/20....

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Rare - few or no known highlights of player/game on YouTube at time of publishing.

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