Interviewing coaches and players is not typically included in my day-to-day duties. I do it occasionally when necessary, but I prefer to leave the "hey, coach how would you assess the performance of the defense" questions to our beat writers and columnists.
This morning, however, I found myself across a table from Wizards coach Eddie Jordan as he made his first remarks in anticipation of next week's team training camp. Why? Because our Wizards beat writer, John Mitchell, was occupied following Gilbert Arenas all over town.
Apparently in Wizards-land, the team's star guard kind of runs his own show when it comes to dealing with the media. And today he decided to let reporters follow him around as he worked out at Cardozo High School, biked back to Verizon Center, ran the stairs, shot baskets, lifted weights and rehabbed his left knee. While Mr. Mitchell went and dealt with that, I attended Eddie's media roundtable, which had been scheduled by the Wizards long before Gilbert decided to do his thing.
One hopes that this concept of parallel media availabilities does not become a common thing. I saw many reporters rushing in to hear Jordan speak about midway through his remarks. Being in two places at once is not possible, unless you're Michael Keaton from that movie "Multiplicity." In which case, you should be doing much more exciting things with your time.
Goodness knows why Gilbert or Eddie couldn't have moved their availability, but the general feeling is that the two men are a few hugs short of being best buddies. Eddie basically lets GIlbert do his thing as long as he puts in the work and performs.
"I've always said I've been a very fortunate coach to have someone play like Gilbert Arenas," Eddie said. "I've said it for years and months and weeks. He's a highly motivated player and a terrific young man. He's got this different personality that has been very good for his professionalism on the court as well as off the court. He's done some really terrific things for himself. We're all lucky to have a dynamic guy with so many dimensions personality-wise and on the floor."
-- Tim Lemke
