My Swag Was Phenomenal: The Gilbert Arenas Shoe Story

It is official; I'm in love with Gilbert Arenas.

I went to the Sixers-Wizards game last Wednesday to check out Agent Zero in person. Despite being in full college basketball mode at this point, I figured it was worth it to check out Gilbert Arenas in person. Like everyone else in the sports blog world, I've taken a liking to to Mr. Arenas (aka Agent Zero, The People's Champ, Hibacti, The Black President). It probably has something to do with the the fact that...

• Once showered in full uniform at halftime of a game
• Has converted his home to simulate high-altitude conditions
• Has been known to yell "Hiabacti or "Quality Shot" after taking a shot
• Bet teammate DeShawn Stevenson $20,000 he could make more college three pointers one handed than he could make NBA threes with both hands.
  
• Plays online poker at halftime
  
• Tried a trampoline dunk at the All-Star game during a commercial break
  
• Says he would give up a year of NBA play for game against and Coach K (who cut him from the US Olympic team) and figures he would score about 85 points.
• Threw a beyond extravagant birthday party called "Arenas Express" hosted by P Diddy
• Once dressed up like a wizard for pregame introduction
• Has claimed to play 14 to 15 hours of XBOX on non game-days
• Plays pranks on teammates by filling bath tubs with coffee and placing fire ants in their pants
• Likes to order products from late night infomericals like "Colon Cleanser"
  
• Once ate 12 cheeseburgers in one sitting
• Always throw his jersey and shoes into the crowd
• Has been know to hit a game winner here and there
  

Dan Shanoff was right on the money when he compared Gilbert to Barak Obama. The people love him but he still has alot to prove.

The night of the game happened to be the night of the giant snowstorm on the East Coast, so my nose bleed tickets quickly turned into 5th row center court. As you can tell by the picture below, the attendance couldn't have been higher than 7,000. I'm guessing it was a combination of the weather and how bad the Sixers are (The two most common chants of the night were "We Want Oden" and "Agent Zero") .



The game itself wasn't much to write about. Wizards won 92-85 behind a very pedestrian 22 point performance by Arenas. Still, Agent Zero would not send me home unhappy.

At around the three minute mark in the 4th quarter, I noticed everyone around me (I sat mid court) was getting up and moving towards the Wizards bench. It finally dawned on me that they were moving towards the Wiz bench because Agent Zero always tosses his jersey and shoes into the crowd like Santa Claus at a Christmas parade following the game. With two minutes left, my cousin and I figured we might as well make the move over.

We sent up camp about four rows behind the tunnel, surrounded by fans in about five different varieties of Arenas jerseys (one person has one that said "Agent Zero" on the back). Game ends and everyone is out of there seats waiting for the the clothes to start flying. After realizing the ridiculousness of the situation, I almost got up then and there, but decided on staying because it would give me something interesting to write about if I did end up with something.

Game ends and Gilbert heads towards the tunnel. Takes off the jersey and fires to his left. Nowhere near me. Next comes the first shoe.....to the right. Even further away. Finally on the last shoe, he tosses one our way. The shoe lands one seat in front of me into the hands of an Asian teenager.

I sulked for a few seconds on just missing out on Agent Zero's shoe, but quickly realized that I might as well try to get a picture for the blog.

After some convincing (98% sure he didn't speak English, based on the blank stares he gave me) he let me take a picture with Agent Zero's shoe.

I know one thing, Next time I see Agent Zero play in person, I'm going home with that jersey.