Photo of Gilbert Arenas by Kyle Gustafson True to his word, yesterday Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas opted out of the final year of his contract, leaving $12.8 million on the table in the hopes of signing a longer and more lucrative deal. Whether that will be with the Wizards remains to be seen. Arenas played only 13 games this year, his season cut short by a nagging knee injury, leaving open the question......

Despite a sprained right wrist, Gilbert Arenas is expected to play tonight as the Washington Wizards look to even their first round playoff series on the road against the Cleveland Cavaliers, after losing a very winnable Game One 93-86 on Saturday. Arenas, still making his way back from knee surgery, injured the wrist late in Game One as he fouled LeBron James. Arenas started out hot in Game One, hitting his first four three......

With only a week to go in the regular season, games mean more to some teams than others. The Boston Celtics long ago wrapped up the Atlantic Division and the first seed in the Eastern Conference while the Washington Wizards are making a final push for the fourth seed and home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. As a result, last night's 109-95 win over Boston can't exactly be taken as......

I doubt anyone is at the "Gilbert Who?" stage yet, but anyone who's been watching the Washington Wizards play since Agent Zero went down would be hard pressed to deny that the team has been just plain fun to watch these last few weeks - perhaps because with the big gun out, they are playing like a team. Last night three players had double-doubles and a total of six players scored in double figures......

Ticket holders for Saturday's Wizards v. Raptors match up probably made their purchases with visions of Gilbert Arenas and Chris Bosh dancing in their head. With both stars injured for the game, instead it turned into the Roger Mason Jr. v. Jason Kapono show. It turns out this wasn't a bad thing at all. After not playing at all in Thursday's loss in Philadelphia, Mason Jr. came off the bench to score 15 big......

The worst case scenario for the Washington Wizards came to pass today. Gilbert Arenas had surgery earlier today to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee and will miss the next three months. Arenas sat out the Wizards last two games with soreness in the knee. Antonio Daniels will likely move into the starting lineup at the PG spot and, as a result, rookie Nick Young should move up in the rotation. He's......

.354 from the field .203 from three point land 91.7 points per game No matter how you look at the numbers, it's clear the Washington Wizards struggled in the opening week of the NBA season, a fact reflected in their 0-3 record. The team looks disjointed on offense, taking bad shots and turning the ball over with impunity. And by giving up 105+ points per game - good for 26th in the league -......

We're a little short-staffed today, so if you've got any picks to add for this weekend, please leave them in the comments. FRIDAY >> This weekend the Uptown Theater is playing the final cut of everybody's favorite movie about replicants running amock, and young Darryl Hannah being super sci-fi hot, Blade Runner. >> If an apocalyptic future isn't exactly what you're in the mood for, try on Seattle's dream folk rockers, Band of Horses, for......

The recent Kobe for Gilbert trade rumors (shot down yesterday by Ernie Grunfeld — not that that means anything) should give you an indication that the Washington Wizards are at a crossroads season in regards to the franchise's future. Gilbert Arenas has gone on record saying he will opt out of his contract at the end of the season and Antawn Jamison is in the final year of his deal. Something's got to give......

A scant 21 days remain until my favorite day of the entire year, the NBA draft. And while Cleveland and San Antonio start the NBA finals tonight (9:00 p.m. on ABC), the rest of the league, including the Washington Wizards, are firmly entrenched in the off season. What's in store for Team Zero? Let's take a look. The Wizards have roughly $38 million in guaranteed salaries committed to the core of the team next......

When the best sports news to come out of the weekend is that the Nationals managed to not get swept, the thing to do is move on as quickly as possible. We'll try and make as painless as possible for you. Redskins Grab Safety in First Round With the sixth overall pick in Saturday's NFL draft (and only pick in the first four rounds), the Redskins selected LaRon Landry, a hard-hitting safety from LSU. What's......

After getting handled by the Cleveland Cavaliers Sunday afternoon, the Wizards did their best to step up their game. It would be hard to argue that last night's showing was not a step up from Sunday's dreary performance. The Wizards increased their point total by 20, but the end result was the same: another L in the books as Cleveland rode a strong performance by Drew Gooden (of all people!) for a 109-102 victory. Gooden......

What was once an entertaining season for the Washington Wizards has quickly gone down the proverbial drain so fast most people are afraid to ask "What's next?" In the last 12 days, the team has lost Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas for the season, lost the third seed in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, lost the Southeast Division crown to the Miami Heat and also lost six in a row, with four of those......

I picked a hell of a night to stay home and do laundry. There I was, checking my RSS feed during a Friday Night Lights commercial break when Ivan Carter and the always informative Wizards Insider informed me that Gilbert Arenas arrived late for the afternoon shoot around and would not start against the suddenly hot Charlotte Bobkittens. "Not that big of a deal" I thought, but then I went on to Ivan's next......

The Washington Wizards found out last Friday that they'd be without Caron Butler for the next 10 or so days, not exactly the type of thing you want to hear with the Miami Heat breathing down their necks for the division lead. As we're sure you all remember, the team was 0-3 without Butler earlier in the season. Lucky for the Wizards then that the struggling New Orleans / Oklahoma City Hornets (aka the......

Due to losses in their previous two match ups, the Wizards were obviously fired up for the Atlantic Division leading Toronto Raptors last night, which was a good thing because it seemed like everyone else - the somewhat sparse crowd, the media, the dance team, G-Wiz - was uninterested and unimpressed. Perhaps they were all suffering from a little seasonal depression or fearful of the latest oncoming snowpocalypse. No matter the cause, the Wizards......

Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler returned from their injuries over the weekend and the nearly full strength Wizards won a pair of games, defeating Atlanta 93-92 on Friday and winning a wild one yesterday over Golden State 107-106. We'll start with the Golden State game, as it had one of the strangest endings I've ever seen in a basketball game. Down two with just over two seconds remaining, Gilbert Arenas drove to the hole......

The Miami Heat took control of a close game last night by repeatedly feeding Shaquille O'Neal in the post and The Diesel responded by scoring 10 of his season high 23 in the fourth quarter, leading the visiting Miami Heat past a depleted Washington Wizards team, 92-83. With Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison out with injuries, the Heat ran multiple defenders at Gilbert Arenas all night, holding him to 15 points on 3-15 shooting.......

The Wizards 104-99 win over the Detroit Pistons last night at the Verizon Center evened the season series to 2-2, solidified D.C.'s grip on the top spot in the Eastern Conference, and has rendered it extremely probable that Eddie Jordan will coach the East's All-Star Team in Vegas. Good news all around then, except for the small matter of Antawn Jamison re-injuring the left knee he tweaked playing Boston on January 20th. Jamison suffered......

After last Friday's win in Orlando and upcoming games this week against the Phoenix Suns and Detroit Pistons, Saturday night's game at the Verizon Center against the banged up Boston Celtics had all the characteristics of a trap game. The Celtics were without Paul Pierce, Wally Szczerbiak and Tony Allen, among others, and losers of seven of their last eight games. Should be easy pickings, right? Well, almost. The Wiz built up a big......

For the past two days the media have been wondering why no one double teams Gilbert Arenas when he has the ball. So the Knicks tried it last night to great effect. Agent Zero was held to 16 points on 4-14 shooting, but got the ball in the hands of his teammates consistently, which enabled the Wizards to take down the Knicks 99-98. Yes, it was another wild finish at the Verizon Center last......

The Washington Wizards took another step towards the Mendoza Line last night with an emphatic 120-91 win over the visiting Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets entered the Verizon Center with an impressive 12-7 record and a viable MVP candidate in Baltimore product Carmelo Anthony. They left the court looking like a team that was in the middle of a five game road trip, wondering who would be shipped out of town in a possible deal......

Monday night's solid win against the Dallas Mavericks, halting one of the league's best teams' hot twelve game winning streak, ought to give the Wizards a jolt of confidence as they head tonight to Madison Square Garden to face off against the hapless New York Knicks. Should, but likely won't, for the simple reason that the game won't be played in Washington, D.C. Not that MSG is a particularly intimidating venue these days -- the......

Pop quiz, hotshot. Your team is up three in the waning seconds and your opponent is inbounding the ball. Do you just play defense and hope for a stop? Or do you foul before the other team can shoot a three, putting them on the line so they can't tie the game in one possession? Last night at the MCI Center, Wizards coach Eddie Jordan chose the former and his team paid for it. The......

Don't look now, but the NBA season is just two weeks away. When last we saw the Washington Wizards, LeBron James was carving up their defense and talking Gilbert Arenas out of winning games from the line. The Wiz may not have made as much noise this offseason as last, but sure-handed (and recently re-signed) General Manager Ernie Grunfeld did make some moves. They include: 1) Re-upping coach Eddie Jordan for three more years.......

US Basketball announced yesterday that the Wizards' All-Star duo, Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison, remain on the Men's National team after the latest round of cuts. With 15 players remaining, there are only 3 cuts to be made before the final squad is set for the World Championships. The inclusion of Arenas was expected, as the 24-year-old is coming off his best season yet (29.3 ppg), and is just entering the prime of his......

Ouch. That one hurt. Just 3.6 seconds from heading home with a commanding 3-2 series lead, the Washington Wizards had a severe case of brain lock and allowed LeBron James to score an almost uncontested lay up to give the Cavs a 121-120 win in Game 5 of the NBA's best first round playoff series. LeBron one-upped Agent Zero 45 points to 44 and gets to enjoy being the hero for his efforts. If......

It looks like the coronation of King James will have to wait a few days. After posting a triple double in his first ever playoff game, LeBron James followed that up with a 10 turnover stinker that included a missed breakaway dunk. Instead, the Cavs were lead by Drew Gooden (11-12 from the field, 11 rebounds) and aided and abetted by some stretch run calls by the officials that had Wiz fans screaming "home......

The first two times the Celtics and Wizards matched up this year the refs decided the games on dubious calls down the stretch. Last night they let the players decide the game and unfortunately for Washington, Paul Pierce had the ball last. Pierce, who led the NBA in scoring for the month of February, made a deep, off balanced 22 footer over Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler as time expired in OT to give the......

When the NBA calendar turns to March, teams are either start thinking about lottery choices or jockeying for playoff position. The Washington Wizards, after a slow start to the season, seemed to find their groove in February and catapulted themselves back into the playoff race, currently holding a precarious grip on the sixth seed in the East. Tonight on ESPN, they take on Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers, who currently trail the Wizards......