Gilbert Arenas: 'I Lost All Feeling a Long Time Ago'

DALLAS -- Gilbert Arenas sounded like a guy who's already calling real estate agents to get an idea of what his Washington-area house is worth.

Arenas' contract with the Wizards runs through 2013-14. But Arenas, after playing his first competitive game Tuesday night since being suspended for the season last January for bringing guns into the locker room, sure spoke like someone who figures to be long gone by then.

"Teach John (Wall) the ins and outs of the game and then eventually go on and move on, and I'm on my way,'' Arenas said after playing with the point guard and No. 1 draft pick Wall for the first time in a 97-94 preseason win over Dallas at the American Airlines Center.

Wait a minute. Move on? What does that mean?

"I mean, this is the NBA,'' said Arenas, speaking for eight minutes after the game and for the first time since barely talking to reporters for three minutes at the team's Sept. 27 media day. "There's few players that stay in the same city. Right now, the city is John's. I'm not here to fight anybody. I'm here to just play alongside him. He's Batman and I'm Robin. When I came (to Washington in the summer of 2003), Larry (Hughes) moved aside for me to become a star and I'm moving aside so he can become a star.''

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As you can see, Arenas, Washington's starting point guard until Wall came in and Arenas was moved to shooting guard, eventually was backing off a bit on insinuations that moving on means leaving the Wizards. As he continued, he spoke more about playing a secondary role with the Wizards.

"I'm content at what I'm doing right now,'' said Arenas, when asked if he perhaps needs to move to another team to return to playing point guard. "Everything happens for a reason. It's easy to play with (Wall) because we're basically family. We both came from the same agent (Dan Fegan, Arenas' former agent and Wall's current one). Me and (Wall) get along great. We're like brothers. So, if I want my brother to grow, I've got to step down.''

Wait a minute. What does step down mean?

"Let him fly and I'll just fill in the gaps,'' said Arenas, who started Tuesday in a three-guard lineup with Arenas the shooting guard and Kirk Hinrich the small forward. "When I came to Washington, that's what Larry did for me. And that's what I'm doing for him.''

In Arenas' world, Tuesday apparently marked the beginning of Washington being Wall's team. It looked that way in the box score.

Playing a surprising 38 minutes, Wall, 20, totaled 21 points, nine rebounds and four assists. In 26 minutes, Arenas, 28, had 12 points, three rebounds and an assist.

"I love his game,'' Arenas said. "I loved it when he was in high school (before playing one season at Kentucky).''

Arenas spoke mostly in a matter-of-fact manner, with little joy in his voice. This guy is far from being the happy-go-lucky "Agent Zero'' who once regularly entertained reporters.

Arenas hasn't been too entertaining since the incident last December in which he and since-departed Washington guard Javaris Crittenton both brought guns into the team's locker room at the Verizon Center. Crittenton also ended up being suspended for the season. Arenas was suspended indefinitely after last playing Jan. 5 against Philadelphia; commissioner David Stern eventually sat him down for what turned out to be the final 50 games.

"It's just a double-headed sword,'' Arenas said of leaving behind "Agent Zero.'' "I guess at this point, I'm at the point where people are going to nitpick at everything I do just because I got in trouble. No. I just got to be serious and worry about what I'm doing.''

You'd have thought Arenas would have felt some happiness at finally getting back on the court. But he wouldn't admit to that.

"It was as same as the ones I played with no fans,'' Arenas said of Tuesday's game. "Five people on the court. Ten people on the court. Referees.

"I lost all feeling a long time ago. Basketball is basketball. It doesn't matter what floor I'm on.''

Arenas didn't even find much joy in several Dallas players, including former teammates Brendan Haywood, Caron Butler and DeShawn Stevenson, hugging him before the game.

"My job is to not to make friends,'' Arenas said of that. "My job is to help this team. Saying hello to my old teammates is not part of the job.''

Arenas these days wears a thick beard. Not that he needs one to hide any smiles

"I lost all feeling a long time ago. Basketball is basketball. It doesn't matter what floor I'm on."
-- Gilbert Arenas "Whenever you feel comfortable, we're just feeding off you,'' Arenas said of his belief the Wizards are now Wall's team. "This is your team and we're just behind you.''

Wall already had spoken to the media after the game before when Arenas made his declaration that the city is Wall's. Before the game, Wall did speak of a good rapport he has developed with Arenas.

"You can never judge nobody off something that happened,'' Wall said of last season's gun incident. "Everybody makes mistakes in their life and he's looking past it, and the whole team is looking past it. ... He's a great guy to me. I can't control what happened last year.''

Just three Washington players -- JaVale McGee, Andray Blatche and Nick Young -- remain from when Arenas played his last regular-season game with the team. They were a lot more excited about Arenas' return than he was.

"It was definitely great to see him, especially in the corner hitting shots and just (seeing) him running up and down the court,'' said McGee of Arenas, who shot 5-of-9, including 2-of-4 on three-pointers.

Arenas was moving well on the court. But then he talked about being ready to "move on'' in another way.

Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@fanhouse.com or on Twitter @christomasson