Gilbert Arenas gets derogatory with a hateful take on the Utah Jazz.
What you say matters. The way you say what you say matters. You can only justify getting clicks and views so much by what you say if what you say is hateful and wrong. It doesn’t matter if you were only saying it for clicks and views, it becomes who you are. If only Gilbert Arenas had the foresight to realize he was ruining his reputation with the way he talked.
Arenas, once a famous NBA point guard with the Washington Wizards, retired after a series of injuries derailed his skills. After the injuries started to mount, the most noteworthy thing he did was nearly get into a shoot-out in the Wizards locker room with a teammate over just $1,100. That’s the kind of guy we’re discussing.
After his career ended, Arenas did what every washed-up player does; started a podcast. And now that he has his own podcast, Arenas can spout out the most vile and hateful rhetoric he can muster, all for clicks and listens, and that’s exactly what he did while taking aim at the Utah Jazz.
In the most recent episode of Gil’s Arena (via Sports Illustrated), Arenas, and former Milwaukee Bucks guard Brandon Jennings spoke about the Jazz. Arenas, doing his best edge-lord impression, sounded off against the team based in Salt Lake City in a rant that even he described as ‘racist’.
"They lowkey need to get rid of the Jazz. The whole franchise, just tear it down. Man, move the Jazz to Seattle so we can get it crackin’… Utah should be the only team where you can only play white players. Just all foreigners and white players. I don’t want to see no black players.I know this sounds racist. If Utah was just all white, I’m pretty sure no one would say nothing about it. Because we know they’d be trash… Nobody would be offended!… and we would literally be okay."
Sadly for Arenas, the Jazz aren’t going anywhere. Salt Lake City is one of the upcoming cities in the United States, and the Jazz fandom is among the most loyal and dedicated in the country. So Jazz fans should stay level and not go off the handle at Arenas’ hateful rhetoric. At the end of the day, he’s no different than the average Jo Schmo with a podcast, spouting ill-informed takes all to serve the mighty algorithm.
As long as the Jazz fans keep supporting the Jazz, al Arenas will be able to eat these words, that have painted him as nothing more than an ignorant ex-player who isn’t worth remembering; let alone ever listening to again.