Gilbert Arenas On ‘Podcast P With Paul George’

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Gilbert Arenas talks stealing MJ’s Wizards practice gear, training Bronny James, LeBron’s evolution, and more on “Podcast P with Paul George”.

Today, we share this week’s episode of “Podcast P with Paul George”–presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment–where PG and the guys are joined by 3x NBA All-Star, Gilbert Arenas.

In the episode, Gilbert shares how the nickname ‘Agent Zero’ originated from MySpace and snowballed into a moniker reflective of his on-court prowess.

Gilbert also talks about stealing and wearing Michael Jordan’s used practice gear from his time on the Wizards and his time training Bronny James before his freshman year of high school.

Later in the episode, Gilbert talks about his relationship with Kobe Bryant and how the late Lakers star encouraged him to pursue coaching, a decision that was coincidentally made the night Kobe tragically passed away.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

  • 3:30 – GIL ON GETTING HIS NICKNAME ‘AGENT ZERO’ FROM MYSPACE

Gil: “It started from MySpace…So my friend unlocked where I had 50 women, right? So I just put all the beautiful women that I had, everybody up there, and I put secret service, right? So this is my secret service girl. So when I end up getting to DC, it was like, secret service, you, zero, you like an agent. And then when I heard Agent Zero…Agent Zero. I like that. All because of MySpace.”

  • 24:20 – GIL ON THE BIGGEST FORK IN HIS CAREER; IF THERE WERE G-LEAGUES BACK THEN

Gil: “My first year, wasn’t playing. [I] didn’t think I was an NBA player. You sitting there watching games and you seeing real NBA players. I’m like, dang. Where [are] them little sorry mugs I was messing with in summer league, where they at? Where them players at? I can play against them. I can’t play against these dudes right here. So I’m lucky there was no G-League or D-League then because I for sure would have been down there, just lost my career.”

  • 31:00 – GIL ON WHAT SHOULD BE ADDED TO THE NBA DRAFT COMBINE

Gil: “Oh for sure one-on-one. Yeah, it depends on what pick. If I got like the first [or] second pick, I want one-on-one. One hour, two hours, I want to see who cracks. It ain’t no dodging…I love it because I want to see who cracks under pressure today, tomorrow, I got the number one pick in the draft. You can’t tell me you’re not coming to see me. The fuck you talking about? So I’m going to test you all month, because I want to see if you all played against each other ten times. How many times did you beat him?…Is he saying he losing every game, but he’s still hungry? That all determines on what type of player you got? That all determines something. You can’t tell that in the way.”

  • 36:20 – GIL ON HOW LEBRON’S GAME HAS EVOLVED FROM WHEN THEY WENT HEAD TO HEAD VERSUS NOW

Dallas: “I just want to know what you see as the major differences of LeBron’s game when you were playing against him. And now what you get to watch against guys like, P.”

Gil: “He was one of those players… so smart that he plays to his strengths, never his weaknesses. So when you’re trying to say he’s not a one on one guy,…he’s not going to try to do it right. He’s going to play to his perfection. And that’s hard to do, you have to consciously be thinking about like Ben Simmons, ‘I’m not going to be suckered in to just shoot jump shots just to prove a point. That’s what LeBron mastered, I’m just going to stick with what I’m great at and I’m going to perfect it. And if y’all think he’s fast now, what you think was coming down the lane then?”

PG: “I tell people that all the time.”

Gil: “Okay this is 38, 39. What do you think 21, 22 was looking like, man? Worse.”

PG: “You saw the worst of it more than I did. But I tell, like, even the rooks, they’d be looking in awe, like, ‘damn, you see that?’ I’ll be like, ‘did I see that?’”

  • 38:58 – PG ON ALMOST BEING TRADED TO CLEVELAND TO TEAM UP WITH LEBRON

PG: “So he [LeBron] was basically playing a middleman because I almost got traded to Cleveland after Indiana, the deal was damn near done. Indiana pulled out. Basically [they were] like, we’re not going to trade him to the same division. They pulled out, canceled the trade, and they sent me to Oklahoma, but the deal was damn near done to bring me to Cleveland with LeBron. That would have been crazy. Yeah, it would have been crazy.”

  • 42:57 – GIL ON CHAMPIONSHIP RINGS BEING USED TO KEEP PLAYERS AWAY FROM GREATNESS

Gil: “Now, when you’re sitting there watching peers win championships, and then they get bumped in front of you because they got a ring…Now the ego kicks in like, oh, this is all we need is a ring. Let me go get one of those then. And I think that’s where players are now, is you’re using rings to dictate where my legacy is. So, all right, let me go ahead and get one of those then. And then we can see where I rank…And that’s the unfair part, because that wasn’t created on greatness, right. Rings wasn’t created to establish greatness then. They’re using it now to keep everybody away from greatness. That’s the bad part.”

  • 52:33 – GIL ON TRAINING BRONNY JAMES; LEBRON WORRIED ABOUT BRONNY’S SKILLS GOING INTO HIGH SCHOOL

Gil: “He [LeBron] hit me in the DM [and] said, ‘yo, my son [is] going to be at Heritage [School]…Can you put eyes on him? I’m a little worried. He’s getting ready. He’s in 8th grade, getting ready to go 9th.’ I said, I bet [and] went there watching him, and I hit him back and I said, ‘yo, y’all probably got the same speed, probably got the same passing skills, IQ damn near the same at this age. He probably jumps a little bit higher, probably a little bit stronger. He can definitely shoot better and dribble better than you, right?’ He was like, yeah, that’s right. And then, so he was like, yo, can you train him?

So, yeah, take him down to UCLA was putting him through the work, right? And then I had another kid with me, Sky Clark who goes to Louisville right now. And Sky was a lot better. And then they’re playing one on one. I got my son in there with him, right? My son was young, right. I told Bronny he’s getting beat on. I was like, man, stand up for yourself, man. Come on, man, stand up for yourself. And then the look he gave me, Got the ball, came down …just palmed it like the Kwhai palm. Boom. And went to the rim. I’m like, oh, shit. Then I called Bron [and said] ‘Yeah, you ain’t got to worry.’”

  • 1:09:00 – GIL REVEALS HAUNTING COINCIDENCE OF COACHING DECISION AND KOBE’S TRAGIC HELICOPTER CRASH

PG: “When this episode dropped, it’ll be nearly the four year anniversary of Kobe’s passing. After you retired, you saw Kobe, y’all had a conversation. Basically, Kobe gave you some jewels and some gems to take with you. Can you share what that conversation was?”

Gil: “He was like, man, when you gonna stop being an idiot on social media and get into coaching?…Then he was after my daughter because he had the girls team, right? So he already has Z-Bo’s [Zach Randolph] daughter. And because they practice in Orange County, it’s like, how am I to going get my daughter all the way to Orange County every day after school? You got to get her there, then come back. She’d come back 11:00PM and if she don’t practice, she [is] going to come off the bench. And I ain’t got that type of daughter.

This is the weird thing, so I’m having a bad night like tossing and turning…I called the coach and said, ‘Hey, man, I want to coach.’…And then my boy text[ed] me [about the helicopter accident], and then I read it, I was like, okay, Kobe, who? Kobe Bryant…So it was so weird that the day I said I was going to coach and finally put his wish in – or his demand for me – that [the crash] happened, right?”

  • 1:31:14 – GIL REVEALS TAKING MJ’S PERSONAL WIZARDS PRACTICE GEAR STUFF FROM HIS LOCKER ROOM AND HAVING HIS SON GET IT SIGNED; GIL ALSO WORE MJ’S PERSONAL ORTHOPEDICS THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER

Gil: “There’s items that his team searches for on the Internet to see. Like, let’s say you got some PEs [Player Editions], right? They’re just made for you. So if he ever see them on the [inter]net being sold, he knows what every item [is]. So I had my son, when he was in Jordan camp, had my son go up there and get it signed, and he was like, hey, where’d you get this? As soon as my son put [it on the table, Jordan was], like, ‘hey, where’d you get this?’ He was like ‘my dad.’ [Jordan] was like, ‘who is your dad?’ He was like, ‘Gilbert.’ Jordan said ‘I knew it. Where’s the rest of the shit?’

Because when he left, he left all his game and practice stuff. Right? His bag. So when he’s seen that, he knew that was his stuff. So he’s like, give me the rest of the shit. And then he signed all his old practice [stuff]. So I have his undergame practice shorts, undergame game shorts, had his orthotics – I wore his orthotics during my career. Oh y’all thought y’all getting Agent Zero? Y’all getting Agent Zero and MJ.”