This is not a post about Gilbert Arenas. Not really. It’s a post about how rumors start and how you need to be an educated media consumer when reading them. This is about knowing your sources of information.
We will start with some logic — the Lakers and Clippers are both top teams in the West, and both are teams that added a number of new, veteran pieces over the summer. For both, getting those pieces to meld together into a cohesive whole is a key part of training camp and the early season.
So both are thinking about bringing in… Gilbert Arenas?
That doesn’t really make a lot of sense, he would be a big personality and media draw off the court — meaning a distraction — who can provide little on the court anymore. And as someone who lives in Los Angeles let me just say it was not something I heard from a source I trust. But that was the rumor starting to work its way around the Web Tuesday.
Larry Brown Sports traced the rumor back to its origin.
Gilbert Arenas, who grew up in Los Angeles and played high school basketball in North Hollywood, Calif., stopped by a 76 gas station in Sherman Oaks on Tuesday a few blocks away from where I grew up. Gil took a photo with one of the mechanics — a gentleman who has worked on my car in the past — and answered a question about his future. Arenas apparently said he was likely to sign with the Lakers or Clippers for the upcoming season….
My mechanic tells someone who tells someone else who publishes the story on his basketball blog Hoops-Nation. From there, it ends up on a Lakers blog, and then our friends at Black Sports Online picked up on it, which is where I saw the story.
And this is how bad rumors get started and spread.
Here’s the thing — players are often the worst people to ask about where they are going to play. Not all, but some (maybe many). Because they can be pumped up with hopes and false leads by their agents, or they start to infuse reality with what they wish would happen. Arenas is a Los Angeles guy who already has a home in the area, I bet he’d like to play for the Lakers or Clippers — two stacked teams in his hometown.
But that is not the reality. Never say never, but whatever is right next to never is where this rumor lives.
At a time when players you have never heard of are getting training camp invites, Gilbert Areas is still out there as a free agent. The Lakers and Clippers have loaded rosters and the spots they have they want to give to young players they might develop.
People, be an educated media consumer. Know where your rumors come from.
