Arenas one star worthy of our forgiveness

You can find no quick truths to a man's contrition. Take Gilbert Arenas, for example. Arenas wrote a column in The Washington Post decrying the stupidity of his brandishing handguns, as if he were Wyatt Earp, in a place where Glocks and .44 Magnums didn't belong.



His essay was a compelling piece of prose, words worthy of a man who knew his behavior was outside the lines.

"I understand the importance of teaching nonviolence to kids in today's world," Arenas wrote an op-ed piece for The Post. "Guns and violence are serious problems, not joking matters -- a lesson that's been brought home to me over the past few weeks."

From his words, he sounds as if he understands his civic failings, though who can be certain. I mean, what Gilbert Arenas wrote might just be another one of those SportsCenter moments that athletes are fond of.

For we've seen apologizes aplenty from high-profile athletes - from men like Mike Tyson, Kobe Bryant, Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez, Donte Stallworth, Michael Vick, and we all know that, at some point, we will see Tiger Woods producing his camera-ready moment. It will, of course, come with the appropriate tears and the maudlin words penned by Tiger's agent to give humanity to his client's serial infidelity.

But Tiger and Tyson and none of the other athletes gone wild are what interest me this day. Besides, a few of them have already fallen on their swords in hopes of being forgiven. I'm sure some people have forgiven, knowing that nobody's life is absent flaws.

Read more ...

Shaq's play brings smile to Coach Brown

Coach Mike Brown didn’t want to show too much emotion on the bench. Coaches in the NBA know not to do that when their teams are running roughshod over an opponent. No, they must sit there and bask in the moment. They can’t be sure how long moments like these will last.

With the Cavaliers, Brown is expecting to see plenty more moments like this one, a 102-90 win Tuesday night over the Wizards. His Cavs played the way Brown had been wanting them to play this season: They hustled on defense; they moved the ball crisply on offense; and they got Shaquille O’Neal involved in all of it.

Brown’s smile afterward? Ear to ear.

“It’s great,” he said. “It’s like Christmas.”

Don’t go unwrapping those presents just yet, coach. Christmas won’t come for your Cavaliers until June -- if they can last that long. For if they make it deep into June, they’ll be in the NBA Finals, which is the reason they brought Shaquille O'Neal to Cleveland in the first place.

But bringing a talent like Shaq to Cleveland and using him aren’t the same thing. Brown had to figure out a way to get the most out of Shaq. No youngster at 37, he couldn’t be expected to put in the minutes he did a decade ago, and people have questioned aloud whether could run the floor and occupy two defenders inside.

No need to raise those questions anew, because if the victory over the Wizards, a team with postseason aspirations that are legit, attested to anything, it was this: Shaq O’Neal has plenty of skills left in his aging body.

For long stretches against the Wizards, Shaq looked as if he had drank from the fountain of youth. He pushed center Brendan Haywood around like stick figure, muscling inside the lane for high-percentage shots.

“I gotta lot ’em know I’m still here and am a force to be reckoned with,” he said as he sat in front of his locker stall.

They know, Shaq; they know. They can’t but know after seeing you score 21 points and play 28 1/2 minutes. The eight rebounds showed plenty as well, because they were statistics that complemented the inside play of LeBron James and Anderson Varejao.

Bigger than all of this was the fact, finally, Shaq fit in.

“Probably my first game where I was very, very aggressive,” he said. “The other games I was trying to fit, and I hadn’t been really taking a lot of shots; I was just trying to make sure everybody else gets involved.

“I think the guys know whenever they need a basket, they can throw it down there.”

“Down there” is in the paint -- Shaq’s domain. The weak need not venture there, and even the strong might be wise to avoid it. When Shaq can play like he did Tuesday, he can do marvelous things for a team who needs him to.

Brown would love to see Shaq play like this every night. So would LeBron and the Cavs fans who pack The Q. That might be more than Shaq can give them. Then again, who knows for certain what Shaq has left in his fuel tank. He surely ain’t running on empty, which is the reason Brown could smile.

"That was fun to watch," he said.

West silences Cavs' concerns ... for now

We waited Saturday night for Delonte West after the Cavaliers had beaten the Bobcats, 90-79, at The Q. The game was West's first of the season, and his thoughts on his performance were of interest to anybody who follows the Cavs -- fans and writers.

For more than a month, no player in Wine and Gold has been as intriguing to both of these parties as West. On a team with LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal, it's not a situation West, a talented but emotionally-fragile guard, and the other Cavaliers will find themselves in too often.

But West was of interest because he had been absent with personal problems. His mental instability worried people. Nobody knew what to make of his circumstances -- whether to be critical of this gifted athlete or sympathetic of him.

What everybody did know, however, was that the Cavaliers did miss him.

As much as LeBron and Shaq matter -- and they matter most -- West might be the most important complement to this team's two megastars. He's the team's best shooting guard and its most dependable backup point guard. West is also its best defender not named LeBron James.

West can score, and he has the kind of boundless energy not found in most NBA players.

Yet, in some people's minds, he's a lit powder keg, which was the reason his return to the Cavs lineup drew so much attention. The team hadn't functioned well in West's absence.

"Missing piece," point guard Mo Williams said of West. "It felt good to have the whole team back."

LeBron and Shaq echoed those sentiments. They offered only compliments for their returning teammate, and their kind words were deserved. For the first time this season, the Cavs looked like a team with championship intentions.

Now, they were only playing the Bobcats, a sorry lot of an NBA team. Still, an elite team like the Cavs has to beat the bad teams, too. A win is a win, no matter the opponent.

Having West a part of this win was significant, and knowing he might be back for the long haul was even more important to the Cavaliers. They will need him -- back physically as well as emotionally.

For they won't always be playing a team like Charlotte. They have tougher teams ahead, starting Tuesday night when the Cavs play the Wizard.

It might be then when West's presence will be most needed. It might be then when we can hear what he has to say about being back in uniform and playing the sport that has made him rich.

We want to hear from West himself that's he all right.