As a rule, we don't do a lot of pining here at SB Nation DC. Gilbert Arenas is and will always be one of the most interesting athletes and people ever to walk the streets of the District. But he's gone now, and he isn't coming back.
However ...
We also feel obligated to point out this two-part interview with Sam Amick of SI.com that went up Monday morning, in which Arenas discusses being amnestied by Orlando back in December (these are his first public comments since then), trying to get his head right, and, yes, THAT locker room incident.
Quotes after the jump.
On life before his fall:
You know, so much happened so fast, and I never got to think about it. I get injured, I get injured, I get injured ... and then my coach gets fired, my owner died -- he was my dad away from home -- and then the gun incident and the media and all that stuff. I get back, I get traded and then me and my girlfriend, we're going through it, and then she puts me on blast, so it was just so much. My mom died during all that, and I didn't even get to reconcile with her to say I forgive her and all that stuff. I had so much in there and I didn't have time to really think about anything.
On the gun incident and the media coverage (parentheticals original):
I've never talked about it, and I felt like this: The reason I never talked about it was because if [the media] couldn't do your own research to find out the truth then why should I do it for you? It was like, "If you don't care, I don't care."
OK, I owed my teammate [Javaris Crittenton] money and I pulled a gun on him? OK, does that even make sense, like I owed you money but I'm pulling a gun on you?
When somebody writes an article, it can be 10 percent right and 90 percent wrong, but if they write it, it's going to be 100 percent right. And the more you try to explain it, the more you look like you're lying.
If I did everything they said I did in that locker room, how come they never tried to void my contract? That's the only way I can explain it. Not even attempted [to void the contract]. Not even talked about attempting it. That's actual facts. I'm not making that up.
Read the whole thing, as they say. There's a lot more interesting stuff where that came from.