WASHINGTON: Gilbert Arenas signed his six-year, $111 million contract with the Washington Wizards on Sunday, securing the return of a player who accepted less money than he was offered.
Arenas and the Wizards agreed to the deal on July 3, but both sides waited until Arenas returned from an overseas trip to settle the details.
The Wizards offered Arenas a maximum contract — $127 million over six years — leaving it up to the unpredictable Agent Zero to decide whether he would live up to his previous statement that he would take a lesser amount if it would help the team sign other players and improve the prospects of contending for a NBA title. Arenas negotiated the deal without an agent while traveling in China on a promotional tour for a shoe company.
The Wizards also bolstered their chances of keeping Arenas by signing free agent teammate Antawn Jamison to a four-year, $50 million contract. Arenas had said he would not return to the team if his good friend Jamison had been allowed to leave.
Because Arenas did not accept the max contract, the Wizards have room to make another significant addition this offseason without going over the NBA’s luxury tax limit.
“I think with the players we have on this roster, we can compete with anyone in the NBA,” Arenas said in a statement released by the team. “And I look forward to returning to the court next season on a mission to deliver a championship banner.”
A three-time All-Star point guard, Arenas has proven to be one of the most exciting players in the NBA when healthy, averaging 22.8 points, 5.5 assists and 4.2 rebounds in his seven-season NBA career.
But a major knee injury and an overzealous rehabilitation sidelined him for most of last season. After his first surgery on the knee in April 2007, he tried to come back too soon and had a second operation in November. He missed 66 games before returning late in the season, then he had to shut himself down again during the first-round playoff series against Cleveland.
During an appearance in Europe after his trip to China, Arenas said his knee was “about 95 percent” and that he didn’t want “to touch a basketball until August” because he wanted to make sure he was healthy before returning to the court.
Report: Pattern of calls emerges in Donaghy case
Meantime, former NBA referee Tim Donaghy made more than 100 phone calls to a fellow official at the same time he was providing information to gamblers during the 2006-07 season, Fox News reported on Monday.
Citing court documents and phone records it obtained, Fox reported Donaghy placed 134 calls to referee Scott Foster from October 2006 to April 2007, the period during which he has confessed to betting on games or passing on game information to gamblers.
It’s not known what information was exchanged during the calls between Foster and Donaghy, who is awaiting sentencing later this month in federal court.
The 41-year-old Donaghy pleaded guilty last year to felony charges of taking cash payoffs from gamblers in the 2006-07 season. He faces up to 33 months in prison.
According to Fox News, the majority of the phone calls lasted no more than two minutes and occurred before and after games Donaghy officiated and on which he admits wagering.
Reached for comment by Fox, Foster was asked if he was being investigated by the NBA, the government or anyone else.
“Not that I know of,” he said.
He declined to comment on his relationship with Donaghy and the nature of the calls.
NBA Commissioner David Stern has called Donaghy a “rogue, isolated criminal” acting on his own, without the cooperation of any other referees or league officials.
The only person Donaghy called more often (150 times) was Thomas Martino, to whom Donaghy has said he provided picks to win games and who was the middleman between the former ref and a bookie named James Battista.
During this period, the most calls Donaghy made to any other referee were 13, Fox said. Battista and Martino, who pleaded guilty to defrauding the NBA, are to be sentenced on July 24.
