Not many things could get me up and at ‘em at 7:30 on a Friday morning, but getting an inside look at how Gilbert Arenas is training in preps for this season is one of them.



So my coffee, my digital camera and I arrived at Verizon Center shortly after 8. It was myself, a slew of print reporters, including Washington Post blog guru Dan Steinberg, and some more TV media.


View Images From Gil's Workout


At around 8:30, Gilbert entered the practice court, all smiles, and began stretching with his athletic trainer, Drew Cleary. We were all snapping photos, and for about the next hour it was sort of odd -- like all silent and everyone just watching -- as Gil did drills and different warmups.

I was trying to snap photos and they kept turning out fuzzy until my friend Pete told me it was my shaky hand and not the subject that was causing the blur… Anyway, Gilbert told us after that he had taken his three-hour workout and jammed it into about an hour’s worth of time. He and his trainers, Drew C. and Dave Hopla, used different contact pads to act like defenders as Gilbert barreled toward the basket.

Gilbert did take breaks, during which we got the chance to chat with him. He told us that the tonic that he drinks with his vitamin water to keep from cramping tastes awful and that he was excited about his latest blog he had written on the NBA Web site.



Then he got back to work and took a stab at 60 3-pointers. He told us that, each day, he attempts 100 3-pointers from seven different spots on the court -- all part of his training. In fact, he did 50,000 in 23 days recently.

I am about to run on the set and do my show, so I have to wrap up my blog right now, but, I have more to come, including why Gilbert now uses biking down Constitution Avenue as a source of training, and why he really gets up at 3 a.m. sometimes and heads straight to Verizon.

Until then, here are a few things I took from his impromptu interview today…

THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT GILBERT TODAY:

-- Fatherhood has given him a new perspective.

-- He and Antonio Daniels have a competition going to get in better shape.

-- It took a teenager’s flip comment on an online video game to make Gil laugh for the first time two weeks after he suffered his season-ending injury last April.
-- He doesn’t want to be considered the leader of the Wizards team and feels it’s something that should come with years and veteranship.