Sadly, it looks like Mike Jones has dug up some more evidence for the “Gilbert won’t be coming back this season” camp:

And the company line from Ernie Grunfeld is that Gilbert Arenas is coming back, but the growing sentiment in the locker room that it’s not going to happen.

“It doesn’t look like anybody’s coming back this year,” one player said. “Nobody. I don’t think so. I’d be surprised.”

Now, maybe that’s just an emotional reaction after a deflating loss against the Celtics, but it sure doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of hope in the locker room that Gilbert will be able to salvage what’s left of this season.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The Sugar Bowl may not have been as sweet as Javier Arenas wanted it to be, but you certainly can’t fault him for trying last night.  Gilbert’s cousin set a Sugar Bowl record for the longest punt return in its 75 year history as he returned a punt 73 yards for a touchdown last night.  That gives Javier six return touchdowns in his career at Alabama.  If you want to see some more highlights of Agent 28, check out the following video:

Hey everybody, as you can tell by the oversized hat sitting precariously on Gilbert’s head, 2009 is right around the corner.  As you all get ready to make your resolutions for the new year, here are some links to catch up on before the ball drops:

- Let’s start with the latest news on Gilbert’s return date.  As you’ll see, it’s a lot like the old news, which is to say that there’s no new news.  Don’t believe me?  Well, let’s ask Ernie Grunfeld about when Gilbert is coming back this season:

“I don’t know. He’s working hard, but no timetable. Whenever he’s ready.”

But on the bright side, he does say that there have been no plans to shut him down for the season.  So there’s still a good chance that we’ll see him this season…we just don’t know when.

- Peter Robert Casey landed an interview with Bethlehem Shoals of Free Darko and during their Q&A they touched on

Gilbert Arenas was rightfully included in the chapter titled ‘Uncanny Peacocks.’ He was also selected to pen the foreward to the book. Is there any Lord of the Flies symbolism here? How was Agent Zero chosen amongst the collective cast of NBA characters?

Arenas has always been the patron saint, or muse, or chief model, for FreeDarko, in the same way that the 2004-05 Suns or 2006-07 Warriors are for teams. He’s far from perfect, and hasn’t played in ages, but when he was on, no one came close to his ability to be weird and unique on and off the court while still being an extremel productive player. He made the whole team, maybe even the whole league, change their perspective just a little.

- Over at ESPN Magazine they make the case that Gilbert is no longer the top blogging athlete now that his post rate has gone down.

Now that we know Gilbert to be Gilbert, and a large amount of other athletes have caught onto blogging, Arenas is no longer far and away the king of athlete blogtopia; he’s merely a jester in the court. This is not to say Agent Zero doesn’t still bring it when he occasionally checks in on his blog: His Obama tattoo story and the story of his girlfriend proposing to him are typical quintessential Gil, and the length of entries—without fail, almost always a couple thousand words—make up for him not chiming in as much. But, Arenas used to be the guy writing those long entries once a week. Prolific, he no longer is.

I agree with the premise of what they’re saying, Gilbert’s posting has fallen off quite a bit since the glory days, but what’s there to talk about right now?  He can’t build a new pool every week.

With Gilbert still recovering from knee surgery and the Wizards nowhere near playoff contention, it was only a matter of time before people started questioning whether or not he would return this season.  Here’s what Ivan Carter had to say on the subject after last night’s game:

They are only whispers but I’m hearing chatter that Gilbert Arenas and the team is seriously pondering whether to bring him back at all this season. He originally targeted Dec. 1 as a possible comeback date and certainly expected to be in uniform last night but remains on the shelf with not clear date in sight.

When you add that together with Ed Tapscott mentioning a few weeks ago that there’s no timetable for Arenas’ return and it doesn’t take much to come to the conclusion that there’s probably at least been some discussions at Wizards headquarters about the subject, if nothing else.

Fanhouse’s Tom Ziller has penned the argument for the Sit Gilbert camp. Like all of Ziller’s work, it deserves your attention and consideration.  I get the feeling that my argument for Gilbert’s return this season won’t be nearly as well put, but I feel compelled to argue the other side, so here’ goes nothing.  Here are the reasons (in no particular order) why Gilbert should play this season if he’s 100% healthy:

• Many have expressed fear that all of Gilbert’s knee surgeries have robbed him of his talent and turned him into Penny Hardaway 2.0.  The only way we’ll be able to find out if that’s happened is to get him out on the court and see how well he performs.  If the knee surgeries have robbed him of his abilities it would be a devastating blow, but at least both sides would know what they have and they could adjust their plans moving forward, which would be big since the Wizards will probably have a high draft pick this summer.  Even if they just brought him back for a few games late in the season long after everything has been decided (think Elton Brand last season), it would go a long way in making decisions easier this off-season.
• Remember what happened last year when the team kept pushing Gilbert’s return back farther and farther?  The most disturbing line from that incident for me was when he said “Now, they are messing with my mind.”  While it seems to be more of a mutual decision this time around, you have to wonder if all of this time on the bench will play more games with his mind as he starts to question whether or not he’s ever going to get healthy.  And if there’s one player in the NBA that you don’t want playing head games with himself, it’s probably Gilbert Arenas.
• It’s hard to write a blog about a guy that’s played less than 30 games in the last 2 years.  I can only show those buzzer beaters so many times before they get boring.

With a 111 million dollar contract, Gilbert can buy a lot of gifts for others this season, but here’s the gifts that I think we’d all like to see Gilbert get this Thursday:

12 statues waxing

11 Etch-A-Sketches

10 pranks on Nick

9 old school albums (Mint Condition? Really?)

8 lucky coin flips

7 hours of Halo

6 trips to Asia

5 SHOTS FOR THREE!!!

4 finger tattoos

3 tanks for sharks

2 shakes on Kobe

And a clean bill of health for his knee.