The quirkiness started long before Arenas came to Washington.
Long before Arenas kills himself (with pills and a plastic bag), his will to live appears to be spent.
But the season quickly turned disastrous, even before Arenas — in what he called a misguided joke — displayed his guns in the locker room.
The pictures were taken in November, before Arenas brought several guns to the Washington Wizards' locker room at the Verizon Center, and before the N.B.A. suspended him without pay for mocking an investigation into his gun-toting incident.
Even before Arenas took four handguns into the team's locker room — he pleaded guilty to a felony, carrying a pistol without a license in the District of Columbia — the Wizards were anchored at the bottom of the N.B.A. Eastern Conference's Southeast Division for a second straight year.
Maybe there's flowing hair shaking before arena-sized crowds, a few technicolor scarves and Eddie Van Halen-espotlightlight posturing.
Long before arenas and stadiums included naming rights deals in their financing plans, it was common to recognize the thousands that sacrificed their lives when naming a venue.
Previously contestants had been auditioned before an arena audience.
Pickoffs and drop-offs on nonevent nights have seen little change, compared to nights before the arena opened.
"You are a shortsighted corporate jackass," Cena told his boss before an arena of ecstatically screaming Ohioans.
