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3x All-Star Fumes Over NBA’s Current Culture, Backs LeBron James’ Nintendo Claim in Frustrated Rant

Published 03/28/2024, 7:00 AM EDT

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USA Today via Reuters

NBA players don’t always have to go along with the trends in the basketball community. LeBron James’ recent rant proved that. Now, he’s getting support from Gilbert Arenas in calling out the bag mentality. For the uninitiated, Bron called out the 1-on-1 mentality represented by the have the bag phrase. Arenas is absolutely on his side and claims these terms are being slapped on NBA players by people who’ve not played.

Arenas first let his guests see the clip of James’ rant on the Mind the Game podcast. “Everyone is a narrative of this thing called, I have a bag, or he doesn’t have a bag,” he said about how it bothered him. “Everyone thinks just because you get a favorable matchup means one-on-one time. ‘Let’s play ones,’ that’s all you hear the kids talk about now. Like what the f**k is this! This is not Jordan vs. Bird Nintendo. This is five on five.”

A couple of Arenas’ cohosts were missing context. Hence Arenas explained it to them while taking a jab at this culture too. “It’s overrated because of the people who came up with it.” Arenas pointed out the irony that the people who ‘got the bag’ weren’t the ones who came up with it. “It wasn’t the NBA players… It’s not them saying what they have.” 

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Like LeBron, Arenas is shunning the mentality that the NBA is a series of individual contests. Even in a favorable matchup, it’s a team sport. Both are of the opinion that the skill in the bag is not taking on a single opponent but anticipating that every opponent has a whole team behind them. Seasoned NBA veterans like King James and Agent Zero aren’t going to play ones.

Gilbert Arenas calls out NBA youngsters

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No Chill Gil added to support Bron’s comments, “The definitions that’s coming into the game, are coming from people who haven’t played the game, who’s not in a game, they’re just watching it. And they’re coining it. It becomes overused and overrated.” Fairly social media savvy and a media personality, Arenas is explaining to his oblivious co-hosts that these terms are coming from social media and he can’t relate to it.

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He used his own example to illustrate that he could exert all his energy to score and not get noticed. But he was not trying to be a “highlight reel” as he claims some players try to get some social media fame. As per Arenas, younger players might see more minutes on the court if they play regular hoops instead of trying to stand out alone.

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Do you think Arenas has caught the pulse of Bron’s viral opinion? Or this one’s not in his bag?

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Written by:

Caroline John

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Caroline John is a senior NBA writer at EssentiallySports. She holds a Masters degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from a reputed university. With 8 years of experience in content writing and after judiciously covering the life of Shaquille O’Neal, she even earned an exclusive interview with the CEO of Shaq’s Big Chicken franchise, Josh Halpern.
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Edited by:

Pragya Vashisth