Summer Plans
I’m going to take a month off before I get into rehabbing. It’s hard, but it’s going to be important for my future that I at least give it a month of rest. I’m going to give it until the beginning of June before I start doing strengthening exercises again.
I’m going to spend some time relaxing and some time with my family, a little bit of both. I’m going to try and stay out of the area as much as possible. I’m going to Disney World! Ha, I wish I was saying that after a championship, but I’m just going to take my kids down to Disney World in Orlando. Other than that, I’m just going to hang around and try to stay somewhat in shape by swimming and lifting my upper body. I just have to try to stay off the court and stay off of jumping and running for a month.
I just have to monitor my body now. Last summer I took it seriously, but I didn’t take it as seriously as I should have. I worried more about my skill ability than really working on my leg as a whole. This summer I’m focusing my No. 1 priority on my knee and getting it back to 100 percent. Day in and day out, I’m going to strengthen up my knee.
Right now my pool is being built. They said it was going to be done May 2. Today is May 7, and it’s drier than a desert out there.
I just got to concentrate on this knee. For Washington, or whatever city I go to, I don’t want to come in being a half a player. I’m going to do whatever it takes to get this knee right so I can be the full force I was last year.
The Future
The future is the future. I want to be back in Washington, but weird things happen in free agency. If Antawn is not back, then there’s no point in me coming back because he’s part of my success, too. When you’re doing pick and roll with a player like him, they can’t double you, they can’t trap you because you have a pick and pop guy who can shoot the three at your four position. My success is because of him too. If he doesn’t come back, I’m not coming back.
I know everybody is focusing on whether I’m coming back, but I’m focusing on what he’s doing. If he doesn’t come back, then I’m not coming back.
We talked about it before, but I’m going to let him be his own man. At the end of the season, people don’t like the way the season ends and everyone is a little heated, so you know you have to give time for everybody and let everybody breathe first before you start talking about two months from now.
When the end of the season comes, some people get frustrated from the situation that they were in during the season. Rookies, they’re just happy the season is over with so they can go back home and brag about happened while playing in the NBA and go see their family and friends. That’s what young players do, they can’t wait to go back to their home cities.
I make it easy for him. When we do pick and roll, if they don’t stop me then I’m going to go to the basket or shoot a jump shot. If they do stop me, he’s the pop guy. He has a lot more open looks when I’m on the floor. Same thing when I played with Caron, he never got doubled when I played. You can’t double him with me and Antawn on the floor.
That’s why I never tripped or never got really mad about the whole sentiment that, “The Wizards are better with Gilbert on the bench.” That’s one of those things that somebody throws out there and everyone else just jumps aboard. The same people said that are the same people that said when Cleveland won a couple games last year when LeBron was out, that the ball moves more without LeBron. And they’re the same people who ripped Kobe when he was out. And the same people also said that the Rockets are better without Yao Ming because they won 22 straight games. But, as a superstar, you got to take the good with the bad. Last year, at the end of our season, we won 1 out of 10 games with me out of the lineup and the same people were saying, “Oh, the Wizards can’t win without Gilbert.” I take the good with the bad. You hear the good compliments; you deal with the bad ones. I’m a three-time All-Leaguer, I think you put that on anybody’s team and you automatically make them better.
When I hear I’m a ball stopper, I just laugh. I dare any of those critics to take a look at tape from the five years that I’ve been in Washington, I guarantee you can’t find 30 clips with me in halfcourt offense dribbling the ball more than 10 times. I’m not a pounder. I’m a quick shot. If they say, “Gilbert’s a quick shot,” hey, OK, that’s me. But if they say that the ball don’t move with me in there, hey, hey, that’s not me. I do two things with it, either I’m gonna shoot it, or I’m going to get it out of my hands to set up a teammate. I was never the pounding type to sit there and take 263 dribbles to get a move done. If you look at my game, I’m not flashy. I’m either going to shoot it, drive, or pass. So, if you can find me 30 clips of me dribbling the ball more than 10 times from the five years I’ve been here, I’ll do 300 pushups. You can’t count the end of the game either, where I’m dribbling down the clock just so we can have the last shot. It has to be throughout the game where you see me dribble the ball more than 10 times in the halfcourt offense.
http://my.nba.com/forum.jspa?forumID=400032200Hopefully Antawn will sign, because like Gil said, "if Twan leaves, then there's no point in me staying"
