Par Guillaume Kagni | Journaliste sportif

Basketball is a sport of repetition, where muscle memory plays an important role. Why were Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan so comfortable shooting over two or three defenders when necessary? Because they spent hours in training trying their luck from all those difficult positions. No matter where they were on the floor, they knew how to find the net.

And this is even more obvious when the players get to the free-throw line. Whatever the level, whatever the percentage of success, every basketball player develops an invariable routine that enables him to concentrate and maximize this opportunity. These gestures also conceal a good deal of superstition, especially at the top of the hierarchy.

At the professional level, some decide to always wear their equipment in the same order so as not to jinx themselves. Others always wear the same underwear on game days. And as former Warriors Jason Richardson explained, Gilbert Arenas also had lunar beliefs. He spoke on Paul George’s podcast.

I quickly realized that Gilbert Arenas was completely crazy. During our second season with the Warriors, he was really bad during a game. At halftime, he started sprinting to the locker room. The coach comes in, starts giving his tactics, and when he wants to address Gilbert, he realizes he’s not there. Everyone started looking for him. That’s when we heard the shower.

Two minutes later, we see him emerge from the shower in his clothes. He still had his socks and shoes on, but he was soaking wet. He said it was to clean up his first half. And what’s worse, he must have put up around 25 points in the second half alone. That’s when I knew something was wrong in his head. We’ll never see another player like him.

Gilbert Arenas doesn’t pretend to be a little crazy, he really is. Jason Richardson realized this as early as their second season in Golden State, when he saw the point guard taking a shower in his game gear to clean up his bad first half. And what’s worse, this superstition paid off, as Agent 0 came back with much better intentions.