More Health Guarantees From the Hibachi

Gil Arenas continues to promise that he will be opting out of his current contract with the Wizards at the end of the month.

The promises don't stop there.  Agent Zero has once again asserted that his rehabilitated knee is going to be good to go once more before it's too late.

As reported by the Washington Post's Ivan Carter:

The free agency period opens July 1, and Arenas has until June 30 to opt out of a deal that would pay him $12.8 million with the Wizards next season. Yesterday, via a text message, he revealed his plan to wait until the final day.

When asked why he planned on waiting until June 30 to opt out, Arenas wrote, "I just want to wait."

"I'll be full speed by October," said Arenas, who along with Walt Bellamy is one of only two players in franchise history to score 2,000 points in each of three consecutive seasons. "I'm not going to do anything stupid this summer. I'm going to take my time and prepare for next season. I'm going to be smart about it this year. I'm going to have five or six months to get this thing strong again and ready to go again."

That he'll stick to his comments about waiting on the opt-out seems likely.  Guarantees about the man's health seem considerably murkier.

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Much as I enjoy watching the Hibachi's theatrics on the floor, I'm moving toward the "I'll believe it when I see it" attitude regarding his health.  He has clearly not been the same since the injury at the end of the 2006-07 campaign, and he has only hit the 80-game mark twice in the last five seasons.  Arenas has now hit two false starts in coming back from last year's knee injury, and one can only imagine how much of a toll the stop-and-start routine is taking on him both physically and emotionally.

To that end, here's wondering if he won't be costing himself a bundle of money when he does opt out at the end of the month.  In the meantime, the hope here is that he does make a full recovery and is ready to come back and be a force in this league come next season.  His antics are too entertaining to lose this quickly.