Gilbert Arenas

Gilbert Arenas has come a long way since his days as a 16-year old senior at Ulysses S. Grant High School in Van Nuys, California. Although he averaged 33.4 points that year he was passed up on by his hometown team, UCLA, which became a bit of a theme on his journey to the NBA. Despite leaving Los Angeles to play his college at the University of Arizona, he starred for the Wildcats and led them to two NCAA tournament births as a No. 1 overall seed and to the national championship game in 2001. After his second season at Arizona he entered the NBA Draft as one of the college’s top prospects, but was again passed up on by every team in the first round. This did not phase Arenas, as he went on to star for the Golden State Warriors during his first two NBA seasons and become a perennial All-Star for the Washington Wizards from 2003 to 2010. Although he signed a six-year, $111 million contract in 2008 with the Wizards he was traded to Orlando in 2010, but was ultimately waived a year later. Due to the fact that he was waived under the amnesty clause he still received what was owed to him over the length of the contract, and in 2013 he signed to play with China’s Shanghai Sharks.