Reporting from the Jock-o-sphere: Gilbert Arenas Cedes the Throne

Agent Zero is no longer king of the blogging court.

Getty Images

Is that a tattoo or a typing injury?

We've got another entry for Wikipedia's list of common misconceptions: Gilbert Arenas is the best, and most prolific, athlete blogger.

Wrong.

Since August 5, Arenas has only penned—or rather dictated, and had someone else write—five blog posts. That's an average of one a month. That's not prolific. In fact, it's below the going rate for most athlete bloggers.

Arenas had two things going for him back during the 2006-07 NBA season when he was dubbed blog All-Star: (1) He was just emerging as the quirky, loveable NBA star we know today and he had a penchant in his blog for adding to and building on this persona, and (2) Athlete blogging was in its infancy and it was easier for him to stand out.

Now that we know Gilbert to be Gilbert and a large amount of other athletes have caught onto blogging, Arenas is no longer far and away the king of athlete blogtopia; he's merely a jester in the court. This is not to say Agent Zero doesn't still bring it when he occasionally checks in on his blog: His Obama tattoo story and the story of his girlfriend proposing to him are typical quintessential Gil, and the length of entries—without fail, almost always a couple thousand words—make up for him not chiming in as much. But, Arenas used to be the guy writing those long entries once a week. He's not prolific anymore.

Here's a list of five guys who topped Arenas' blog game in 2008.

The New Kings:

Rod Benson:
Gil's alter ego has real adventures, such as D-league turned French league turned looking for a new basketball home. Benson's popularity soared when Yahoo!'s Ball Don't Lie began running weekly entries of his. He's got all the components that make for a great blogger: humor, unflinching honesty and consistency.

Chris Cooley
Though his pace has waned of late—perhaps it had something to do with that lewd photo of his accidentally hitting his blog—Cooley emerged as an elite football blogger this year. From his personal life and marriage, to his telling-it-like-it-is attitude about his football life, Cooley struck a chord with fans and bloggers alike. Both he and Benson threw down vlogging entries to keep it fresh, too.

The Late Arrivals:

Shaquille O'Neal
With his goofy, gregarious persona, the blog world screams Shaquille O'Neal. And he recently plunged in -- sort of. To set the record straight on a fake Shaq Twitter account, the Big Diesel set up his own account, and has been dropping short nuggets of hilarity ever since.

Lance Armstrong:
Now that he's decided to ride the Tour de France again, Armstrong has been Twittering his pants off. From what movies he's watching, to what he's eating, to his training and drug tests, Armstrong is letting us in on his life like never before.

Best Non-Athlete:

Paul DePodesta
The Padres front-office assistant deserves a nod for having what is arguably the best blog not written by an athlete. Not only has DePodesta given us a window into the Padres decision-making process, he's also taken the time out to respond to comments. If only every baseball exec was this publically accessible.

Honorable mentions: Curt Schilling, Mark Cuban

Elsewhere …

Speaking of Schilling, now that he's made the move over to WEEI, he took some time to answer a few questions yesterday in a mini-mailbag. And Schilling, never, ever, ever short on words, was in fact, short on words for two particular questions:

Question (Jimmie): Would you like to be a coach or manager in some capacity anywhere in baseball?
Answer: No
Question (Carlson): Are you a Hall of Famer?
Answer: No

Looks like Schilling we be retiring into a life of video-gaming, not baseball coaching.

---

Romeo Crennel is out as head coach in Cleveland. And, according to D'Qwell Jackson, the media knew before the players did.

"It's funny how this business works," he writes. "Players are always the last to know anything that's happening. We were on the bus ride back from Pittsburgh yesterday and our phones started ringing. We were all getting calls on the bus telling us that it was posted on ESPN that Romeo is out. We knew Phil Savage was fired and we were being told Romeo was next. It's just unfortunate it didn't work out because he is a great coach. He's been doing it for 30 years and has those Super Bowl rings. He's got one as a special teams coach, defensive coordinator but we couldn't get him one as a head coach. But he'll bounce back. I am a Romeo guy and I will be in his corner throughout my career."

Odds and Ends

Race car driver Tom Hessert is now blogging for Yardbarker … Mark Cuban argues that pro sports teams need newspapers … Rudy Fernandez says rain in Portland is one thing, but snow is another issue.

Print Article . Email Article. Subscribe to The Magazine