Former Wizard Jerry Stackhouse weighs in on his former team

Blog excerpt from washingtonpost.com/wizardsinsider

Only two months ago, Jerry Stackhouse was back home in suburban Atlanta, thankful that a high school coach granted him access to his gym and let the 35-year-old stay in shape playing against players nearly half his age. The Wizards probably would have preferred Stackhouse remain with those kids in Georgia rather than being on the court representing Milwaukee on Wednesday, when he came off the bench and scored 13 points with three assists in a 100-87 Bucks win.

When the former Wizard entered the game late in the first quarter, Washington was leading by five points, but by the time he sat about 12 minutes later, Milwaukee was leading by three points. During that time, Stackhouse scored 10 points and the Bucks outscored the Wizards, 29-21.

The Wizards play the Bucks again on Friday at Verizon Center.

Stackhouse, who signed with the Bucks on Jan. 18 after sitting out the first part of the season, has been in the unique position of being teammates with both Gilbert Arenas and Josh Howard, two Wizards whose seasons have come to an end for different reasons. Stackhouse spent one season with Arenas and the previous five with Howard, and he described both situations -- Arenas and his guns, Howard and his torn ACL -- as "discouraging."

He has observed the Wizards from afar this season and said he can't imagine how difficult it must be -- especially for Arenas and Javaris Crittenton, who was also suspended for bringing a gun to the locker room. "They became the poster boys for negative publicity, with this season happening and it's kind of disappointing, because those guys really aren't the characters some are making them out to be," Stackhouse said. "That's the discouraging part about it."

Asked specifically about Arenas, Stackhouse said, "Everybody at some point wishes that he'd grow up a bit, but at the same time, you knew he had a big heart and would help anybody. You can tell by the things he did for kids in the community, spend time in the hood playing and doing stuff like that. For everybody to lose sight of those things and all of a sudden, he's like a gun-toting bandit or something like that; that was the discouraging part of it. But when you make light of real serious situations, that's what can happen. Hopefully, he can get back and be who he is. I think this league, our league and our society is good, if you come back and you're genuine about what you've done, then they'll forgive him and they'll love him again."

Stackhouse said he felt badly for Howard, a fellow North Carolina native whose stint with the Wizards lasted only four games after he arrived from Dallas. Stackhouse said he thought Howard "welcomed a fresh start" because he often had to shoulder the blame for the Mavericks' postseason failings.

"He brought a little bit of it on himself, with some things that he did, but for the most part, he became the scapegoat for everything that went wrong there. When anything didn't go right, it was put on Josh," Stackhouse said. "So it was good for him to get to a new situation and I was excited for him because I know he could've thrived in Washington. It's tough having that kind of injury going into a contract year, where it's basically the team's option. The good part about it, is hopefully, he can get healthy and show a team that he's young. Somebody is going to give him a chance again."

In his final season in Washington, Stackhouse was limited to just 26 games after struggling to come back from a knee injury. "It's like, I don't want to say it's a curse, but tough things happen to people when they go to that city, as far as injuries."

When asked to expound, Stackhouse lifted his hand and said, "I don't really want to go there."