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Arenas Wouldn’t Let Players Who Made Under $5m Speak Directly To Him

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 18: Gilbert Arenas speaks onstage during the Gil's Arena panel at the Fanatics Fest NYC 2026 at Jacob Javits Center on July 18, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Fanatics) | Getty Images for Fanatics

Former Washington Wizards star guard Gilbert Arenas was one of the NBA’s best scorers for much of the 2000s. Now that his career is over, he has gradually begun to reveal more about his life as Washington’s superstar during that time.

Recently, he was interviewed by Justin Edelman who hosts the Games With Names podcast. One of Arenas’ unwritten rules was that if a player didn’t make at least $5 million, that player couldn’t speak to him directly. A player who made at least $5 million could be an intermediary.

Gilbert Arenas says he made a rule that Wizards teammates could not speak to him directly if they made under $5,000,000

“I was a rock star, baby. You couldn’t tell me nothing. I even put in a rule with the team. It wasn’t a hard rule, but it was a rule”

“If you don’t make five… pic.twitter.com/KiM91SnU0D
— dank (@cptdankkk) July 30, 2026

On the one hand, this rule can make Arenas look pretty bad. From the outside, we think that players on a sports team will at the very least will speak to each other when needed. But at the same time, Arenas gave insight on how superstars could effectively control a locker room. Let’s face it, a player on a minimum level contract just trying to make it in the NBA just wasn’t going to have the same cache as a player making a near maximum contract during that time.

While it is good to see Arenas reminisce his career now that it is in the rear view mirror, I think some things are best left off the record. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Arenas Wouldn’t Let Players Who Made Under $5m Speak Directly To Him

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