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- Besides Gilbert,
the two most famous graduates of Grant High School are actor Tom Selleck
and Mickey Dolenz of "The Monkees."
- Gilbert and Gail
Goodrich are considered to be the two finest players ever produced by
the San Fernando Valley.
- Gilbert was Grant
High School’s first Division I scholarship player since Sean Watkins,
who played for Nevada Las Vegas in 1987.
- The Los Angeles
Times named Gilbert its 1999 San Fernando Valley Player of the
Year.
- One of the reasons
Gilbert chose Arizona was his friendship with Luke Walton of San Diego’s
University High.
- Gilbert decided
to wear number 0 in college, after people told him he would get zero
playing time as a freshman at Arizona.
- Gilbert was a third-team
All-American in 2001.
- Gilbert average
nearly three steals per game during the 2002 NCAA Tournament. He was
named the Most Outstanding Player of the Midwest Region.
- Gilbert worked
with Chris Mullin during his rookie season to improve his outside shot.
- Gilbert and fellow
rookie Jason Richardson formed the NBA's youngest starting backcourt
in 2001-02.
- In his waning days
with the Warriors, Gilbert was arrested for driving without a licensing
and carrying a concealed weapon. He was suspended for one game by the
NBA—the 2004 opener for his new team, the Washington Wizards,
more than a year later.
- Gilbert dropped
a career-high 44 on the 76ers in an April 2005 game. In his next game
he took just two shots.
- In 2005, Gilbert
became the first player from the 2001 draft class to play in the NBA
All-Star Game. When Gilbert and Antawn Jamison made the East squad as
reserves, it marked the first time since Moses Malone and Jeff Malone
played in the 1987 contest that two Washington players went in the same
year.
- The NBA threatened
to fine Gilbert for wearing shorts that were too baggy during the 2005
playoffs against Chicago. He showed up for the next game with a pair
of tight ones instead.
- Gilbert nearly
spent his first NBA paycheck on a shark tank. Warrior personnel director
Otis Smith took him to a shark expert, who explained why this would
probably be a bad idea.
- As a free agent,
Gilbert chose the Wizards over the Clippers, who made him a nearly identical
offer. He flipped a coin and Los Angeles came up eight out of 10 times.
He went with Washington to go against the odds.
- Gilbert is one
of the league’s best practical jokers. When Warrior veterans gave
him the rookie treatment and ordered him to bring doughnuts to practice,
he showed up bearing plain doughnuts with baby powder sprinkled on them.
The next time he brought real glazed doughnuts. When the players found
out he had thoroughly licked each one, Gilbert was excused from doughnut
duty.
- Gilbert is a training
fanatic. He has been known to workout three times a day on off-days.
- Gilbert lives in
Miami Beach during the off-season.
- Part of Gilbert’s
deal with adidas is that the company must outfit his old Grant High
team.
- Gilbert owns a
pair of pit bulls. They run with him on his treadmill.
- Gilbert throws
his jersey into the crowd after every home game.
- Gilbert’s
ritual pre-game dinner always comes from the same place: Boston Market.
- Gilbert walks on
and off the court on his heels. He started doing this while running
track at Grant High, to avoid shin splints.
- Gilbert rarely
sleeps more than a few hours a night.
- At a 2004 Christmas
Party for Washington area kids, Gilbert met a 10-year-old named Andre
whose mother, twin sister and great-grandfather had died in a fire.
He became Andre’s unofficial big brother, and made him a ball
boy for the Wizards.
- Gilbert’s
dad is out of the acting game. He now writes commercials.
- Many of Gilbert’s
Grant High records were broken during the 2004-05 season by Mike Danielian.
Gilbert worked out with the team in the fall of '04 and passed on tips
to Danielian.
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Luke Walton, 2003
SI for Kids
Chris Mullin, 1992
Kelloggs
Moses Malone, 1976
Topps
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