Rashad McCants: Kobe and Gilbert Arenas are only players I’ve seen play ‘full speed’ from start to finish each game

Rashad McCants claimed that Gilbert Arenas and Kobe Bryant were unique NBA players in the sense that they are the only two he’s witnessed play at “full speed” from start to finish each game.

“As a starter, the first five minutes of the game, it’s two kinda players,” McCants said. “It’s the players that kinda let the game come to them, and they, everybody — I never understood how the first five minutes are the most boring minutes in the game, ’cause everybody’s walkin’ through the motions.

“But then there’s that one player or two players that’s actually playin’ hard. You (Arenas) and Kob were the only players I’ve seen — from start to finish, I’m not easin’ up. First three minutes of the game, it’s full speed. They (modern players) don’t play with that intensity, where I know Gilbert is in the game to score on me every second he gets the ball.”

Few players in the history of the NBA played with more intensity than Bryant, who accomplished just about everything an NBA player possibly can. From his numerous All-Star and All-NBA nods to his five titles and one regular-season MVP award, folks will be hard-pressed to find a professional athlete with a better resume.

But what makes it interesting that McCants compared Arenas to Bryant in terms of the intensity they competed with is that Arenas didn’t have nearly as iconic of an NBA career. In fact, his prime was relatively short, considering he earned just three All-Star appearances during his 11-year tenure in the league.

However, during a three-season stretch from the 2004-05 season through the 2006-07 campaign, Arenas was one of the NBA’s top point guards. Across 234 regular-season games played with the Washington Wizards during that span, he averaged 27.7 points per contest on 36.1 percent shooting from deep along with 4.3 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.9 steals per game.

The monster scoring numbers that Arenas put up during that span suggest that he didn’t take games off and played his hardest every time he took the court, as McCants implied.

On top of that, the Wizards maybe wouldn’t have broken their years-long streak of missing out on the playoffs in 2005 if it weren’t for the play of Arenas. Before Washington’s appearance in the 2005 NBA Playoffs, the team hadn’t qualified for the playoffs since 1997, which was the franchise’s final season as the Washington Bullets.

After Arenas’ stint with the Wizards came to a close, he carved out brief tenures with the Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies. He last played in the NBA when he appeared in 17 games with the Grizzlies during the 2011-12 regular season and six more during the 2012 NBA Playoffs. That team was led by players like Rudy Gay, Mike Conley, Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol and Tony Allen.