Without a doubt, one of the most talented teams of the mid-2000s was the Washington Wizards. That roster boasted some fun names, including Gilbert Arenas, Nick Young , Andray Blatche , Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison, among others.
They were a team that was incredibly exciting on the court, but also had some truly wild characters off the court who knew how to bring that party mindset right into the locker room. Young recently looked back on those days when he told Shannon Sharpe how some cheerleaders were fired because of him and Blatche.
"We didn't know cheerleaders could get fired. But that's why Gil is a good friend, cause he ended up giving the lady like 10 thousand just for getting fired because of us. We was young. We was at a little team gathering that had the cheerleaders, got too friendly. We ended up leaving early and they found out. And then we came to practice, they had a little sit-down with us…I'm not good with pressure, I damn near snitched on Andray, I said 'it was him,'" Young said on the "Club Shay Shay" podcast.
Interactions between NBA players and cheerleaders are nothing new, even though every interaction between them has been strictly forbidden for years. These are situations where many beautiful women find themselves around elite athletes, and boundaries sometimes get crossed.
In this case, the main issue was that the situation became public and the cheerleaders were fired, so Agent Zero clearly made sure to give them at least some compensation, since they had already lost an already low-paying job.
Arenas himself recently talked about the interesting dynamic in which he knew a franchise couldn't do anything to him for dating cheerleaders .
"It's a no-no for who? The cheerleaders," Arenas elaborated in his signature sarcastic way. "What are they going to do to us? I'm making $20 million, what are they going to do? No player has been fined because he's talking to a cheerleader."
"They're contracted. They're not even employed. It's just one of those things. It's not a real thing. You think, hold on, let's just be honest here. You're paying her $200 a game. If I want to take her out to dinner, you really think she's going to say, 'Oh no, I want to save my $200'? No," he added.
Arenas, Young, and their teammates knew full well that their status, money, and fame gave them a massive head start when it came to pursuing cheerleaders. As for Nick, he candidly confessed that he almost threw Andray under the bus as the instigator when front-office pressure mounted, an ironic twist given how furious he would get years later over D'Angelo Russell's infamous video leak.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Oct 8, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
