Day two CIF State basketball championship games at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. - Source: Getty

"He loved it so I had to show up": When Gilbert Arenas shared his feelings about turning up for son Alijah Arenas' soccer games

Modified Dec 23, 2024 19:02 GMT

While Alijah Arenas is known more to be a high school basketball prodigy, many did not know that he also used to play soccer. This was revealed when he and his father, former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas, sat down with Fubo Sports' Mike Botticello during a September 2020 interview.

While his dad was a famous basketball player, Alijah Arenas initially played basketball. Botticello brought this up and Gilbert noted that he thought soccer, considered the most popular sport in the world, was boring.

"He was a soccer player. I didn't even know what that sh** sport was, to be honest, I'm not even gonna lie, it's just just going out there running," he said. "You know, to be honest, I didn't really pay attention because it was pretty much the simple sport there. It was boring, let's just be honest, it was a boring sport but he loved it so I ad to show up." (3:00-3:18)

Gilbert let it pass that his son was playing soccer, instead of basketball. However, one day, he received a call from a basketball coach that his son was now a part of a basketball team, and the rest is history. However, the shift to basketball still took Gilbert by surprise.

"He loved soccer. There was no basketball, nothing," Gilbert said. "There was basketballs around the house because of me. He didm't touch look, or cared about basketball." (4:30-4:34)

These days, Alijah Arenas is now a five-star prospect who just reclassified from the Class of 2026 to the Class of 2025. Several schools are interested in him, including Arizona, his dad's alma mater, UCLA and USC.

Alijah Arenas receives an offer from Kentucky

Even though Alijah Arenas has just reclassified as a senior, several new offers are still coming in. One of the biggest new offers for the Chatsworth shooting guard has come from Kentucky around late November.

KSR’s Jacob Polacheck shared that Kentucky Wildcats coach Mark Pope sent a scholarship offer to Alijah, though this happened before Gilbert announced that his son would reclassify to 2025. However, there had been talks about Arenas being a reclass candidate at that time, with Kentucky already aware of that.

Gilbert Arenas shared that his son reclassified because they wanted to speed up the recruitment process. Because of this, Alijah Arenas would visit several schools over the spring of 2025 and then decide which college he would like to attend.