Gilbert Arenas Fuels Speculation About His Sports Media Future

Former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas has found a nice niche for himself in media with his podcast, Gil's Arena. But some recent comments he made suggests that his partners at Underdog might be at a crossroads with him.

Arenas was absent from Wednesday's edition of his show and longtime sports analyst Skip Bayless was in his seat instead. Bayless has joined with Underdog to potentially do a football show with Arenas, but some comments Arenas made later could indicate that things are on the rocks.

In a livestream, Arenas admitted that he isn't sure if the people at Underdog like him anymore. He said he thinks the producers are starting to believe that it doesn't matter if he's on his own show or not. Arenas compared it to his falling out with the NBA itself.

"I'm not sure they like ME anymore. I just, I don't know," Arenas said. "I'm just going to let you all know. No different than NBA. Just remember this, chat, words are powerful, just like in the NBA. When people start writing the team is better without them, that player reads it, that player believes it, that player starts acting like it.

"If you all saying this show is better without me and the producers say, ‘Hey, fans, they don't care if he's here or not.' But I'm on vacation, so I don't need to be at work. I'm Finals. I think I'm on Finals duty, not this one."

Arenas on the outs?

Arenas revealed in October that he sold 50-percent of his show to Underdog. Part of the agreement is that Underdog pays for staff salaries and manages the channel itself. His show would also be reduced to two days of shows per week.

But if Arenas is to be believed, the people at Underdog are starting to decide that they don't need him to personally be involved in the on-air side of things, and there may not be a whole lot he can even do about it.

Some fans have had a hard time showing sympathy to Arenas since it sounds like he made a bad business deal. Even so, many have pledged to pull their support from the show if he's pushed out.

"Sounds like Gil conducted bad business. Something that you start, you should never give a company a percentage or sign anything that they control how often the show takes place. Partnership or a deal similar to what McAfee has at ESPN," one user wrote on X.

"No one who's an actual fan believes it's better without Gil. In fact if you join the chat before the show starts you see everybody asking about Gil," another declared.

"And this why Twitter got on his (expletive) about selling his majority ownership stake cuz at any moment they can decide you not it anymore," wrote a third.

"Unpopular opinion I've been saying it I stopped watching the show because Gil‘s not on it. It's called Gil Arena for a reason. Why would I want to watch a show that don't got the man that brought everybody together Skip is not enough."

Unfortunately we've seen many situations in the past where the creator of a show or product gets pushed out by the people they sold it to.

Sometimes it's better to simply take the risk of retaining something and letting it grow or stagnate on its own than giving too large a piece to someone who has a different idea about it.

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This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 9:58 AM.