"Antawn Jamison had just walked off the podium at TD Garden, where he answered questions about the Cleveland Cavaliers' 124-95 victory over the Boston Celtics, when I stopped him to get his reaction to Gilbert Arenas's release from a Montgomery County halfway house earlier in the day.

"I'm glad it's over with," Jamison said after scoring 20 points with a game-high 12 rebounds on Friday. "I think this is the most important part. He can get to just playing basketball. It's unfortunate the way things happened. We always envisioned, what I'm going through, doing it together."

This is the second time in the past nine years that Jamison was on a team that didn't have Arenas, with the two being teammates in Washington and Golden State. Jamison understands that Arenas's dispute with Javaris Crittenton, which led to guns being displayed at the Verizon Center locker room, contributed to him getting traded to Cleveland. Jamison is now two wins from advancing to the conference finals for the first time in his 12-year career.

Jamison was disappointed that he is the last player who started the season with the Wizards still playing. And hated to see Arenas get involved in a situation that nearly put his career in jeopardy. Arenas was sentenced last March to 30 days in a halfway house and two years of probation for a felony gun charge. "