Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas says he contemplated retirement during the offseason.

"I thought about retiring for a minute," Arenas said, "because I really didn't know what to expect. I thought it was just too much negativity for me to come back in. I just didn't know if I was mentally prepared for it again."

Arenas played his first regular season game since early January on Friday night.

He served a 50-game suspension for bringing a firearm into an arena and was hobbled by an injury to begin the 2010-11 season.

"It's been a rough road for me," he said. "The funny part is that I didn't break down until after everything was over with. That's the weird part. While I was going through it, I had my teammates saying, 'Keep your head up.' Once the season ended and everybody left, I didn't have anybody to talk to anymore. It was like I was stuck on that island and that's when it really hit me hard."