All season, Agent Zero had been the indestructible item for these Wizards.

Gilbert Arenas never stopped scoring, never stopped talking, never stopped believing he'd have the final shot, the final word on Washington's season.

Without warning, Arenas has gone down for the season with a tear in his right knee -- within just 72 hours of Caron Butler breaking his shooting hand.

Arenas is a big believer in karma, and it will haunt him the way that Charlotte forward Gerald Wallace fell on his leg Wednesday night at the Verizon Center after Arenas had been benched at the start for a late arrival to a morning shootaround. He was expected to have surgery on Thursday.

In a whisper, the Wizards' season has been reduced to rubble. They're 39-35, slotted as the sixth seed in the East, and you have to wonder if, without its two All-Stars, Washington will win more than a couple of games the rest of the way. The Raptors are waiting in the playoffs, a once-intriguing series that suddenly has the makings of a sweep.

Such a shame. The Wizards had been the toast of Washington D.C. this season, a run that inspired an NBA renaissance in one of the league's longest suffering and relentlessly loyal markets. They had gone into a late-season swoon, but there was still some belief, some hope, that the Wizards could get past some frontcourt injuries and make a run in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Just a season ago, the Wizards took the Cavaliers to six games in a first-round series. They had hopes of advancing this postseason, what with the way that this franchise was developing under coach Eddie Jordan. Now, it's all fallen apart. Now, it promises to be a long summer of "What ifs?"

Most of all, Arenas, who averaged 28.5 points, had been a blast this season.

He went on that wild scoring spree in December, dropping 60 points on the Lakers and then 54 on the Suns and bringing the league some silliness, some perspective, to a sport where too many stars take themselves far too seriously. He hosted a million-dollar 25th birthday party for himself in downtown D.C., made bold proclamations on his blog and took a dare from Shaq at the All-Star game to do one of those acrobatic dunks off a trampoline during a timeout.

Here it is, April, and Agent Zero has signed off far too soon.

These playoffs promise far fewer laughs now, far less fun.