Last week, with reporters gathered a few feet away but no one guarding him, Arenas hoisted 143 3-point attempts from a corner, one after another, and made 100; that works out to 69.9 percent.

“That rim is broken,” Arenas said afterward with his customary wink and smile. “Usually, I make all of ’em.”

Apparently, that self-slighting has started to dissipate, huh?

And, apparently, all that work is paying off.

“His body’s in better shape than I’ve ever seen him. He’s always in shape, but he is chiseled, he’s cut,” Jordan said. “He’s got the glare in his eye. He wants to come back stronger than ever.”

This whole ordeal was all a bit new to the 25-year-old Arenas, whose only previous significant injury in the pros was an abdominal problem that limited him to 55 games in 2003-04.

He decided early on during this rehab that he didn’t want to wear a knee brace so as not to have a constant reminder of what happened: The mental recuperation was just as important as the physical.

For showing up at training camp this week in fine form, Arenas made the team’s Day 1 Honor Roll, along with Jamison and Caron Butler.

Still, Jordan cautioned after Day 2 of practice: “He’s not the real Gil that we all know. Not yet. And it’s normal. But he’s working hard. He’s still our best player; he’s still the best player out here. He’s not the real deal yet. When? It’s going to come.”

Arenas expects to be at his best Oct. 31, when the Wizards open the regular season at the Indiana Pacers. He’d like to show that he’s A-OK on Tuesday, when the Wizards open the preseason at James’ Cleveland Cavaliers, the team that eliminated a healthy Arenas and Washington from the playoffs two seasons ago and swept the Wizards — who were missing Arenas and Butler — in the first round last season.

Actually, Arenas doesn’t want to wait until then. Ask him how his knee held up at the start of training camp, and you hear what you expect to hear.

“I’m 100 percent now. Been 100 percent for the last month,” Arenas said, then nodded in the direction of a group of teammates walking out of Virginia Commonwealth University’s arena. “Ask them. They’re getting killed out there.”

No doubt.

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