There will come a moment before tonight's preseason game between the Washington Wizards and Los Angeles Lakers in Bakersfield, Calif., when Gilbert Arenas and Kwame Brown cross paths, make eye contact and, perhaps, address one another.

Brown, who was traded to the Lakers this summer for Chucky Atkins and Caron Butler, will be in the starting lineup for Los Angeles while Arenas will be back on the court for Washington after missing the last two games with groin and hamstring soreness.

How will Arenas react to seeing Brown for the first time since Brown was traded to the Lakers in August?

"Who?" Arenas asked. "Number 54. Oh, he's not at my position so I don't really care. That's the Lakers' decision. That doesn't really have anything to do with me."

"This ain't no Kobe-Shaq thing," Arenas continued. "It'll be a handshake. 'Hey what's up? How are you doing? Let's play.' "

Brown recently said that he skipped practice during the playoffs last spring -- and earned a suspension -- because he wanted to avoid physically harming Arenas. According to Brown, Arenas had told Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan not to play Brown.

Brown, however, struck a conciliatory tone when asked about Arenas on Sunday.

"No ill will," Brown told reporters in Los Angeles. "I'll go shake [Arenas's] hand. I'll go shake the whole team's hand. Regardless of how some of the players might feel about me or I feel about him, we're professionals."