From ESPN.com
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NEW YORK — NBA commissioner David Stern has indefinitely suspended Gilbert Arenas, saying the Washington Wizards guard is “not currently fit to take the court” for a game.
(Mo’Kelly – BRAVO David, BRAVO)
Stern says in a statement Wednesday that Arenas’ actions will “ultimately result in a substantial suspension, and perhaps worse.”
Because Arenas violated NBA rules by bringing guns into Washington’s locker room, Stern decided to punish Arenas now. He said the suspension begins immediately.
Stern says he originally planned to wait for the criminal investigation to be completed before taking action, and directed the Wizards to do the same.
Every game Arenas ends up missing during the suspension will cost him $147,208.
The suspension comes after multiple media reports over the weekend said that a dispute over a gambling debt led to a conflict between Arenas and teammate Javaris Crittenton.
Multiple sources told ESPN.com that an argument commenced during a card game on the team’s overnight flight back to Washington from Phoenix on Dec. 19 and escalated into a heated exchange between Arenas and Crittenton. The Wizards had Dec. 20 off, but sources say hostilities between the two resumed Dec. 21 in the locker room on a practice day.
Sources say that Arenas, in response to what was said on the flight, placed the three guns on a chair near Crittenton’s locker stall and invited him to pick one before practice on Dec. 21. Sources said that Crittenton subsequently let Arenas know that he had his own gun.
The Washington Post reported in Sunday’s editions that Arenas, according to sources, was expecting Crittenton to see the guns on his chair as a joke based on the earlier back-and-forth on the plane, during which Crittenton allegedly said that he would shoot Arenas in his surgically repaired knee. But Crittenton, according to Post, reacted angrily and tossed one of the guns to the floor, saying he had his own.
In his statement, Arenas confirmed that the guns were brought out at the Dec. 21 practice.
“As I have said before, I had kept the four unloaded handguns in my house in Virginia but then moved them over to my locker at the Verizon Center to keep them away from my young kids,” the statement read. “I brought them without any ammunition into the District of Columbia, mistakenly believing that the recent change in the D.C. gun laws allowed a person to store unloaded guns in the District. On Monday, December 21st, I took the unloaded guns out in a misguided effort to play a joke on a teammate.
12 responses to “Gilbert Arenas Suspended Indefinitely by NBA (Damn Right!)”
He won't be mocking "us journalists" now…
So let's start the pool:
Charges: Local, Federal or Both?
Level: Felony or Misdemeanor?
Counts: One or Multiple?
Sentence: Probation or Jail?
Length: How many months/years?
Me: Both, Felony, Multiple, Years.
Any chance that Law Enforcement might think of soft-pedaling this was blown to smithereens by Mr. Stern.
Mock him at your peril…
It just occurred to me that Mr. Stern is demonstrating what it *really* means to "have the bigger gun."
Or to put it another way: "Gilbert got the guns but David got the ammo."
I guess I just love this metaphor.
Arenas is having real power; i.e., corporate and government power, explained to him.
My guess is that Stern will move to void his contract and expel him from the league. You may recall that he tried to do that to Sprewell some years back but an arbitrator overturned it.
All Sprewell did was throttle his coach.
So, if you consider bringing guns to work more serious than that (and the law certainly does), then Arenas is next in line to get the death penalty, and something tells me this time the arbitrator will side with the league.
Power? You want to know about power?
Gilbert Arenas Suspended by N.B.A.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/sports/basketball/07arenas.html?hpw
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Stern normally waits for legal action to unfold before announcing penalties against players. But he said Arenas’s subsequent actions prompted him to penalize him sooner, and he hinted that he was not finished disciplining him.
“Although it is clear that the actions of Mr. Arenas will ultimately result in a substantial suspension, and perhaps worse, his ongoing conduct has led me to conclude that he is not currently fit to take the court in an N.B.A. game,” Stern said in a statement. “Accordingly, I am suspending Mr. Arenas indefinitely, without pay, effective immediately pending the completion of the investigation by the N.B.A.”
Arenas has apologized for the incident, but has behaved erratically and brazenly.
In the days since the incident became public, Arenas frequently used his Twitter account to mock journalists who reported the story, to address unrelated topics and to relate obscene jokes.
Arenas defended his posts by claiming that he used humor as a way to deflect personal pain. Then, during warmups before a Tuesday evening game against the Philadelphia 76ers, he used his thumb and index fingers to pretend to shoot his teammates, who laughed at the display.
“They said: ‘Do it. Do it. Do it,’ ” Arenas told reporters afterward. “You wonder why I can’t be serious.”
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And, children, what have we learned here? This is what is known as the epitome of "penny wise, pound foolish".
Arenas' ghetto mentality and thug ego got in the way of his elevated NBA status and position. He wasn't gonna get dissed and punked on a wager that, I will wager, was considerably less than he makes in one day, but now he is in jeopardy of losing his entire income stream.
It'll be one of the interesting stories he'll be able to tell at the pick-up games back in the hood, "I used to be in the NBA. I used to play for the Washington Wizards until…."
Exactly.
"Until somebody poked me in the nose and I went all stupid."
This is such an excellent lesson in REAL power. I just wonder, as I know Morris does, when will it sink in?
I still don't think Arenas gets it. I'm sure he's feeling "unfairly" singled out and this shouldn't be any big deal.
There's a reason why you can't become president before the age of 35 but you can join the military and kill for your country at 18. Arenas demonstrates the importance of perspective or lack thereof required in both equations.
I'm thinking that the NBA's old guard are shaking their collective heads, wondering, "We've left our legacy in the hands of people like THIS?"
The fact is, the old guard (Magic/Bird/Dominique, were bigger stars and didn't need guns.
Hey! Don't forget Jordan! Yeah, when the Old Guard shot the lights out….they did it with a basketball; not a Glock!!
Does any millionaire need to carry his own gun?
Illegally, no less?