I’m back for the new decade folks, my vacation is over. It is now 2010, you would think that celebrities athletes and entertainers would cease the ignorance. I guess they didn’t get the memo. We have Gilbert Arenas who is under investigation by federal and local authorities after admittedly bringing guns into the Washington Wizards' locker room. On Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that according to first-hand accounts, teammate Javaris Crittenton, whose disagreement with Arenas is what supposedly instigated the incident, loaded and cocked his own gun in response to Arenas. This was allegedly the result of a gambling debt between the two players. The New York Post had earlier reported that during the incident, Arenas and Crittenton had drawn weapons and pointed them at each other. Arenas disputed this account ,but according to the The Washington Post, citing two first-hand accounts of the incident, reported that after Arenas laid out four guns in Crittenton's locker with a note that said "pick one," Crittenton brandished his own weapon, loaded it and chambered a round. So let me see if I have this straight two multimillionaires pull guns on each other and attempt a duel over a gambling debt . Is this The Source Awards? Needless to say Arenas was suspended indefinitely without pay Wednesday by NBA commissioner David Stern . Granted this incident happened before the New Year , but Arenas actions after it speaks volumes about why he is called Agent Zero.
Arenas tried joking about his gun trouble by saying he uses humor to deal with stress. He said in a statement Monday that he took unloaded guns from his locker in a "misguided effort to play a joke" on a teammate. Then to add insult to injury he was photographed before a game in Philadelphia playfully pointing his index fingers at his teammates as if they were guns. When is it ever funny to joke about shooting someone? Especially in Washington D.C which was once the murder capital of America. Where young black men lose their lives everyday due to gun violence. With each game he misses, Arenas, who turned 28 on Wednesday, will lose about $147,200 of the $16.2 million he will earn this season in the second of a six-year, $111 million contract. As of Wednesday he had $9,429,505.41 remaining for this season. Arenas has been suspended once before because of a gun-related matter. He sat out Washington's season opener in 2004 because he failed to keep proper registration of a handgun while living in California in 2003 and playing for the Warriors.
Arenas initially stated he was bringing the guns to Washington because he just had a baby girl, and didn’t want them around the house anymore. NBA suspensions for on-court violations that last more than 12 games can be appealed and heard by an arbitrator. Yet it remains to be seen if Arenas' case, which involved transporting firearms from his home to the Verizon Center before the confrontation with Crittenton on a practice day, is treated as an on-court incident. According to ESPN.com one source with knowledge of the Wizards' thinking said that Arenas' teammates who participated in the pregame gun simulation against Philadelphia have been told they will be fined. The Wizards supported Stern's decision in a statement attributed to president Ernie Grunfeld and the Pollin family, which owns the team. The late Abe Pollin changed the team's name from the Bullets to the Wizards because of the violent connotation. According to Espn.com the firearms language was strengthened in the 2005 collective bargaining agreement. NBA players are subject to discipline if they bring guns to the arena, practice facility or an offsite promotional appearance. That gave Stern the option of taking action now instead of waiting until the completion of the criminal case. Well that and Arenas acting like a complete moron the entire time. You would think with what happened to Chedda Plax that athletes would learn, but I guess not. New Year ,New Decade same nigga sh*t.
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