First an foremost I would like to send my prayers out to the people of Japan during this trying time.Now let's get right to it. Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Petersen caught a case of "foot in mouth" disease the other day.While being interviewed by Doug Farrar of yahoo.com "Shutdown Corner" he stated that the current labor dispute going on between the NFL owners and Players was akin to "modern day slavery".Here is part of the exchange;
AP: We're business-minded, also. It's not just fun and games. A lot of football players, whether it's Sunday or Monday night — we're out there on the field, competing, hitting each other. But people don't see everything else behind it. It's a job for us, too — every day of the week. We're in different states, sometimes thousands of miles away from our families and kids, and a lot of people don't look at it like that.
SC: It's nothing that I haven't heard from other players, believe me.
AP: It's modern-day slavery, you know? People kind of laugh at that, but there are people working at regular jobs who get treated the same way, too.
I don't think he meant that literally in the context of braving The Middle Passage and working for tattered clothes and grits.I don't know the man, so I can't say.I will however wait for the inevitable apology and clarification. The thing is, he was not that far off. I had a conversation with a good friend of mine about his comment.This is a condensed version of of what he thought "Of course his comment was way off base. I mean, how can a millionaire use the word slavery? That doesn't even make sense. Look, these guys get paid millions of dollars to play a game. MILLIONS. so to infer that the players are slaves or they make slave wages or they are treated like slaves, or just even mention the thought of slavery is asinine. Remember, these players agreed to play this game.Nobody is forcing them to play".That has been the major consensus across the board. Quit crying and play!
Every year the best college football players are invited to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indiana.Executives, coaches, scouts and doctors from all 32 NFL teams conduct an intense, four-day job interview in advance of the NFL Draft. Here is a brief breakdown of the skills they measure The 40-yard dash which is about about speed, explosion and seeing who can run the fastest. The bench press is a test of strength and endurance .The vertical jump which is all about lower-body explosion and power. The athlete stands flat-footed and they measure his reach.These are just a few.They also administer the 50-question Wonderlic test to all prospects, the test’s supporters believe that it can measure how mentally prepared a player is to handle the NFL’s demands. A high score say 20 is considered average. The standard is closer to 25 for positions that require quick thought, such as quarterback.A high score can solidify a player as a can’t-miss draft pick. A low score is seen as a red flag that can overshadow a player’s physical ability.This is from a slave auction in 1859 .Replace "slaves" with "players" and "buyers" with "teams". "The slaves were brought in early so that buyers who desired to inspect them might enjoy that privilege, although none of them were sold at private sale. The slaves were examined with as little consideration as if they had been brutes indeed; the buyers pulling their mouths open to see their teeth, pinching their limbs to find how muscular they were, walking them up and down to detect any signs of lameness, making them stoop and bend in different ways that they might be certain there was no concealed rupture or wound; and in addition to all this treatment, asking them scores of questions relative to their qualifications and accomplishments."Hmmm... NFL Combine anyone??
I am by no means making light of Slavery at all.The correlation between the two cannot just be ignored, or written off as the ignorant ramblings of a spoiled athlete. Before free agency, players were treated like property/slaves. They could be traded(sold literally) to another team (plantation,)uprooted from wife,kids and a city they had grown accustomed too. They are paid handsomely to play a sport. Now for those saying "come work at my job",don't get mad at the "slave" for feeling undervalued. Your job doesn't generate billions in revenue from TV,merchandising, or concessions . Think about this, if your job had a three and a half year career window, you would be trying to get as much compensation as you could. I will admit using the term slavery may have been a bit harsh.Especially when you are scheduled to make over 10 mill next year...but how much is Massa going to make off the sweat of these big bucks ? A lot more than 10 million. If you really want a better understanding of the sports and slavery connection read "$40 Million Dollar Slave" by William Rhoden "How sports stardom has brought black athletes wealth without progress and prosperity without freedom."review By Elizabeth Gettelman.So I sign off with the words of Cinque "Give us Free!!"
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Back to the Future...again
Hollywood superstar Matt Damon has said that he is disappointed with Barack Obama.Damon had gone all out in support of Obama during the 2008 elections, but apparently the honeymoon is over.During an appearance on the CNN show ''Piers Morgan Tonight'', the Oscar winning actor said that Obama "misinterpreted his mandate" and that he "definitely wanted more" from the President. When asked about Obama''s role in the Afghanistan war effort, Damon said, "I don''t think the mission there has been very well articulated. And I think it would help to kind of reframe the way we''re thinking about being there and why we''re there." Damon is among a growing list of celebrities ,Barbara Streisand,Jay Z to name a few who have grown a bit disenchanted with our President. I usually don't take celebrities seriously when it comes to politics, or anything else outside of their chosen craft . This time I can feel their pain ...to some extent .
I voted for Obama, and still support him.I just have an issue with the way he has handled certain situations (Henry Louis Gates, Shirley Sherrod) and campaign promises,closing Guantanamo and ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan etc. I have written previous blogs about the Obama experience, Back to The Future and Back to the Future II. I along with everyone else was caught up in the Hope and Change rhetoric. So caught up in fact that we all expected Obama to, "Hop out the boat, so he could walk on water".When it became apparent that Obama was not a savior, but a man faced with a very difficult job,perceptions changed. People who voted for him usually fall into two categories . They either feel he has not done enough of what he promised and has not lived up to expectations, or he has done the best he can, with the hand he was dealt. I fall in between. He has done okay with the hand he was dealt, but there is lot more that he can do and should be doing.
Lets get the facts correct. According to Politifact.com of the more than 500 promises made by Obama on the campaign trail 134 have been kept, among them a repeal of "Don't ask, Don't tell" ,establishing a Credit card bill of rights and the big one Universal health care. 39 promises have been outright broken, among them "Repeal of the Bush tax cuts for higher incomes" and as we just learned, he will not "Close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center" which was opened after the illegal war on terrorism during the Bush Presidency.The reason people want it closed is some of the people being held there have not been charged with a crime and may never be charged with a crime.They may be held indefinitely wth no evidence whatsoever.The proposed closing was one of his major campaign promises. 220 of his promises are in the works and 41 he has compromised on. That is not a bad percentage of kept promises to say the least, since most politicians make promises they can't deliver, nor do they try.
We expected him to be different because he looked like us,played basketball like us and listened to our music, plus "he spoke so well,he is so well spoken". Add that to the fact that he was an intellectual from Harvard, and after 8 years of idiocy from Baby Bush we couldn't wait to vote him into office. Like I have said previously, he could show some more spine when dealing with the opposition,whether it's Republicans or members of his own party. Obama fanatics that think any critique of the President is racist if they are not black, an Uncle Tom sellout if they are,is the real sellout.You let color blind you to high unemployment rates, high gas prices,a falling economy and lowered morale. Do I think it's all on Obama no, but he wanted the job.Let's see if he wants it for another 4 years. Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it.
I voted for Obama, and still support him.I just have an issue with the way he has handled certain situations (Henry Louis Gates, Shirley Sherrod) and campaign promises,closing Guantanamo and ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan etc. I have written previous blogs about the Obama experience, Back to The Future and Back to the Future II. I along with everyone else was caught up in the Hope and Change rhetoric. So caught up in fact that we all expected Obama to, "Hop out the boat, so he could walk on water".When it became apparent that Obama was not a savior, but a man faced with a very difficult job,perceptions changed. People who voted for him usually fall into two categories . They either feel he has not done enough of what he promised and has not lived up to expectations, or he has done the best he can, with the hand he was dealt. I fall in between. He has done okay with the hand he was dealt, but there is lot more that he can do and should be doing.
Lets get the facts correct. According to Politifact.com of the more than 500 promises made by Obama on the campaign trail 134 have been kept, among them a repeal of "Don't ask, Don't tell" ,establishing a Credit card bill of rights and the big one Universal health care. 39 promises have been outright broken, among them "Repeal of the Bush tax cuts for higher incomes" and as we just learned, he will not "Close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center" which was opened after the illegal war on terrorism during the Bush Presidency.The reason people want it closed is some of the people being held there have not been charged with a crime and may never be charged with a crime.They may be held indefinitely wth no evidence whatsoever.The proposed closing was one of his major campaign promises. 220 of his promises are in the works and 41 he has compromised on. That is not a bad percentage of kept promises to say the least, since most politicians make promises they can't deliver, nor do they try.
We expected him to be different because he looked like us,played basketball like us and listened to our music, plus "he spoke so well,he is so well spoken". Add that to the fact that he was an intellectual from Harvard, and after 8 years of idiocy from Baby Bush we couldn't wait to vote him into office. Like I have said previously, he could show some more spine when dealing with the opposition,whether it's Republicans or members of his own party. Obama fanatics that think any critique of the President is racist if they are not black, an Uncle Tom sellout if they are,is the real sellout.You let color blind you to high unemployment rates, high gas prices,a falling economy and lowered morale. Do I think it's all on Obama no, but he wanted the job.Let's see if he wants it for another 4 years. Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Public Enemy #1
20 years ago today Rodney King was videotaped being brutally assaulted by officers of the LAPD. CNN will be doing a special about the entire affair from the beating, the LA riots and the overhaul of the Los Angeles police department Rodney King, 20 years later.Now has anything really changed? We still have stories like Oscar Grant in 2009, an unarmed black man who was shot and killed by a police officer while he was handcuffed and laying on his stomach Man's Fatal Shooting by San Francisco Subway Police.You have Sean Bell who was murdered in a hail of 50 bullets on his wedding day. The name are familiar to most.Amadou Diallo, February 1999, street trader from Guinea, shot 19 times when white NYPD officers mistook his wallet for a gun and fired 41 bullets. Four officers acquitted.Patrick Dorismond, March 2000, unarmed 26-year-old Haitian security guard, killed by NYPD officer Anthony Vasquez in bungled drugs sting. Dorismond reacted angrily when undercover detective asked him for crack cocaine and was shot in struggle.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Word up
"On the plantations, a strong black man was mated with a strong black woman. ((Blacks)) were simply bred for physical qualities." These words were spoken by black Olympic Gold Medalist Lee Evans, a militant protester against white racism during the 1960s.In 1971 Evans was quoted in a SPORTS ILLUSTRATED article on the physiological differences between blacks and whites. Now fast forward 17 years later to 1988 and Jimmy The Greek “The black is a better athlete to begin with because he's been bred to be that way , because of his high thighs and big thighs that goes up into his back, and they can jump higher and run faster because of their bigger thighs. This goes back all the way to the Civil War when during the slave trading, the owner the slave owner would breed his big black to his big woman so that he could have a big black kid.”Now after these comments Jimmy The Greek was subsequently fired from CBS and lambasted by none other than Jesse Jackson, The NAACP and numerous news organizations. I remember thinking ”Well damn isn’t that what happened on the plantations? Slaves were bred to be bigger ,stronger and work harder”
Last month journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann reported remarks in their new book, "Game Change," that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stated during Obama’s presidential campaign that as a black candidate, he could be successful , in part,due to his "light-skinned" appearance and speaking patterns "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."they say he, Reid was convinced, in fact, that Obama's race would help him more than hurt him in a bid for the Democratic nomination," .Now mind you this was supposed to be a private conversation,but that is not the point I am making. I know for a fact that a lot of people agreed with this. I had numerous conversations with friends and family, black and white who felt the same way about Obama. Of course there was a firestorm after the remarks were made public. Republicans were calling for Harry Reid to resign, comparing his remark with these made by Trent Lott at the 100th birthday party of Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina in 2002. Lott said: "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years, either .Thurmond ran for President of the United States in 1948 on the Dixiecrat (or States' Rights) ticket. Which at the time meant Thurmond had based his presidential campaign largely on an explicit racial segregation platform. Now the difference between remarks, is that Harry Reid has a history of working on African American issues and Trent Lott was a known racist homophobe.
I do have to agree with something RNC head Michael Steele said “ If Harry Reid were a Republican he would have been forced to resign for these racist remarks “. The Wall Street Journal has recently reported that in a closed-door meeting last summer, Obama’s top aide and political pit bull Rahm Emanuel called liberal specialinterest groups that wanted to run ads against conservative Democrats, who did not support healthcare reform "f—— retarded," When informed about the comment, Sarah Palin, whose child has Down syndrome, posted a note on Facebook alleging Emanuel’s words amounted to a "racial slur." "Rahm’s slur on all God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities is unacceptable," she wrote, adding that President Obama should "show decency" by removing the Chicago politician from his inner circle. Fast forward two days later on conservative Rush Limbaugh’s radio show “Our political correct society is acting like some giant insult’s taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards,” Rush said,
The former governor was on FOX news the other day and went to great and sometimes awkward lengths to insist that when conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh used the same exact term to describe the same exact group, it was simply in the role of political humorist. According her "They are kooks, so I agree with Rush Limbaugh," she said, when read a quote of Limbaugh calling liberal groups "retards." "Rush Limbaugh was using satire “I didn't hear Rush Limbaugh calling a group of people whom he did not agree with 'f-ing retards,' and we did know that Rahm Emanuel, as has been reported, did say that. There is a big difference there." Okay maybe I’m missing something, but Limbaugh was doing the same thing exact thing ,but since he has such a strong conservative following she doesn’t want to alienate him. Fair enough, I know your wondering what all these incidents have in common. Well people are hypocrites, we black, white ,Hispanic all of us seem to get offended by words or statements from people we don’t agree with politically or share anything in common with socially. Stop the double standard or at least recognize it for what it is. The next time someone says something offensive or that can be perceived as offensive, check your mental rolodex and see if what they said is true or are you just being overly sensitive. In the immortal words of Dap from “School Daze” WAKE UP!!!!!!
Last month journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann reported remarks in their new book, "Game Change," that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stated during Obama’s presidential campaign that as a black candidate, he could be successful , in part,due to his "light-skinned" appearance and speaking patterns "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."they say he, Reid was convinced, in fact, that Obama's race would help him more than hurt him in a bid for the Democratic nomination," .Now mind you this was supposed to be a private conversation,but that is not the point I am making. I know for a fact that a lot of people agreed with this. I had numerous conversations with friends and family, black and white who felt the same way about Obama. Of course there was a firestorm after the remarks were made public. Republicans were calling for Harry Reid to resign, comparing his remark with these made by Trent Lott at the 100th birthday party of Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina in 2002. Lott said: "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years, either .Thurmond ran for President of the United States in 1948 on the Dixiecrat (or States' Rights) ticket. Which at the time meant Thurmond had based his presidential campaign largely on an explicit racial segregation platform. Now the difference between remarks, is that Harry Reid has a history of working on African American issues and Trent Lott was a known racist homophobe.
I do have to agree with something RNC head Michael Steele said “ If Harry Reid were a Republican he would have been forced to resign for these racist remarks “. The Wall Street Journal has recently reported that in a closed-door meeting last summer, Obama’s top aide and political pit bull Rahm Emanuel called liberal specialinterest groups that wanted to run ads against conservative Democrats, who did not support healthcare reform "f—— retarded," When informed about the comment, Sarah Palin, whose child has Down syndrome, posted a note on Facebook alleging Emanuel’s words amounted to a "racial slur." "Rahm’s slur on all God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities is unacceptable," she wrote, adding that President Obama should "show decency" by removing the Chicago politician from his inner circle. Fast forward two days later on conservative Rush Limbaugh’s radio show “Our political correct society is acting like some giant insult’s taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards,” Rush said,
The former governor was on FOX news the other day and went to great and sometimes awkward lengths to insist that when conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh used the same exact term to describe the same exact group, it was simply in the role of political humorist. According her "They are kooks, so I agree with Rush Limbaugh," she said, when read a quote of Limbaugh calling liberal groups "retards." "Rush Limbaugh was using satire “I didn't hear Rush Limbaugh calling a group of people whom he did not agree with 'f-ing retards,' and we did know that Rahm Emanuel, as has been reported, did say that. There is a big difference there." Okay maybe I’m missing something, but Limbaugh was doing the same thing exact thing ,but since he has such a strong conservative following she doesn’t want to alienate him. Fair enough, I know your wondering what all these incidents have in common. Well people are hypocrites, we black, white ,Hispanic all of us seem to get offended by words or statements from people we don’t agree with politically or share anything in common with socially. Stop the double standard or at least recognize it for what it is. The next time someone says something offensive or that can be perceived as offensive, check your mental rolodex and see if what they said is true or are you just being overly sensitive. In the immortal words of Dap from “School Daze” WAKE UP!!!!!!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Back to the Future II
“Just when I thought I was out they pulled me back in” Al Pacino said that in The Godfather III.A memorable line, in an otherwise forgettable movie. That is how I feel about our current president. It wasn’t that I had lost faith in the “Audacity of Hope” per se, just that the agenda he set was not coming to fruition as fast as we hoped. I had misgivings as I wrote about last year Back to The Future .I still feel like there is a lot for this president to accomplish, if given time. I also ,at one point felt maybe, just maybe he was like all the other politicians.All smoke and mirrors. Then he gave us The State of the Union speech last night .It was then I remembered why I voted for him in the first place. He wants to repeal “don’t ask don’t tell” in regards to Gays in the military. This was put in place during the Clinton administration, and never really made sense to me anyway. In the words of Chris Rock “if they want to fight, let em fight, I ain’t fighting”. He didn’t hit on healthcare reform that much, which has been his Achilles heel. Well that and the constant bickering from both sides about being bi-partisan, the bank bailouts and the failing economy. Here is the speech in it’s entirety .
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Truth ,Justice and The American way
First and foremost I want to send my prayers out to our Haitan brother and sisters in this trying time.America with all of our faults will still be a beacon of hope as we unite and see you through this dark period in your country's storied history.Now on to the Blog of the week.The Supreme Court has tossed out a lower court ruling that nullified the death sentence for former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of gunning down a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, police officer more than 28 years ago. Jamal a former Black Panther has long claimed that racism was the main reason he was even convicted. He also feels that procedural errors during his capital sentencing, and that too few blacks on the jury led to the death penalty punishment Pennsylvania officials were appealing a federal court ruling on the sentencing question that went in Abu-Jamal's favor in 2008. The justices made their announcement Monday, ordering a federal appeals court to revisit its earlier ruling granting a new sentencing hearing. The high court last year denied Abu-Jamal's separate petition for a new trial. The appeals court now has the option of reimposing the death sentence or ordering a new federal trial to hear other claims of injustice raised by Abu-Jamal.
Born Wesley Cook in 1954,Mumia was a member of the Philadelphia branch of the Black Panther party, he served as the Minister of Information when he was just 15 years old. Philadelphia prosecutors contended at trial in 1982 that Officer Michael Faulkner stopped Abu-Jamal's brother in an early-morning vehicle check. Abu-Jamal, then driving a cab, saw his brother's car and the uniformed officer, parked the taxi, and ran to the scene. Prosecutors argued that Abu-Jamal confronted Faulkner and fatally shot him. Abu-Jamal himself was found shot and slumped against a curb a few steps from the slain officer. Mumia’s website freemumia.com states” On the night in question he was driving his cab through the red light district of downtown Philadelphia at around 4 a.m. Mumia testifies that he let off a fare and parked near the corner of 13th and Locust Streets. Upon hearing gunshots, he turned and saw his brother, William Cook, staggering in the street. Mumia exited the cab and ran to the scene, where he was shot by a uniformed police officer and fell to the ground, fading in and out of consciousness. Within minutes, police arrived on the scene to find Officer Faulkner and Mumia shot; Faulkner died. Mumia was arrested, savagely beaten, thrown into a paddy wagon and driven to a hospital a few blocks away (suspiciously, it took over 30 minutes to arrive at the hospital). Mumia somehow survived.”
Now I don’t know what happened that night,but I do know that in the 60’s the FBI initiated a program called “COINTELPRO” whose objective was to neutralize what they considered Black Nationalist Hate Groups. The Black Panther Party (BPP) was not among the original "Black Nationalist" targets. In September 1968, however, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover described the Panthers as: "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country” By July 1969, the Black Panthers had become the primary focus of the program, and was ultimately the target of 233 of the total authorized "Black Nationalist" COINTELPRO actions. Mumia was an active BPP member from May 1969 until October 1970 was subject to Federal Bureau of Investigation COINTELPRO surveillance from then until about 1974.He was an outspoken advocate against police brutality where he railed against the “establishment” via his radio show and also in his writings. Contrary to popular opinion or belief Cointelpro is still active today it just isn’t called Cointelpro anymore. Back to the matter at hand, the courts decision basically means that the prosecution can now attempt to reinstate the death penalty sentence that was originally handed down, or order a new federal trial to hear other claims of injustice raised by Mumia.It will be interesting to see what happens next, as I wrote last year some states don’t have the finances to execute death row prisoners at this time Death Row..what a brother know!!! . Mumia Abu Jamal has been on death row for almost 30 years. Will we have to wait another 30 before we know the truth?Is that cruel and unusual punishment or poetic justice?
Born Wesley Cook in 1954,Mumia was a member of the Philadelphia branch of the Black Panther party, he served as the Minister of Information when he was just 15 years old. Philadelphia prosecutors contended at trial in 1982 that Officer Michael Faulkner stopped Abu-Jamal's brother in an early-morning vehicle check. Abu-Jamal, then driving a cab, saw his brother's car and the uniformed officer, parked the taxi, and ran to the scene. Prosecutors argued that Abu-Jamal confronted Faulkner and fatally shot him. Abu-Jamal himself was found shot and slumped against a curb a few steps from the slain officer. Mumia’s website freemumia.com states” On the night in question he was driving his cab through the red light district of downtown Philadelphia at around 4 a.m. Mumia testifies that he let off a fare and parked near the corner of 13th and Locust Streets. Upon hearing gunshots, he turned and saw his brother, William Cook, staggering in the street. Mumia exited the cab and ran to the scene, where he was shot by a uniformed police officer and fell to the ground, fading in and out of consciousness. Within minutes, police arrived on the scene to find Officer Faulkner and Mumia shot; Faulkner died. Mumia was arrested, savagely beaten, thrown into a paddy wagon and driven to a hospital a few blocks away (suspiciously, it took over 30 minutes to arrive at the hospital). Mumia somehow survived.”
Now I don’t know what happened that night,but I do know that in the 60’s the FBI initiated a program called “COINTELPRO” whose objective was to neutralize what they considered Black Nationalist Hate Groups. The Black Panther Party (BPP) was not among the original "Black Nationalist" targets. In September 1968, however, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover described the Panthers as: "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country” By July 1969, the Black Panthers had become the primary focus of the program, and was ultimately the target of 233 of the total authorized "Black Nationalist" COINTELPRO actions. Mumia was an active BPP member from May 1969 until October 1970 was subject to Federal Bureau of Investigation COINTELPRO surveillance from then until about 1974.He was an outspoken advocate against police brutality where he railed against the “establishment” via his radio show and also in his writings. Contrary to popular opinion or belief Cointelpro is still active today it just isn’t called Cointelpro anymore. Back to the matter at hand, the courts decision basically means that the prosecution can now attempt to reinstate the death penalty sentence that was originally handed down, or order a new federal trial to hear other claims of injustice raised by Mumia.It will be interesting to see what happens next, as I wrote last year some states don’t have the finances to execute death row prisoners at this time Death Row..what a brother know!!! . Mumia Abu Jamal has been on death row for almost 30 years. Will we have to wait another 30 before we know the truth?Is that cruel and unusual punishment or poetic justice?
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Same Old Same Old
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.
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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