Last winter, Gilbert Arenas was humbled and embarrassed after his arrest and guilty plea to a weapons charge in 
Washington, DC. It got him a 50 game suspension from the NBA and his team, the Washington Wizards considered the question of whether he should be cut or traded.
The incident that provoked it all was one of the biggest boneheaded moves in a world of athletes and earned Arenas the Sports Climax Bitch-Slap-of-the-Week back in January 2010.
The Wizards guard never considered rules or common sense when he took guns from home to keep them away from his kids, and put them all in his locker. The NBA has specific rules on weapons in the workplace. They don’t allow them in the building. The District of Columbia has strict laws against gun possession.
When he engaged in a bit of “whose got the bigger gun?” horseplay with former teammate Javaris Crittendon, it was the final straw. It defined him as ignorant or just unable to behave without dancing to his own beat. With no trade market that would get the Wizards anything close to similar value in return for him, the team stuck by him, while stripping his image from their marketing materials.
As you would expect, he promised to stick to business without any shenanigans in the future, but trying to instruct adults about how to exercise good judgment, after a lifetime of acting to the contrary is a losing proposition.
Everyone knows Arenas means no harm even though he produces it, and his leash just got shorter after he lied this week about being injured. It had nothing to do with him being a malcontent or hesitant to get back on the court and face the home crowd for the first time in months. According to Arenas he felt sorry for teammate Nick Young, because he hadn’t gotten a chance to be in the starting lineup.
He stepped aside to give the kid a break, he says, and now he’s being punished for doing so. Arenas pleaded knee pain and Nick Young demonstrated his considerable talents by being high scorer for the Wizards with 20 points. Here is Arenas’ explanation of the decision care of the Associated Press:
“I told [Young] I’d sacrifice playing tonight so he can get some time in because I know he’s kind of frustrated he’s not getting a chance to crack the [small forward] position, especially since we’re going three guards,” Arenas said Tuesday, smiling. “So I told him I’ll go and fake an injury or say something’s wrong with me so you can start.”
The NBA didn’t think much of his generosity and Arenas was fined on Wednesday. The league knows that paying customers, especially for a pre-season game when the starters don’t stay on the court all that long, are dying to see the stars. Arenas is surely that in DC and his return was eagerly anticipated.
Head coach Flip Saunders saw it as an insult to him personally, felt he had been made to look foolish and now has a big trust issue with Arenas. Who can blame him? You know what Gilbert had to do to prevent the latest mess? He could have just shut up and no one would have been the wiser. We all would have thought he had a bum knee, no big deal. He has lashed out at media, of course, because he believes it has been blown out of proportion which it has not so that again earns a second Sports Climax Bitch Slap of the Week honor.
Congrats Gilbert, on becoming the first athlete who has gotten our attention in this column twice during its existence.
Used with permission of the author.
Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles.
Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC