Larry Brown Sports

Call it the gun incident that will never die.  Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton cannot seem to get out from underneath their locker room gun controversy, and at this point there is no telling if they ever will.  As you may remember, Arenas recently hinted that the Wizards leaked the gun story and used it as a tool to end his career in Washington.

With Crittenton currently mixed up in a murder investigation, Mike Wise of the Washington Post passed along some tidbits from a conversation he had with Arenas a while back.  Here is what Gilbert had to say when he was asked if he had spoken to Crittenton since the incident which resulted in both of their suspensions.

“No, but I heard he became more hard,” Arenas said. “You know, like some people turn over a new leaf when something bad like that changes their life. I heard Javaris went the other way — he became more ’hood, more hardened in that way. I don’t know if that’s the case, but that’s what I heard.”

As Pro Basketball Talk pointed out, Crittenton doesn’t need to worry about Arenas’ comments influencing the murder investigation since it is second-hand information.  Still, those aren’t the types of rumors Javaris needs floating around about him when he is trying to clear his name — regardless of the source.

This Gilbert Arenas/Javaris Crittenton gun mess has spun completely out of control and it’s certainly difficult to endure as a longtime Gilbert admirer. Things have gotten to the point where Arenas deserves the indefinite suspension from the NBA, his contract to potentially be voided, and potential jail time for possessing unlicensed guns. The latest twist to the saga comes courtesy of the Washington Post as they confirm Arenas was more or less joking around with Crittenton. Problem is Crittenton took matters seriously:

Read The Rest of the Story…

When the news came down last week that the League was investigating Gilbert Arenas for bringing a gun to team facilities, I joked that he needed it for protection from teammate Caron Butler. Even though I was only joking in my post, it turns out it wasn’t too far from the truth. Yahoo! Sports reported that Gilbert was being investigated for pulling the gun on a teammate while the New York Post takes things a step further saying it was over a gambling debt:

“I’m not your punk!” Crittenton shouted at Arenas, according to a league source close to the Wizards. That prompted Arenas to draw on Crittenton, who then also grabbed for a gun, league security sources said.

A playground pal of Crittenton’s from Atlanta, Kendrick “Bookie Ball” Long, confirmed the locker-room standoff and said he learned of it directly from the third-year player out of Georgia Tech. “He [Arenas] was f- – -ing with him; he [Crittenton] was just defending himself!” declared Long, who said the dispute was over money but would not elaborate.

I wonder how much money is at stake here if the dudes are brandishing firearms considering Gilbert has made over $100 million in his career. I’m guessing it’s more over principle than a lofty dollar figure given Gilbert’s wealth. This story sounds much more like the truth and renders Gilbert’s tale laughable — Arenas said he wanted to get rid of the guns after his daughter was born. If that were the case, why didn’t he take them directly to the police without passing Go and without letting Crittenton try to collect $500? This makes me wonder what the NBA will do to try and curb gambling amongst teammates; some of the stories about high stakes card games on team planes are legendary and it’s clear things are getting out of hand in DC. I’m also guessing DC police will want to know more about this story too.