12/21/24
January 01, 2010
Report: Arenas, Teammate Pulled Guns on Each Other in Locker Room: Washington Wizards teammates Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton drew guns on each other in the team's locker room during a Christmas Eve dispute over a gambling debt, the New York Post reported today. Arenas denies the allegation. Firearms laws in DC are among the nation's most strict. There's no provision that would allow people to take them to their workplace.
posted by rcade to basketball at 11:58 AM - 18 comments
I was reading about this earlier today. If this is true, both of these guys should be given lifetime bans from the sport. This is completely ridiculous. Guns. In the locker room. And teammates pulling them on one another. WTF?!?
posted by Punkrockrat at 12:37 PM on January 01, 2010
Maybe they should change their name back to the Bullets!
posted by jojomfd1 at 12:47 PM on January 01, 2010
Can't we all just get along!
The NBA....It's GANG-tastic!
posted by dyams at 12:53 PM on January 01, 2010
The best defence is a good offence.
posted by tommybiden at 01:11 PM on January 01, 2010
The worst part of this is that since the Wizards' facility is inside DC city limits, this incident will be investigated by the District police.
If there is an F Troop of law enforcement, it's the DC Police. They couldn't find Lincoln's face on a five dollar bill. Txt version: ncomptent
People's exhibit A: the Chandra Levy case.
It may take the DCPD a good while to get things sorted out on F Street.
If I'm underwriting personal insurance policies for pro athletes, those two Yosemite Sams just made me a richer man, because I'm canceling all the existing policies and writing new ones with updated terms, contingencies, and premiums to account for recent developments in the lethal force risk exposure category.
posted by beaverboard at 01:25 PM on January 01, 2010
Wait wait wait - the name changed - you're supposed to pull wands and cast Harry Potter spells now.
posted by kokaku at 01:47 PM on January 01, 2010
So, you have a guy like Arenas, who has a prior gun related conviction, showing how seriously he takes the law by saying crazy things like "You guys, I wanted to go rob banks, I wanted to be a bank robber on the weekends,".
Even if he was being sarcastic, that's beyond stupid.
Oh, yea, they were fighting over gambling debts. Nice.
posted by dviking at 02:18 PM on January 01, 2010
If there is an F Troop of law enforcement, it's the DC Police.
I couldn't agree more. I lived there in the late 80's when it was the murder capital of the nation and Mayor Barry (the one caught smoking crack with a prostitute) was mayor.
More than once, I would see gun battles outside my front window. I would call 911 but it took the cops hours to get there (this when the 911 operator could hear the gunshots over the phone).
The cops' advice to me when they got there? "Stay away from the window."
And to add insult to injury, I was billed $.50 for calling 911.
posted by cjets at 03:24 PM on January 01, 2010
If there is an F Troop of law enforcement, it's the DC Police.
Maybe true, but if Arenas lives in Falls Church VA, then even if the guns are registered there he still transported them over state lines when he brought them into DC, which makes this a federal case (should they so choose to get involved, and the article alludes to the possibility).
posted by MW12 at 06:47 PM on January 01, 2010
Didn't David Stern just send out a memo recently asking NBA players to please refrain from bringing guns with them to team functions? Gosh that's disappointing. Some severe slaps on wrists are certainly warranted.
posted by tahoemoj at 12:13 PM on January 02, 2010
How serious is the NBA about removing A-holes like this from the league. This should be cause fo immediate expulsion from the league and the matter referred to the police.
Gambling debt? Don't these guys make enough money to pay their debts?
Just one more case of you can take a thug out of the thug life but you can't take the thug life out of the thug. All the money in the world won't cure stupid.
posted by Atheist at 12:17 PM on January 02, 2010
I don't want to overreact. I mean, I can't imagine these guys actually coming to shots over this. That would be so unprecedentedly stupid, I just can't see it happening.
And it's not like confrontations amongst teammates are uncommon.
OK, it sounds like I'm defending it, I'm not. It's incredibly dangerous and stupid to even bring a gun into the locker room and punishment is deserved. I just don't want to knee jerk my way into total hyperbole - right Atheist?
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 02:15 PM on January 02, 2010
I suppose I shouldn't be given the people and circumstances, but I am absolutely stunned that anyone would bring a gun to work and then point it at a coworker. And then double that madness to have that coworker draw his gun and point it back.
If I were a coach I would make mandatory strip searches and metal detectors for access to the club facility a non-negotiable part of my contract.
posted by irunfromclones at 02:31 PM on January 02, 2010
If everyone in the locker room was armed, nobody would ever pull a gun. The problem was that the two guys who were pissed at each other were the only armed ones. Knowing that somebody who might want to shoot you has a gun just makes you pull your own gun. Knowing that there are a number of people around who will leave their guns in their holsters will make you leave your gun in the holster because...
uh...
Damn, I was so close to figuring out the "everyone should be armed argument" that my hardcore NRA friends make and then I totally lost the thread.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:19 PM on January 02, 2010
the one caught smoking crack with a prostitute
You say that like it's a bad thing.
posted by kirkaracha at 06:34 PM on January 03, 2010
Here is Gil's side of things.
On Monday, December 21st, I took the unloaded guns out in a misguided effort to play a joke on a teammate. Contrary to some press accounts, I never threatened or assaulted anyone with the guns and never pointed them at anyone.
Joke or not, I now recognize that what I did was a mistake and was wrong. I should not have brought the guns to DC in the first place, and I now realize that there's no such thing as joking around when it comes to guns even if unloaded.
posted by tron7 at 06:12 PM on January 04, 2010
Apparently Gil was packing the Austin Powers gun, a gold-plated Desert Eagle 50 caliber, made famous in this video.
posted by dusted at 03:15 PM on January 06, 2010
So what happens on the streets of our nations capital is also ocurring in the locker room of its NBA franchise?
Whoda thunk...