A Poker Game Sparks Trouble for NBA Player
The many gamblers and poker players of Las Vegas all hold one maxim close at heart: Don’t welch on a bet. According to the New York Post, much to the ire of his teammate Javaris Crittendon, NBA star Gilbert Arenas doesn’t play by those rules. Arenas is a keen poker player and has often boasted to the media about his prowess on the felt. Despite Arenas’ reported skill, he apparently met his match in Crittendon, who took him for $25,000 during a high stakes heads up match. When Arenas refused to pay the bad blood escalated, resulting in both players drawing a gun on each other in the locker-room.
The 22 year old Arenas reportedly strode into the Washington Wizards locker-room with three pistols in his possession. He placed them on a chair next to Crittenton and asked his opponent to pick one. Javaris replied that he already had a gun of his own and, according to the NY Post, it wasn’t long before both ball players were staring down the barrel of their teammates weapon. No shots were fired and there were no injuries.
This happened way back on December 19th, but the Wizards neglected to report it to the NBA. This, despite an accord struck between the NBA and the players union to ban guns from entering any league facility. The story only broke to the surface after a few major news organizations caught wind of the standoff and delved a little deeper. Both the team and the NBA are waiting for the conclusion of a police investigation before issuing and punishment. It is safe to say that Arenas’ 6-year $111 million contract could be in jeopardy.
Despite the controversy, Arenas has been surprisingly vocal. He continues to post regularly on his twitter account and has spoken to the media multiple times. He claims that the Post and others have blown the story way out of proportion and that both players treated it as a prank. “We were friends before, we’re friends now,” he said of Crittendon. He was even seen joking about the incident with fans on his Twitter feed.
Arenas has been interviewed at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, where he issued a prepared statement:
“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 D.C. 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.”
Both the player and his team claim the guns were permanently unloaded. Arenas has claimed that he only put the guns in the locker in order to keep them away from the home of his 3 children. Arenas has now fully apologized for, “a misguided effort to play a joke on a teammate,” telling his Twitter followers to “”stay away from guns..i was wrong for puttn [sic] them in my locker.” Whether or not the story as told by the player will result in a mitigation of any punishment remains to be seen.