What's Eating Gilbert Arenas?

Time was, the biggest criticism people in and around the hoops world had about Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas was his bad knees and uncontrollable thirst to jack it up early in the shot clock and hinder his team with a smattering of bad shots(something that Gabe and I witnessed first-hand on Saturday). Now it appears that Agent Zero has given a whole new meaning to the term "gunner".

After a little over a week after the story broke that Arenas had decided to play John Travolta to Jarvaris Crittendon's Nic Cage in the two's FaceOff reenactment in the Verizon Center locker room, NBA commish Davis Stern has finally decided to suspend Arenas indefinitely without pay.

Two things stick in my craw about the Arenas fiasco. First, the complete and utter lack of concern Arenas showed when the story was first reported. Writing off an incident in which you pull a gun on a teammate as "just being goofy" is inconsiderate and unacceptable. Jim Carrey is goofy. You don't see him sticking up Steve Carell on the set of Horton Hears A Who. The only time Arenas showed any real contrition over the whole situation came in his statement AFTER Stern suspended him(For the record, Arenas' apology is the same cut and paste apology every athlete makes when they fuck up. It's about as believable as Darius McCrary playing Muhammad Ali in the Don King biopic.) The underlying factor in this whole mess is that someone could have been legitimately hurt. If Crittendon reacts differently and a tussle ensues and somehow a gun goes off, perhaps we're reporting a completely different type of story.

Even in this new era of unprecedented fan access to celebrities, a public figure should only bring a weapon to their workplace if they are a. on the run from the mafia or b. Clint Eastwood. That's it. That's all. With the advances in security and safety, no athlete should be bringing guns into the arena. You never hear about Hank Aaron walking into Fulton County Stadium strapped to the gills, and he was facing legitimate death threats on a daily basis. If Plaxico Burress was a Grade A idiot for bringing a gun into a nightclub and accidentally capping himself in the leg, then Arenas makes Plax look like Albert Einstein because Arenas should have learned about the risk of being caught in public with a firearm. Especially in the nation's capital, where President Obama is looking to crack down on guns.

The other thing that bothers me about Gilbert-gate is the delayed reaction from Stern's office to lay down the law. It makes you wonder if Stern would have been as patient if the man at the forefront of this mess was not Arenas(who has kept his nose clean throughout his career) but instead was notorious bleacher-brawler Ron Artest. Do you think Stern would have waited nearly two weeks to suspend Artest if word got out that Artest pulled a pistol on Luke Walton? I don't think so either. You're talking about guns being drawn in an NBA arena over a gambling dispute. How many major red flags did Stern need before deciding to blow the whistle? Did he need testimony from Tony Soprano? That's one of the factors I just don't get. Why is a man in the middle of a $111 million contract so distraught over a gambling debt that he's pulling a gun in a public place on a man he's going to see on a day-to-day basis for 9 months? Are you telling me, if Crittendon forced his hand, that Arenas would have been willing to kill his teammate for a few bucks? How much could Crittendon have possibly owed or vice versa?

Look, I could go on another rant about the responsibility athletes have as role models for kids or the potential dangers of a society hell-bent on solving their issues with guns and violence but we've crossed that bridge before. The sad part about this is that the cash-strapped Wizards, who are among the NBA's biggest sellers as we near the trade deadline, are on the hook for the rest of Arenas' contract, which is harder to move than JaMarcus Russell in a buffet line. Who is honestly going to trade for a shoot-happy point guard(no pun intended) facing weapons charges who admittedly pulled a gun on a teammate over a gambling beef(as well as allegedly got into a fight with said teammate on the plane a week prior)? The irony of Arenas' mishaps is that, in reacting irresponsibly over an unpaid debt, he gambled away the one thing he couldn't afford to pay back: his NBA career.