Wizards Arenas and Crittenton Pull Guns In Locker Room
An NBA all-star and his Washington Wizards teammate reportedly drew guns on each other in the team’s locker room during a Christmas Eve fight over a gambling debt, the New York Post reports.
Gilbert Arenas, 27, went for his gun first, the Post reported, citing unnamed inside sources. His teammate Javaris Crittenton, 22, allegedly brandished a firearm as well.
It was unclear whether other teammates saw the standoff inside the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., the Post reported.
The Wizards announced on Christmas Day that Arenas had admitted to bringing guns to the locker room and had turned them over to team security. The NBA club’s statement didn’t disclose how Wizards officials discovered that Arenas was storing weapons on the job.
“It’s in the hands of [Washington] authorities,” Wizards General Manager Ernie Grunfeld told the Post, declining to go into details. “We’re going to get to the bottom of this, if there is a bottom to this.”
Washington police said they were investigating Arenas for gun-possession violations.
“We’re working with the Metropolitan Police Department on the investigation. That’s about all we can say at his point,” said Ben Friedman, a spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office in DC.
The feds have been investigating gambling within the NBA since disgraced ex-referee Tim Donaghy admitted betting on games and feeding information to bookies. It was not clear whether the gambling debt that sparked the Arenas-Crittenton duel had anything to do with league games.
A top players-union official said he was shocked by the allegations. “This is unprecedented in the history of sports,” said Player’s Association Executive Director Billy Hunter. “I’ve never heard of players pulling guns on each other in a locker room.”
Team owner Abe Pollin — his sensitivity heightened by the fatal shooting of his good friend Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 — changed the club from the Bullets to the Wizards in 1997 because he didn’t like the violent overtones of the original name. Pollin died in November.
Arenas, who has three kids, reportedly told team officials he brought guns to his Verizon Center locker so they wouldn’t be close to his newborn at their home in Great Falls, Va.
He denied pulling a gun on Crittenton and even mocked the suggestion he would ever point a weapon at a teammate.
“You guys, I wanted to go rob banks, I wanted to be a bank robber on the weekends,” Arenas said sarcastically after a game this week.
Firearm laws in Washington are among the nation’s strictest. Until a recent US Supreme Court ruling, private ownership of guns was illegal in the nation’s capital.
Read the full report on NYPost.com
Tagged with: Association Executive • Christmas Eve • Ernie Grunfeld • Gilbert Arenas • Gun Possession • History Of Sports • Israeli Prime Minister • League Games • Metropolitan Police Department • Minister Yitzhak Rabin • Nba All Star • Nba Wizards • New York Post • Owner Abe Pollin • Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin • Referee Tim Donaghy • Verizon Center • Washington Police • Washington Wizards • Yitzhak Rabin
Filed under: NBA
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