Hibachi Blogosphere: Wizards, NBA Will Pay For Gilbert Arenas' Stupidity

Gilbert Arenas owes me nothing. I'm just a 24-year-old teacher who moonlights as a pro bono hoops scribe.

I bang out NBA columns on this site because doing so pleases me. Who would not want to write at length about their favorite sport?

To the Washington Wizards fans, management, ownership, his coaches, and his teammates, Arenas owes much more than an apology.

He violated a clearer-than-saline-solution rule when he brought firearms to the Verizon Center. It does not matter if he pointed one of them at a teammate, as the New York Post reported.

Javaris Crittenton should say, "Sorry," too. Then again, a seldom used scrub does not attract the same attention as one of the league's highest profile starters.

The story's details remain murky enough that TNT Insider David Aldridge could not provide a sure-fire account of what happened in the Wizards' locker room between Crittenton and Arenas.

Mark Bartelstein, Crittenton's agent, tried to exonerate his client in an interview with Aldridge. This quote appeared in Aldridge's weekly "Morning Tip" column, which I linked to above.

"He may have had an argument with a teammate," Bartelstein said. "But that happens about 100 times a day. I think there's a lot of frustration. There's that old saying that you can work a lifetime to build a reputation and it can take a second to ruin it. All the things that have been written and said, people have an impression of him that's not accurate."

This is why Arenas, once the king among athlete bloggers, should have known better.

Did he bring unloaded or loaded guns to the facility? Did the two players pull guns or just threaten a standoff? Was there any violent intent? What role did Javale McGee play in this dispute?

Arenas tried to joke about the incident with reporters, saying, "Man, I wanted to rob banks."

To hear Richard Jefferson and former Arenas agent Dan Fegan tell it, this was a botched prank, a playful emprise intended to be humorous.

No one is laughing now, including Arenas, who met with D.C. prosecutors and detectives Monday for two hours.

He and Crittenton could face jail time, and worse, Wizards management could decide to void the remainder of Arenas' $111 million deal on the basis of his unethical conduct.

As Sports Illustrated's Ian Thomsen wrote, "Commissioner David Stern will make an example of Arenas." In these dire situations, he appoints himself as the emperor of the sport. No one can overrule him.

After the brawl in Detroit caused years worth of damage in the span of a few months, Stern cannot afford leniency now.

By the time D.C. authorities, the league, and the Wizards sort out this mess, Arenas could be suspended for the rest of the year.

Anyone who thinks the Wizards and the NBA's image will emerge from the fallout of this incident unscathed needs a reality check. Damage control will not erase Arenas' stupidity, nor will it quell cries from racists and non-NBAers who think the sport is populated with uneducated thugs.

Those who watch the game know the stereotypes—that it incites violence among black youths, that players encourage criminal behavior and narcissism—are not true.

Arenas should be more aware than most athletes that he lives in a time where the truth sometimes matters little, a time when ESPN operates a 24-hour news channel. When sports bloggers do not know the real story, they make up one.

Until he tells the same narrative to us that he did in court, fans and observers will continue to fabricate lies based on rumors.

If he turned on ESPN for five seconds in the previous month, he would have seen the ongoing firestorm that followed reports of Tiger Woods' indiscretions.

Now, Arenas joins Woods and Mike Leach on a growing list of fallen sports heroes. Leach turned a laughingstock of a football program into a consistent winner but now finds himself unemployed because he mishandled a player with a concussion.

Texas Tech will not find another coach as brilliant or as determined to win as Leach, and heated contract extension negotiations likely played a part in the university's decision to terminate the coach.

That does not excuse him from his responsibility as a popular public figure. A college football coach with his wit should have known that the slightest mistreatment of a player with an ESPN analyst for a dad would make national news.

I interviewed Hall of Fame guard Clyde Drexler in December and asked him about the increasingly public nature of athletes' private lives.

"We didn’t have as much media scrutiny; neither did the group a decade before we started," he said. "Now, you have to watch everything you do. You know, we got in trouble, but no one ever heard about it. These guys, they get in trouble and the whole world knows. So you have to be a little more careful and lead a more private life."

"We lived very normal lives. No one cared what we did off the floor. That was our private time, personal time. Now, your personal life is an open book, so you have to be aware of that."

Every athlete should purge the word "private" from their vocabulary.

Fans want to know everything, and semi-credible newspapers like the Post thrive on juicy happenings (Not that I would question Peter Vescey's credibility as a connected basketball writer).

Arenas signed one of the league's largest ever contracts two years ago. The price for that mammoth $111 million deal is this.

That "Agent Zero" had so many examples of questionable behavior to consider before he did whatever he did makes the situation inexcusable.

Hundreds of writers roasted Dallas Mavericks forward Josh Howard for an ambiguous comment about the "Star Spangled Banner" at a charity flag football game. Someone recorded his remark on a camera phone and posted it on YouTube.

This is life for a pro baller, and anyone not prepared to accept that harsh reality should find another line of work.

In Drexler's era, players worried about serving the interests of the team while in uniform. Now, everything a professional athlete does—whether in a grocery store, a locker room, or at a club—must be with his or her organization in mind.

Everything gets out, and TMZ's plan to launch a sports-based site will only make matters worse.

The punishment levied on Arenas should reflect the puerile nature of his actions and his status as a franchise star.

Late Wizards owner Abe Pollin paid handsomely to lock up a should-be star. His name alone sells tickets, his personality stands taller than the Washington Monument, and a string of scoring barrages a few years ago showed his incredible ability to put the ball in the basket.

Plus, a former second round castoff-turned star makes for a feel-good story.

If incessant injuries did not derail Arenas' career enough, this will.

The guard's play before the incident—rife with deplorable defense, poor decision making, and rage-inducing shot selection—was already suspect.

Aldridge said in his column that no one in the Wizards organization would want to void Arenas' contract. Could you blame in-flux ownership and the front office for a sudden change of heart?

Bringing guns into the locker room more than qualifies as "moral turpitude." If he's convicted of a felony, Stern might support a contract nullification.

Pollin agreed to spend money this summer to get the Wizards back into the playoff picture. GM Ernie Grunfeld traded fifth pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves for guards Randy Foye and Mike Miller. The team also signed free agent center Fabricio Oberto.

A team most thought would emerge as a solid number four or five in the Eastern Conference is instead 11 games below the .500 mark. The lottery seems more likely than the postseason, and that's with Arenas in the fold.

Coach Flip Saunders blasted his squad's pitiful defense and its selfishness on offense last week after a 110-98 home loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The interior resistance improved Saturday, but the San Antonio Spurs still beat the Wizards 97-86.

As fatal leaks in this roster's foundation continue to emerge, it is clear that management must bust up the core Pollin tried so vehemently to keep together.

The trio of Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler, and Arenas is nowhere near Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili, or Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen.

The negative press accompanying this story will not cease anytime soon, and as with the Malice-at-the Palace, players who did nothing wrong will pay for Arenas bad judgment.

Most NBA players abide by the law, work hard, and care about winning above all else. The brimming-with-class Spurs will deal with the repercussions of gunplay as will the rebuilding Sacramento Kings.

In the eyes of NBA skeptics, no incident can be isolated.

Dec. 21, Arenas and Crittenton engaged in an argument surrounding a gambling debt.

We know that much.

Today, the Wizards and the rest of the league reel in the aftermath.

That some 24-year-old teacher has decided to enter the discussion highlights the massive role the Internet plays in sports.

Everything gets out, and the privacy hoops greats like Drexler once enjoyed is a thing of the past.

Arenas, once the NBA's lovable blog extraordinaire, should have known that.