Kleeman's Jump Hook: Lessons from the Gilbert Arenas Gun Play Debacle

"You got to stick to your guns
What's right for you, ain't right for everyone
Ain't right for everyone
You got to stick to your guns
What's right for you, ain't right for everyone
Ain't right for everyone"

--Motley Crue

The NBA's resident funnyman has run out of jokes. The once-blogging baller so adept at delivering memorable punchlines and at being the ultimate court jester now finds himself in the court of law and the firing line of public opinion.

Commissioner David Stern suspended Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas indefinitely and said in a statement that the guard was "not fit to play."

Oh, he was fit to play—just not professional basketball. Arenas now battles his own devil-may-care image, as fans and columnists alike brand him a "thug."

He brought handguns to the Verizon Center and used them in a prank at the wrong time, in the wrong sport, and in front of the wrong sports czar.

Stern needed to make an example of Arenas to protect the association's tarnished image from further damage caused by double standards and racism. Other leagues have never been subject to the same scrutiny as the NBA, even when athletes in those sports have been just as lawless and moronic.

When I read the New York Post story Peter Vescey co-authored, I could not believe its contents. No one who has followed Arenas would confuse him for a violent criminal or a killer.

Did he point a gun at Javaris Crittenton?

Mike Monroe, the NBA beat writer for the San Antonio Express-News , said "impeccable sources" refuted the Post 's story, agreeing with the Wizards' portrayal of the incident as hoodwinking gone awry.

No. Arenas is just an idiot, the worst kind. As the possibility that he may never play again grows, everyone in the sport must heed the lessons from the incident.

Read Adrian Wojnarowski's piece if you haven't already. The Yahoo! Sports NBA columnist blames the NBA and Wizards organization for encouraging and promoting Arenas' comedy act, and he's right.

In hindsight, Stern should have seen this coming. He propagated Arenas' incessant blogging while late Wizards owner Abe Pollin let the guard do whatever he wanted without consequence.

Be careful who you empower. There is perhaps no greater lesson to come from Arenas' alleged gunplay than this.

Headaches happen when an organization elevates a player to a status he's not mature enough to handle.

The Wizards tendered a mammoth contract two summers ago to Arenas that he would never earn, even if healthy and playing at a high level. They made sure he remained one of the league's highest paid players while he recovered from a knee injury.

Money is power. Pollin erred in opening up his wallet, and GM Ernie Grunfeld failed to stand up to the ensuing $111 million injustice.

Stephen Jackson demanded the Golden State Warriors front office trade him only after coach Don Nelson made the guard-forward a captain and ownership handed him a laughable extension.

Jackson crybabied his way into an undeserved contract that now ranks as one of the worst in the NBA. He bypassed discussions with basketball executives, knowing that he could talk the team's owner into an expensive stay.

This is what happens when a player unfit to represent a franchise is allowed free reign.

There are 10 or less hoopsters deserving of a max contract and franchise status. Arenas was never one of them, and he never will be.

He was an electrifying talent for sure, but never one capable of carrying a team on his back on the long path to a championship.

Perhaps Pollin feared the loss of his lovable, circus-act guard would bring already slumping ticket sales to a halt. Whatever the reason, in giving Arenas that much money, the team's brain trust was telling him he belonged on the same level as LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Tim Duncan.

Duncan would never do such a dumb thing. He would not tolerate his teammates doing it, either.

The NBA would be a lot better if GMs reserved maximum money only for players with the ability to lead a championship charge.

Arenas won a first round series once but never offered any sign that he would be more than a volume scorer. He excited crowds and knew how to put the ball in the hoop as well as any of his peers.

His defense and playmaking never reached a superstar level, and his goofy demeanor prevented many from taking him seriously as an MVP-level talent.

Is anyone surprised, then, that Arenas failed to take an investigation into his bringing guns to his place of employment seriously?

He pantomimed shooting guns just before a game the day after authorities questioned him. Stern, no doubt, saw this as a mockery of the humorless nature of Arenas' transgression.

The indefinite suspension was more about what the guard did after the incident and its puerility than the act itself.

Bringing firearms to a locker room in the city with the strictest gun laws in the U.S. qualifies Arenas for a Darwin Award. If he wanted to keep his weapons from his children, he should have purchased a safe.

His ownership of guns was never the issue. That he failed to register the firearms and then carried them to a place where stories are born shows his fatuity.

Every law-abiding resident has the right to own a licensed weapon. The U.S. Constitution says so.

Arenas does not have the right to pull one, or four, out in an attempt to irritate a teammate upset about an unpaid gambling debt.

Gunplay is serious business. Even George Carlin and Richard Pryor would have told Arenas, "Yeah, probably not a good idea."

Wojnarowski said in his piece that the Wizards want "desperately" to void the remaining $80 million on Arenas contract.

Even though other players in the sport have done worse with far less punishment, can you blame the organization for wanting to sever ties with a potential felon?

It doesn't matter that Arenas is one of the last players who would ever pull the trigger.

A mere hand on a pistol is enough for a rest-of-the-season banishment, a commish-to-player indictment for the ages.

Stern helped manufacture Arenas' celebrity. He may now be the one to end Arenas' career, thanks to one not-so-amusing display of poor judgment.

Law enforcement will do what it must. Stern will go above and beyond what is required to make his point.

Arenas, whose image was once plastered on a wall outside the Verizon Center, is now the punchline to his joke.

The rest of the world, it seems, forgot to laugh.