I have never once thought about whether or not there were weapons in an NBA locker room that I’ve entered. I certainly have since January 1st, 2010.
And for that, I’m a little pissed at Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton.
I’m also pissed at Arenas because I cannot defend his punishment. I cannot defend his actions in playing a joke that went horrifically wrong and I certainly cannot defend his decision to bring weapons into the workplace. I cannot look over my shoulder and pretend that a grown man who is making the choice to own licensed firearms does not also automatically bear the responsibility of checking on the status of those firearms when he crosses state lines.
I cannot make what Arenas did any less wrong and because of that, it’s going to be hard to try and tell you he should not be made an example of, difficult to try and make the spotlight pan out to the bigger picture and damn near impossible to change the way the majority of the public population will — unfairly –l now view him.
Despite this, Arenas is shouldering the weight of a punishment that isn’t solely based on his bad decisions.
via Court Surfing – The Score.
Holly McKenzie is not what I would describe as hardass. She loves the game, and so, loves the players, and being as passionate as it is, she’s got a soft spot. For all of them. Which is what makes this piece especially poignant.
For hoops junkies, this Gilbert Thing isn’t as easy as it is for the rest of the world. The rest of the world can make sweeping generalizations about professional athletes. If they’re sports fans, they can make sweeping generalizations about NBA players. But hoops junkies have to deal with how complicated this issue is. Here’s a brief rundown of just where this thing starts.
- Gun laws in DC
- Precedence in voiding a player’s contract and the PA’s reaction to it.
- Gun culture in the NBA
- NBA arena safety
- Peter Vescey’s reporting
- Woj’s reporting
- Whether we should be debating Vescey and Woj’s reporting
- Whether we should be reporting unconfirmed reports prior to the legal process going through
- Where’s Critt’s gun?
- Why did he have ammo?
- Why was Gilbert’s gold plated?
- What really matters here?
- Is this a safety issue or a propriety issue?
- What does unfit mean?
- Should he have been punished for flaunting it on top of the actions?
- What role does Twitter play?
- Is this a race issue?
- What does Caron Butler (not in the photo) think?
- Is Antawn Jamison going to be traded?
- Is this going on all around the league?
And that’s just the basic stuff. It’s a complex, evolving issue. There’s a great many people that are really suffering with the fact that Peter Vescey may not have completely whiffed on this. He was attacked like a wounded gazelle (the smelly one no one likes or tries to protect in the herd) after the first reports. And while there are still things that definitely seem wrong (the date, for one, whether Gilbert pointed his weapon for another) that certainly point to shoddy reporting, the Critt revelation has made a lot of people pause. And they hate that. I say this as someone whose watched Vescey screw up his fair share. But he wasn’t way off target.
But then I stop. Why are we talking about Vescey? GILBERT ARENAS HAD FIREARMS IN THE LOCKER ROOM. JAVARIS CRITTENTON HAS LOADED FIREARMS IN THE LOCKER ROOM. But then I wonder, after talking to Mike Prada, if it’s our obligation to talk about these other things. To not just hammer Gil’s idiocy into the ground. If we should try and show every angle that we can.
Then I’m reminded that people were moving on to other things which allowed Gilbert to get on Twitter, to take that photo, to flaunt this situation. We as a society did not do a good enough job of getting to Gilbert and saying “You really screwed up, man. This is not a joke.” Man, did that guy need an agent.
I’m not saying that Gilbert’s actions aren’t his responsibility, quite the opposite. I’m saying it’s our responsibility to make sure that we don’t confuse the issue like Arenas tried to do. And he did. He tried to confuse the issue as a prank, something silly, same old wacky Gilbert. This is not same old Wacky Gilbert.
One more note.
There are people that are outraged without looking at who Arenas was. There are people that tend to try and defend him, if not openly, then quietly behind the “that’s who Gil is” argument. There are some like Woj who seek to blame that identity for what’s occurred, and the league for not shutting it down sooner.
My question: Do we really know who he is? No. Absolutely not. We don’t know anything about Gilbert Arenas. We know what he’s given us, and the word of people who are financially tied to his success have given commentary on that being who he is. But I’ve lost my ability to trust Gilbert Arenas. What he did wasn’t necessarily duplicitous, but that doesn’t change the fact that it removed trust. Gilbert Arenas put people in harm’s way. If you don’t believe that, then you don’t understand the fully destructive capabilities of a Desert Eagle. And by putting those people in harm’s way, he removed my ability to trust anything I know about him other than he takes too many jumpshots early in the possession. I believe in talk, and intent, and discussion. But there are times when a person’s actions have to take precedence over his words.
Arenas’ actions have warranted such a reconsideration of his character in the public eye.
