Washington's Gilbert Arenas was suspended indefinitely Wednesday over a gun case stemming in part from a gambling dispute with a teammate.
Before the Washington Wizards had a gun problem, they had a gambling problem — a high-stakes card game that ended in acrimony, threats and ultimately a locker-room showdown that has thrust the franchise into chaos.
The N.B.A. is confronting a number of serious issues in the Gilbert Arenas saga, with firearms possession the most grave concern. But the popularity of gambling among players, and its potential for disruptive results, is also coming under intense scrutiny.
There are indications that the N.B.A. is now considering new gambling restrictions for players. One team has already acted. On Wednesday, the Nets informed players that gambling was no longer permitted on team flights.
“We did,” Rod Thorn, the Nets’ president, said Thursday in a telephone interview in which he confirmed that the team had instituted a ban. “I think after this incident with the Wizards that we just decided that we would not have any on our planes. We’ve never had a problem with it. But obviously, you can see what can happen.”
Thorn, who was formerly the chief of discipline for the N.B.A., said he was not aware of any other teams instituting a prohibition on gambling. He declined to speculate on whether Commissioner David Stern would act. However, a number of team executives, agents and others with ties to the league said they believed the matter was under serious consideration.
Thorn said he acted after discussing the issue with the Nets’ owner, Bruce Ratner, who urged that a ban be enacted. Thorn said the Nets’ rationale was simple: “Why take a chance on something like that happening? It’s obviously not good for the league and the team.”
Playing cards, dominoes and dice to pass the time on team flights is an entrenched part of N.B.A. culture. Players sometimes bet with $100 bills, and the stakes can quickly reach into the thousands, which can lead to bruised egos and hard feelings.
That, according to multiple news reports, is what happened on the Wizards’ team flight from Phoenix to Washington on Dec. 19. Arenas, the Wizards’ star guard, and Javaris Crittenton, a journeyman, reportedly argued during a card game, with Crittenton threatening to shoot Arenas in his surgically repaired knee.
The conflict spilled into the locker room two days later, when Arenas, according to reports, laid four unloaded handguns on a chair and, apparently in jest, instructed Crittenton to “pick one.”
The Washington Post reported in Thursday’s editions that Crittenton then displayed his own gun and loaded it. That previously unreported detail was based on two firsthand accounts, according to The Post.
If the report is true, Crittenton could face more devastating consequences than Arenas, whose guns — according to his own account and multiple news reports — were unloaded. Both players could be charged with violating the District of Columbia’s strict gun laws, which generally prohibit carrying firearms in public.
The N.B.A. declined to comment on The Post’s article. League officials have generally kept silent while waiting for local and federal authorities to complete their investigation.
Stern’s only comment on the affair came Wednesday, when he suspended Arenas indefinitely, primarily because of Arenas’s cavalier actions over the last week. Before a game in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Arenas pantomimed shooting his teammates with his fingers. And he spent last weekend making irreverent remarks about the case on his Twitter account.
The Wizards were preparing to fine Arenas’s teammates for their role Tuesday night, according to ESPN. In a photograph, a number of players can be seen smiling and laughing while Arenas points his “guns” at them.
In the wake of the suspension, the Wizards franchise has sought to distance itself from Arenas. Workers on Thursday removed a large banner of Arenas — surrounded by the words “Character, Commitment, Connection” — outside the Verizon Center in downtown Washington.
The N.B.A. prohibits firearms possession at all team facilities and while traveling on team business. But curtailing players’ gambling activities could be difficult.
Games involving gambling are prevalent on team planes, and they often continue on bus rides and at team hotels, where the games can go on until early in the morning. Policing the activity at all times is practically impossible, which is why Stern might ultimately decide not to propose new rules.
Under the collective bargaining agreement, teams have broad latitude to set their own rules in areas on issues like curfews, dress codes and workout regimens. It is not clear whether any other teams are preparing to restrict gambling on team flights. A half-dozen team executives contacted on Thursday said they were not considering any new rules.
Donnie Walsh, the Knicks’ president, said the Arenas case had caused him some concern over his own team’s gambling activity.
“They were using chips; they started to go with cash a little bit,” he said of his own players. “But now, my security guy is going to sit down and we’re going to have to change some things. I really don’t know what the right answer is. I hope they don’t play for a lot of money.”Mark Bartelstein, an N.B.A. agent for 25 years, may be the most outspoken critic of player gambling — a position he held long before he began representing Crittenton last month. He speculated that if the N.B.A. moved to ban gambling, not a single team would oppose it.
“There’s nothing good about it and a whole lot of bad,” Bartelstein said. “The reality of it is, it gets way out of hand. The money involved is really insane. That’s the only word I can use.”
The disparity in salaries can have a devastating effect during a high-stakes card game, Bartelstein said. An undrafted rookie may make just $458,000 a year, and yet could end up playing a high-stakes card game against a superstar teammate making $18 million.
“And it’s ruthless,” Bartelstein said. “There’s no mercy. I think it’s unhealthy.”
Fights over gambling debts are a potential consequence. But Bartelstein said his greater concern was for players’ financial well-being, given the fleeting nature of an N.B.A. career. He said he frequently lectured his clients on gambling and had spoken with teams about banning it.
Al Harrington, a veteran forward for the Knicks, said that not all card games involve high stakes, and that not all of them are played for money.
“A lot of people do it to pass the time,” he said. “A lot of times you’re on flights for two, three hours. No one wants to sit there and look at each other, so a lot of the time, you play cards, different games.”
Bartelstein said the current scandal should prompt the N.B.A. to consider new restrictions. “I think David Stern is very much interested in protecting the image of the league,” he said. “I think that they will look at it.”
Posts
