Gilbert Arenas has let down his family, friends, and the Washington Wizards organization. His decision to bring unloaded firearms to the Verizon Center finally caught up to him on Wednesday as David Stern dropped the hammer by suspending him indefinitely from NBA action effective immediately.
I haven't always agreed with David Stern's decisions, most notably the suspension of Ron Artest after the 2004 Malice at the Palace and the age limit rule which requires a player to attend one year of college or be at least one year removed from High School in order to be eligible for the draft but his decision to suspend Gilbert Arenas indefinitely was the right decision. For some reason Gilbert thought his jump shot and lame attempts at humor have made him untouchable. Somebody had to bring Arenas back to Earth; the Wizards had not suspended Arenas, the authorities had not pressed any charges and Arenas felt it would be funny to pretend to shoot his teammates before tip off against Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday. Somebody had to bring him back and if your a die hard NBA fan, you were just waiting for David Stern to step in and put a halt to all the immature behavior.
Many words can be used to describe Gilbert's decision to bring unloaded hand guns into the Verizon center, such as ignorant, stupid, dumb. However the best word to describe it is immature. Arenas is like that immature kid in high school who is always making everybody laugh, is always the center of attention, the kid that teachers hate to have in class. He is also the student that always gets thrown out of class and generally misses days from school, not for being sick, but rather for being suspended. Freshmen year everybody laughs at this kid's jokes and shenanigans but by senior year everybody's laughing at him instead of with him. He is no longer funny and his constant jokes and childish behavior are somewhat disturbing to both teachers and classmates. At NBA High, Arenas is that kid. The picture below clearly describes what I'm saying.
Gilbert Arenas did not help his own cause with the NBA on Tuesday by taking part in a pregame skit, in which he pretended to shoot teammates with his fingers. (Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE via Getty Images)
At first glance, you would think the Wizards are laughing with Arenas. Antawn Jamison has a look on his face like "this guy is crazy." You can tell what Fabricio Oberto is thinking, "Americans." Andray Blatche and DeShawn Stevenson seem to actually find it funny, however, they are enablers, the worst type of friend anybody can have. Javale McGee probably found it funny as he is too young to understand the gravity of the situation. However it doesn't matter as I am sure nobody finds it funny now.
Arenas is losing aprroximately $147,000 for each game he misses and that is definitely not a laughing matter. It is also very irresponsible for a father of three. Gilbert Arenas has let down his teammates as the Wizards season is pretty much over. He let Wizards' fans and season ticket holders down as they now have the draft to look forward to. The group that Arenas let down the most are the kids and parents that looked up to him or used to look up to him. I mention the parents because they are the ones who are going to have to explain to their kids why their favorite NBA player may never play basketball again. The parents have to explain why guns aren't a joke and furthermore that every action has a consequence. Unfortunately for Arenas nobody ever had that talk with him. Nobody in his family or his inner circle could effectively explain to Agent Zero just how much damage he was doing to himself.
You can tell Arenas has never really dealt with guns until he got to the NBA. His actions suggest that, as a child, he never really had to deal with gun violence or the affects of it. Drawing a gun on somebody is a line that once crossed, is no turning back from. Now look at Caron Butler, a player who was arrested 15 times before his 15th birthday. Is it a coincidence that he is not in the picture above??? I think not. I'm sure Butler knows the affects of guns through his own childhood and his work in the community.
It will be interesting to see how the Wizards respond from here on out. They were blown out on Wednesday night by the Cavs, but that was expected as just a few hours earlier the team leader was suspended indefinitely. Will they rally together and try and make a push into the playoffs or will they just rollover and mail in the rest of the season. Either way, coaching and playing will get easier with that immature kid out of the class.
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