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Oh, Gilbert, Gilbert, Gilbert. With the news of what happened on both the team charter on that fateful Dec. 19 or what happened in the locker room on Dec. 21 changing almost hourly at this point, no-one really knows what to make of the whole situation. Least of all James (Ed.: No arguments here). However, since white people everywhere seem to be reacting with revulsion and abject horror to the entire situation, I figured I would weigh in here. I have problems with a couple of claims that have been made.
I: Arenas crossed a line that no-one in sports ever does.
Uh-uh. For while we may not have any proof to the contrary, given the prominent role guns have in the United States in general (and ESPECIALLY in sports) we would be pretty remiss to think that no athletes bring weapons with them to work. Especially in Major League Baseball, the NFL and NBA. Why? Well, most pro athletes didn’t grow up in the suburbs. Many of these guys come from pretty shitty areas in society: Compton, generally poor rural areas in the south and Midwest, the various ghettos of New York, the Greater Miami area, and Chicago. I’ve heard over the years plenty of times people in media proclaim how so and so ‘left the ghetto behind’. It doesn’t work like that. Even though they left and may well have brought some family and friends with them, that’s still where they are from – that’s where their friends live and, more importantly, that’s where their enemies live. Street rules say you have to protect yourself. It’s just the way it is. Who knows if someone from the past, jealous over success or in need of some money, would try to jack a pro athlete? For their and their families’ safety, most would be crazy to not own some protection. And while gun laws may say a gun needs to be kept in a safe, with a trigger lock and with a clip of ammo in a SEPERATE safe, if the goal is protection that doesn’t do particularly much. For a gun to be effective as a means of defense it has to be visible (as a warning) and accessible (should it ever be needed). To think no other athlete in another sport ever did something like bring a gun to a locker room, or even horse around with it, is naïve as all hell.
II: Athletes don’t do dumb things that endanger themselves or the public.
Uh-uh. A few names for you:
Vehicular Manslaughter anyone?
According to this, there have been 308 NFL players arrested since the year 2000 for various charges.
Hell, even commentators get in on the act.
To single out Arenas is unfair to Arenas and to the victims of ACTUAL crimes committed by athletes. Stallworth got 30 days in jail for KILLING someone! Gilbert could be facing more than that for being an idiot. Hell, Jamaal Tinsley unloaded a HUNTING RIFLE in the middle of the street and nothing happened. And don’t even get me started on Marvin Harrison. (Aside: the witness suffered an unfortunate accident in August of 09 when he got in the way of several men with guns. In an interview with police shortly before his death, he named Harrison as the likely person behind it. At the time, there were news stories about it galore, now I can find none. Read into that what you will.)
So now you’re wondering why I’m defending Gilbert, right? The answer is I’m not. My point that he isn’t a bad person or didn’t do anything uniquely horrible for a professional athlete doesn’t mitigate the fact that he is a raging moron who fully deserves whatever penalty he incurs. What we as a society are doing, though, is placing some of our fears on Arenas and persecuting him for that rather than what he actually did.
When we were kids, we all went through the years and years of anti-bullying campaigns. We all are well aware of the psychological and physical dangers of it. Yet here we have a PRIME example of bullying in public that we can use to educate the next generation and we’re too busy lynching Arenas to notice. Look at the facts that we know:
- The dispute started over a card game where the rules weren’t preset, apparently Gilbert disputed and left early.
- Gilbert enjoys a position of power, strength, and financial security that the teammate does not (i.e. he makes 100000x more money).
- Rather than mediate the situation, Gilbert needled and mocked the person owing money mercilessly. He allegedly threatened to torch Crittenton’s car (in jest) and, when he didn’t respond to the joke kindly (with the “I’ll shoot you in your bad knee” line), he took the joke to the next level rather than backing off.
What is that? CASEBOOK BULLYING! Arenas pushed around his weaker teammate, mocked him until the guy almost snapped, then continued laughing. When initial reports were that Crittenton threw the gun across the room, my reaction was, “I would have done WAY worse.” No wonder Washington’s locker room is falling apart. And aside from that, even if he did want to continue the joke, the incident occurred in a public area shared by his co-workers, with numerous people around. An incredible lack of respect for the people around him (who were put in an awkward and potentially dangerous situation) as well as to Crittenton who now has had his manhood challenged in front of his entire team.
A few months ago, a few friends and I took a road trip to Miami. While we were there, we decided to go to a shooting range (best $50 I’ve ever spent). I’ve handled guns before so I wasn’t too nervous, but my friends were a bit skittish. They had never seen a gun close-up before, let alone fired one. After getting our guns from behind the counter and being shown they were unloaded, one of my friends turned around, and, while turning, briefly pointed his gun at me. He immediately apologized multiple times and I was pretty rattled by it. Why? Well, even though I knew the gun was unloaded, and knew that I had my own gun in my hand, and knew that he is one of my best friends and wouldn’t shoot me, I was still EXTREMELY uncomfortable having a gun handled that way and aimed in my direction. Even he, who had never handled a gun before, recognized that while I was in no REAL danger, there was enough threat of danger that I could potentially be angry at him.
A man who owns four guns should realize this too. Even if he was challenging his friend in jest, he still challenged him. He created an incredibly dangerous situation, mostly for himself. It wouldn’t likely be a bystander who would have gotten hurt had things continued to escalate, it probably would have been Arenas himself who’d be shot. While I don’t think his teammates now have ill will towards him, there must have been a bit of distrust after that. They must have been watching him out of the corner of their eyes. Surely Washington is going to try to void his contract and cut ties, but what if they can’t do that? And what if they can’t trade his huge contract? If he returns to the Wizards, every eye is going to be on him every time he gets a razor from his locker. The players might still be friends, but that’s a poisonous environment.
He created a media circus in Washington for the first part of 2010 and that had to wear down, irritate and distract the team. When he apologized and said he would use better judgement in the future, that should have been it. But he called out Al Sharpton, said he wanted to sue the New York Post for defamation of character, pretended to shoot teammates in a pregame huddle, and called David Stern “mean”. Even though his character WAS defamed (see above, he isn’t a murderer/rapist), when the District of Columbia is convening a grand jury to indict you, IT’S TIME TO SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!
I used to quite like Arenas. Great player to watch, very likable guy. But the same qualities that make him a great player to watch and likable – his brashness, his swagger and his arrogance – have shown that he is, in fact, immature at best, stupid most probably and socially retarded at worst. I understand that he wants to represent himself, thus having no agent, but at a time like this wouldn’t it have been prudent to hire a PR firm to help repair his image? Shouldn’t he have run his twitter binge idea before a lawyer and a publicist first? Shouldn’t he have made sure that he didn’t further anger the league’s higher-ups? Isn’t it common sense to not make fun of a situation WHILE IT’S STILL GOING ON? Arenas has, for the past few weeks, acted with the same foresight and common sense possessed by 5 year olds. And it’s not a good look for him.
