What exactly took place between Gilbert Arenas, Javaris Crittenton, and guns? What are the implications? Days after the incident, the details are hazy. Our Washington Wizards blog, Bullets Forever, has sorted out the details and spelled out what we know, what we don’t, and what the future holds for these two players.
The Arenas-Crittenton Incident: What We Know And What We Don’t
What are the possible implications?
- Arenas and Crittenton get suspended, heavily. I imagine that David Stern is going to make an example of both and suspend them for the rest of the season. Anything less would be a huge shock to me.
- Arenas gets convicted of a felony, or at the very least a misdemeanor.
- Same with Crittenton.
- If it's the former, Arenas' contract gets voided, which would put the Wizards sort of into the 2010 sweepstakes, with a combined team salary around $38 million. (Crittenton's contract is up after this year, so the salary-cap implications of voiding his contract are irrelevant).
- People at the top lose their jobs.
- Crittenton's career essentially ends (again, potentially).
- Worst of all, this organization will receive a stigma that is going to be impossible to shake. General managers are going to circle the Wizards' players like vultures and try to nab them for nothing. Free agents are going to pause before signing here. Players are going to feel strange entering that locker room. Potential general managers are going to shy away from taking on this rebuilding project. Employees everywhere within the organization might lose their jobs once new ownership comes in hoping for a fresh start. Again, this is going to happen even if the Wizards void Arenas' contract. The benefits of doing that are to create long-term flexibility, but the stigma that results could make it difficult to capitalize on that flexibility for a long time.
To separate the facts from the fiction, click through to read the rest, and stay tuned to Bullets Forever as this story develops.
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