On Wednesday, The Washington Post posted an exclusive excerpt from Caron Butler's book Tuff Juice: My Journey from the Streets to the NBA. The excerpt covers the night Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton had the gun incident that got them both suspended indefinitely.
Caron Butler claims he stopped Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton from shooting each other
“I talked calmly to Javaris, reminding him that his entire career, not to mention, perhaps, his life, would be over if he flicked that trigger finger.”
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
Probably the most troubling segment of it was when Arenas and Crittenton revealed that they had guns in their lockers. As Butler recalls, Arenas opened up his locker to show off four guns he had, which led to the following exchange:
“Hey, MF, come pick one,” Gilbert told Javaris while pointing to the weapons. “I’m going to shoot your [expletive] with one of these.”
“Oh no, you don’t need to shoot me with one of those,” said Javaris, turning around slowly like a gunslinger in the Old West. “I’ve got one right here.”
He pulled out his own gun, already loaded, cocked it, and pointed it at Gilbert.
Butler acted as the peacemaker between the two players. It didn’t save their careers, but Butler ended up saving both men’s lives:
”I talked calmly to Javaris, reminding him that his entire career, not to mention, perhaps, his life, would be over if he flicked that trigger finger.
“I looked back at Gilbert. He was silent as he removed himself from the scene.”
In an earlier interview with The Post, Butler revealed how Arenas and Crittenton’s fracas changed him:
“It was a huge part of my career, something that altered my career; it was a decision made by two young men that kind of led to how my career was shaped,” Butler said Tuesday afternoon. “We just knew that whatever we had going, whatever it was, it was over, because of that situation.”
The whole excerpt is worth a read and you can pre-order Butler's book on Amazon right now.
