Gilbert Arenas Finally Explains The Card Game That Ended With Guns

Everyone knows how Gilbert Arenas' Wizards tenure ended -- there was an argument, guns were brought to the locker room, and Arenas eventually ended up in court over the whole thing. But what about the card game that started the argument? Thursday, Gil told his side of the story to USA Today.

Then-Wizards center JaVale McGee had beaten Crittenton out of $1,100 in a card game. Wizards guard Earl Boykins loaned McGee $200. McGee didn't immediately pay back Boykins as he won the money and an argument blossomed. Arenas says he wasn't involved in the actual bet.

" 'Pay the man his (expletive) money. You've got all my money,' " Arenas says Crittenton shouted at McGee. "So I jumped in, 'Why you talking to your teammates like this? We family.'

"That's when (Crittenton) started coming at me, '(Expletive, racial slur), just because you got all money, this and this and this.' That's when we started going back and forth. I didn't owe him anything. It was over a $1,100 pot he just lost."

Arenas pauses and sighs when asked how the situation escalated to the point of guns.

"Someone said they were going to shoot me. So since I'm one of those guys who says, 'I want to see this happen. I want to see you actually shoot me,' that's where that came from," says Arenas, declining to mention that someone by name. "I brought the four guns in and said (in a note), 'Pick 1, so the day you want to shoot me let me know, I'll be ready to get shot.' That's how."

See, so if Javale had just paid back the $200 to Earl Boykins... ALL OF THIS COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED. Maybe. In any case, that's only part of what's otherwise a fantastic profile of Gil on the Grizzlies over at USA Today. Check it out.

(Photo via Spruce Derden-US PRESSWIRE)