Arenas suspended for the year..

[HarlemHeat37]

He also allegedly wants to have his contract voided so he doesn't have to play for the Wizards anymore..strange that he's willing to give up so much money, but it could be for the best..

[duncan228]

NBA to suspend Arenas for rest of season (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AiYSyZic0Bc6EXQNOs_7May8vLYF?slug=aw-arenasstern012710&prov=yhoo&type=lgns)
By Adrian Wojnarowski

NBA commissioner David Stern has suspended Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas for the remainder of this season, league sources told Yahoo! Sports Wednesday afternoon.

Stern had been considering two suspension scenarios for the former All-Star: the remainder of this season or a full 82-game ban that would extend into next season. League sources said players union executive director Billy Hunter and union attorneys had negotiated the suspension terms with Stern over the past several days. If the union vowed to appeal the shorter penalty, sources said, Stern was prepared to suspend Arenas for the full 82 games.

Legal counsel made it clear to Arenas prior to his Wednesday meeting with Stern that he risked the longer suspension if he didn’t accept a ban for the remainder of this season. The Washington Post reported that Arenas told Stern he would ask the union not to fight the suspension. The league and players union are drafting statements and are expected to make announcements about the suspension later Wednesday.

The players union had held out some last-minute hope that Stern would allow Arenas to return to the NBA sooner than next season if the union would concede to amending the current Collective Bargaining Agreement to include a zero-tolerance gun policy. No formal proposal on the specifics of possible penalties for the policy was exchanged, sources say, but the union was open to the idea had the commissioner been willing to shorten the suspensions of Arenas and teammate Javaris Crittenton.

Crittenton is expected to receive a similar penalty to Arenas, sources said.

Arenas entered a guilty plea on a felony gun charge after bringing four firearms into the Washington Wizards locker room following a Dec. 21 locker-room dispute with Crittenton over a card game. He will be sentenced on March 26.

Stern gave Arenas an indefinite suspension on Jan. 6 because of the guard’s repeated attempts to make light of the incident with Crittenton.

Crittenton pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor gun charge on Monday and received probation. He met with Stern on Tuesday in New York.

The union had raised the idea with Stern about crafting an immediate amendment to the CBA that would detail specific penalties for bringing guns into any NBA facility or function, including locker rooms, buses and planes.

Dan Fegan, one of the NBA’s top player agents who has been working as one of Arenas’ advisers, told Yahoo! Sports earlier Wednesday, “It’s a shame that a series of serious lapses in judgment will have such dramatic consequences for Gilbert, but this incident provides a singular opportunity for the union and NBA to focus not on punishment as a deterrent, but implement a zero-tolerance gun policy with clearly defined major penalties for even minor infractions. Let’s treat the system, not the symptom.”

The Wizards are still determining whether they will pursue voiding the remaining $80 million on Arenas’ contract.

*********************

Arenas, Crittenton suspended for rest of season (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=txwizardsgunsstern&prov=st&type=lgns)
By Brian Mahoney

Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton were suspended without pay for the remainder of the season Wednesday by NBA commissioner David Stern, who said guns in the workplace “will not be tolerated.”

Stern delivered the punishment after meeting with Arenas earlier in the day, turning his indefinite suspension into a suspension without pay.

Both players have admitted bringing guns into the Washington Wizards’ locker room, a violation of the collective bargaining agreement, following a dispute on a team flight. Stern said the players expressed remorse, but added, “nevertheless, there is no justification for their conduct.”

“The issue here is not about the legal ownership and possession of guns, either in one’s home or elsewhere,” Stern said in a statement. “It is about possession of guns in the NBA workplace, which will not be tolerated.”

Arenas, who is forfeiting about $147,200 per game, had already been suspended indefinitely earlier this month. Crittenton, who met with Stern on Tuesday, will lose about $13,435 per game.

Arenas pleaded guilty Jan. 15 to a felony gun charge after an alleged confrontation with Crittenton in the at Verizon Center. Arenas, who is scheduled to be sentenced March 26, is in the second season of a six-year, $111 million contract.

He has asked the players’ association not to contest the penalty, while Crittenton’s plans are unclear. His agent, Mark Bartelstein, told The Associated Press that, “David Stern has done what he thinks is right for the league. We’re going to look at it and talk about it with Javaris and the players’ association.”

The Wizards have 38 games left in a woeful season that was thrown into turmoil when news of the confrontation involving the guns broke on Christmas Eve. The team has distanced itself from Arenas since Stern indefinitely suspended him, removing his likeness from the Verizon Center. Crittenton has been injured and wasn’t playing, anyway.

The team said it supported Stern’s ruling.

“Their poor judgment has also violated the trust of our fans and stands in contrast to everything Abe Pollin stood for throughout his life,” the Wizards said in a statement.

“It is widely known that Mr. Pollin took the extraordinary step of changing the team name from ‘Bullets’ to ‘Wizards’ in 1997 precisely to express his abhorrence of gun violence in our community. We hope that this negative situation can produce something positive by serving as a reminder that gun violence is a serious issue.”

Piper Hall, a spokeswoman for Arenas’ lawyer, wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press that neither Arenas nor his lawyer, Ken Wainstein, would comment “at this time.”

[timvp]

Dan Fegan, one of the NBA’s top player agents who has been working as one of Arenas’ advisers, told Yahoo! Sports earlier Wednesday, “It’s a shame that a series of serious lapses in judgment will have such dramatic consequences for Gilbert, but this incident provides a singular opportunity for the union and NBA to focus not on punishment as a deterrent, but implement a zero-tolerance gun policy with clearly defined major penalties for even minor infractions. Let’s treat the system, not the symptom.”

Agent Zero Tolerance.

:lol

:lmao

:rollin

:smchode:

[sook]

He also allegedly wants to have his contract voided so he doesn't have to play for the Wizards anymore..strange that he's willing to give up so much money, but it could be for the best..



If he wanted that contract voided\ the wizards would dance around the city naked and do it in a second.

He isn't going to get paid anything close to that after its up, why would he throw away 80 mil?

[Allanon]

Agent 0 would be lucky to get the MLE next year. I dunno WTF he's doing "wanting" to void his contract.

I guess he just can't stand getting disrespected by the Wizards and wants to "punish" them back :lol

[JamStone]

Gilbert Arenas, starting point guard for the Lakers next season. Book it.

[Allanon]

Gilbert Arenas, starting point guard for the Lakers next season. Book it.

I kind of like that actually.

Lakers can get him cheap after this fiasco and Phil & Kobe can whip him into line.

[Donkeybong]

pass on arenas.

[Allanon]

pass on arenas.

Even at MLE type money?

The dude may have been stupid here but his talent level is up there with a guy like Monta Ellis.

[21_Blessings]

He also allegedly wants to have his contract voided so he doesn't have to play for the Wizards anymore..strange that he's willing to give up so much money, but it could be for the best..

Yeah I'm sure Arenas wants to give up those 80 million dollars :lol

[21_Blessings]

Even at MLE type money?

.

Wizards played better or just as well without him.

Selfish, blackhole. Team killer all around. No defense.

If Kobe went down with a season ending surgery then sure, all bets are off. Sign the dude and pray.

[baseline bum]

Agent 0 would be lucky to get the MLE next year. I dunno WTF he's doing "wanting" to void his contract.

I guess he just can't stand getting disrespected by the Wizards and wants to "punish" them back :lol

Assuming there is no lockout, I bet he'd get some really nice offers. Nothing close to the $100 million deal or whatever it was that he signed in Washington, but I could still see him getting an $8-$9 million base salary on his next deal; especially if players like James and Wade stay put. There's just a lot of capspace out there for the taking this summer (once again, assuming no lockout).

[duncan228]

NBA suspends Arenas, Crittenton for season; Stern issues statement (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/basketball/nba/01/27/stern.statement/index.html)

NEW YORK -- Washington Wizards players Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton were suspended for the remainder of the season Wednesday by NBA commissioner David Stern.

Both Arenas and Crittenton have admitted bringing guns into the Wizards' locker room. Stern delivered the punishment after meeting with Arenas earlier in the day, turning his indefinite suspension into a suspension without pay.

Arenas pleaded guilty Jan. 15 to a felony gun charge after an alleged confrontation with Crittenton in the Verizon Center. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 26. He's in the second season of a six-year, $111 million deal, and will forfeit approximately $147,000 per game. Crittenton will lose $13,345 a game.

After the suspensions, the commissioner issued the following statement:

"The NBA has conducted a thorough investigation of events relating to this matter.

"It is not disputed that, following an argument on the team's flight home from a game in Phoenix, both Mr. Arenas and Mr. Crittenton brought guns to the Verizon Center locker room and -- with other players and team personnel present or nearby -- displayed them to one another in a continuation of their dispute. The players engaged in this conduct despite a specific rule set forth in the collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and the Players Association prohibiting players from possessing a weapon at an NBA facility, and reminders of this prohibition given annually by the NBA to players both in writing and in person.

"The issue here is not about the legal ownership and possession of guns, either in one's home or elsewhere. It is about possession of guns in the NBA workplace, which will not be tolerated.

"I have met separately with Mr. Arenas and with Mr. Crittenton. Both have expressed remorse for their actions and an understanding of the seriousness of their transgressions. Both have volunteered to engage in community service in order to turn the lessons they have learned into an educational message for others. I accept fully the sincerity of their expressions of regret and intent to create something positive from this incident.

"Nevertheless, there is no justification for their conduct. Accordingly, I am today converting Mr. Arenas' indefinite suspension without pay to a suspension without pay for the remainder of the 2009-10 season, and am also suspending Mr. Crittenton without pay, effective immediately, for the remainder of the 2009-10 season."

[duncan228]

Arenas’ suspension reflects poorly on NBA (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AvhkEt_rAQwMmacvjiIJCSm8vLYF?slug=aw-arenaswizards012810&prov=yhoo&type=lgns)
By Adrian Wojnarowski

Just past Christmas, and still Gilbert Arenas was mug in his certainty that somehow this would all go away, that a wink and a smile could charm the trouble. All that had come out was that he had stored unloaded guns in the Washington Wizards’ locker room. There was something bigger and bleaker on the way, the truth working its way out of the darkness and into the public light, and someone had suggested to Arenas that maybe he ought to be careful with his public words, that he needed to cling close to a stranger called restraint.

Arenas dismissed the advice with a roll of the eyes and a cocksure insistence. ”I’m smarter than everyone else,” a witness heard him say, and no one needed to tell Arenas how to handle the public, the media, the storm closing fast on him.

Arenas started to talk and refused to stop. He started to act out, and practically begged for someone to stand in his way and, finally, NBA commissioner David Stern did.

”I’m saving him from himself,” Stern said privately upon suspending Arenas.

The misjudgments and miscalculations that escalated into a felony plea and an NBA suspension of 50 games were born out of Arenas’ and Javaris Crittenton’s complete foolishness, but not restricted there. There were larger stakes here for the NBA, the players union, the specter of leverage won and lost with looming labor talks and a possible lockout.

This is a sport in which owners and front-office executives have mismanaged franchises into financial ruin, but the fall-back plan never changes: The public always wants to believe the worst of the NBA’s players, and they’re given the ammo to validate stereotypes. As much as anything, Arenas and the union gave the commissioner the pulpit to grandstand on gun control when past punishments were arbitrary and modest.

From Sebastian Telfair with a loaded gun on a team flight, to Stephen Jackson playing shoot-‘em-up outside an Indy club, Stern never reacted so much to the severity of the transgressions as he did to the severity of the publicity. Stern doesn’t always play to the problems, but the public outcry. He’s a master manipulator of the message and the NBA messengers. Feel free to pound away on players, coaches and executives on NBA.com, but don’t you dare criticize the commissioner and his owners.

Stern talked tough about sending a message to his players, but he ought to think about sending a message to his lousy ownership groups with lousy management: The Wizards were one more permissible culture in which Arenas had come to believe he could walk into the locker room with a satchel of guns for a gag, for intimidation – whatever – and no one would come down on him. The Wizards were one more enabling franchise in Stern’s NBA, one more ownership structure that cut and ran on accountability. Washington played the ”Oh-if-Abe-Pollin-was-alive-to-see-this” card on Wednesday and that’s a tired, exploitive farce that needs to end.

Abe was alive when the Wizards signed Arenas to a $60 million contract, alive when Arenas crapped in a teammate’s shoes. He was alive when his general manager was undermining his past coach’s authority with Arenas, and he was alive when they gave him $111 million after a horrible knee injury. Abe was a pillar of the D.C. community, but also an owner with such judgment that he once offered a coach $5 million a season, the GM job and a percentage of the franchise after meeting and talking to him for less than 30 minutes.

In the end, this isn’t about David Stern and the Wizards and the union. It’s about Arenas and Crittenton, who deserved punishment. The rest of the season? Had Jackson and Telfair been hit harder, maybe. Still, some are left to wonder how much of this scandal could’ve been pre-empted had Arenas allowed himself to be surrounded with smart, shrewd people from the moment he jammed himself up.

Make no mistake: The union’s excuse that Arenas didn’t return an initial call to them was no reason for them to fail to get down to Washington and get in his ear. Union head Billy Hunter neglected to get Arenas a clear, orchestrated plan to manage the crisis. Arenas had skipped union meetings in the past, had showed little interest, but this was the point: He was a big star, and the burden of his acts would reflect on the rank-and-file players. Hunter should’ve had a rep on the next plane to D.C. When whispers of a locker-room confrontation surfaced, Arenas needed crisis PR, a strategy out of the union – out of someone competent – and that never happened until it was too late.

Eventually, Arenas turned back to his old agent, Dan Fegan, who became a confidante again. This gave him a savvy advocate, but most of the damage was already done and irreparable. The union negotiated a deal with Stern whereby Arenas would agree to a 50-game ban without appeal. The alternative was a full 82-game suspension, and perhaps even Stern didn’t have the stomach to go that far.

Together, the union was right to push Stern for a clearer, more comprehensive gun policy. Guns had been in locker rooms long before Arenas and Crittenton, and there never seemed to be much fear from players that teams, or the league, would come down on them. Now, Stern says he and Hunter will work together to strengthen the policy. In the end, Stern likes his ideas best and that never changes.

All the way, Stern controlled the conversation and many in the league management – and agent community – believed this was his first salvo in labor negotiations. For the players, this episode has been a reminder they need to surround themselves with brighter public strategies, with more vigorous public defenses. Now, the Wizards could try to void Arenas’ contract, and much of their ability to do so could come with the results of a March 26 sentencing in D.C.

The Orlando Magic, with GM Otis Smith, an old Arenas ally, is intrigued with the possibility of a deal down the line, but it’s too early to tell. The Golden State Warriors drafted Arenas, bid to lure him out of Washington as a free agent and are maybe just screwed up enough to bring him back to the Bay Area. It’s almost impossible for Arenas to return to the Wizards, where there’s much animosity, so much disdain between the franchise and its franchise player.

”It just got so ugly,” one official familiar with the NBA’s investigation said. ”You had guys all throwing each other under the bus. I don’t see how Arenas can play there again, after what’s gone on behind the scenes. I don’t know how he walks back into the locker room.”

Before Gilbert Arenas walked out for good, he was still so sure he could get out of this mess. And why not? The Wizards never held him accountable for anything. Agent Zero never believed this would be a big problem for him. He was so sure he was smarter than them all. He never realized his comedy act was over, and that suddenly the commissioner cared about guns, because the headlines told him it was time. Gilbert Arenas goes away now, and that ultimately falls on his failures, on him.

Just remember something, though: All these lousy owners under Stern, all these soft franchises, enable and encourage a league in which the stars have always been able to do whatever they want, however they want to do it. Gilbert Arenas walked into work with a bag of guns and had good reason to believe no one would’ve done a thing about it. That’s how the Pollins ran a franchise in Washington, how little Stern’s past punishment on guns scared everyone.

These big suspensions were no victory for the league’s tough-talking commissioner on Wednesday, but a failure of his regime. All Stern did was win the press conference again. All Stern did was give up a couple boogeymen to the public. He deterred little, and solved nothing. The NBA doesn’t have a thug problem, but ownership issues. Stern knows who he works for, and that’ll never change.

[Riverwalkman]

A bad team leader...

[timvp]

Wojnarowski is a boss.

[Chieflion]

Guys, Gilbert Arenas just wants his contract voided so he can negotiate a new one with special conditions.

Condition 1: Firearms allowed in stadiums/arenas.
Condition 2: Tweeting about David Stern is allowed.
Condition 3: Pre-game antics no matter how carried away allowed.
Condition 4: Allowed to have a quick trigger.
Condition 5: Allowed to ustream himself 24/7.
Condition 6: Allowed to void this contract to negotiate another contract.