Javaris Crittenton Pleads Guilty To Gun Charge, Gets Probation

The Washington Wizards guard plead guilty to a misdemeanor weapons charge today—as opposed to the felony weapons charge handed to Gilbert Arenas—and will get one year of probation and a fine. Don't worry, it gets weirder.

Since Javaris Crittenton has no prior record and supposedly didn't actually threaten anyone, he'll be getting off pretty easy. Arenas is still awaiting sentencing for his guilty plea for the same incident, but probably won't be so lucky. However, this statement from Crittenton's lawyer is rather curious:

"Mr. Crittenton brought a lawfully owned, unloaded handgun into Washington, D.C. only because he legitimately feared for his life. The government's proffer of facts to be filed today acknowledges that his handgun was not loaded and that he never threatened anyone with it. The gun was legally purchased, but bringing it into the District, even for self defense, violated the city's strict gun control laws."

Wait. Who has legitimately threatened Crittenton's life? Arenas? An unknown enemy? Am I missing something or is that a very damning, accusatory statement? (Or is it just a lawyer being a blowhard as lawyers are wont to do?) And if he was really so afraid for his life ... why was the gun unloaded? Even blanks would at least make a scary noise.

I know this may be hard to accept—since we're talking about insane NBA stars who throw empty guns at each other as jokes—but this whole story is slightly confusing!

Wizards' Crittenton is sentenced to year of probation, fined after pleading guilty to misdemeanor [Washington Post]