Was it really more than two years ago that the Wizards locker room melted down in an orgy of simulated gunplay over a boo-ray debt? It was, and one of the principals—Gilbert Arenas, who allegedly brought four guns to the locker room and laid them out for Javaris Crittenton to choose—is finally shedding some light on what happened.
From the same USA Today story that cleared up most of our questions about shoe-pooping:
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."
Arenas is happy, if not thriving, in Memphis. JaVale is doing JaVale things in Denver. Crittenton is awaiting trial on murder charges. The Washington Wizards were the most incredible NBA team ever assembled.
Arenas: Gun episode now ancient history [USA Today]