Agent Zero's Locker Room Standoff: The Gilbert Arenas Gun Incident

[00:00:00] On March 26th, 2010, Gilbert Arenas of the Washington Wizards is sentenced to 30 days in a halfway house, as well as two years probation, a $5,000 fine, and 400 hours of community service following an incident where team trash talking and fighting on a plane escalated to a standoff in the Washington Wizards locker room where he brought multiple guns in a moment that could have gone horribly wrong.

[00:00:30] And today, we're going to dive into Gilbert Arenas from his rise and fall as his nickname Agent Zero to this moment that devastated his career and his life forever. The talent, ego, and devastating consequences of poor judgment on Gilbert Arenas. Today on Daily Sports History.

[00:00:58] Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn more about sports history, increasing your sports knowledge. And today we dive into Gilbert Arenas and his gun incident. And today's trivia question is, what was the pick and the team that drafted Gilbert Arenas in the 2001 NBA draft?

[00:01:23] Listen throughout the episode to get the answer, and if you miss it, listen to the end and I will make sure you get the answer. Gilbert Arenas was born in Tampa, Florida in 1982 where he attended Ulysses S. Grant High School. And he was a late bloomer as he didn't end up on any one national ranking list until 1999 and he was the 99th player of that class.

[00:01:49] But was high enough to get recruited by the University of Arizona after attending Michael Jordan's basketball camp where he impressed Jordan himself, scoring eight baskets on eight different possessions. And he showed a lot of success and promise while at the University of Arizona. And in 2001, we would be named all Pac-10 as well as leading Arizona to the national championship game where they would eventually lose to the Duke Blue Devils. And although he struggled during the game, this was because he was dealing with a knee injury.

[00:02:17] But he got enough national exposure that he entered the NBA draft at the age of only 19, despite spending two years in college. But he didn't jump off the page for many of the teams and would end up being drafted by the Golden State Warriors. Being selected 31st overall, the first pick of the second round. And this is what led to his motivation throughout his career. He thought he was slighted not being a first round pick.

[00:02:44] And he really showed in his sophomore season when he averaged 18 points, six assists and four rebounds, earning the NBA's most improved player award. But due to some contract issues on being a second round pick versus a first round pick, after that season, he was a free agent and was able to sign with the Washington Wizards, making him a cornerstone for the franchise in the early 2000s.

[00:03:10] Although injuries limited him in his first season, he did average 19 points and five assists per game. And over the next three years, he really emerged as a star, a bona fide scorer. And after the 2005 season, where he earned his first all-star selection, he would also be named third team all-NBA, averaging over 25 points, five assists and almost five rebounds.

[00:03:33] And the following season, he elevated his game even more, averaging a career high 29.3 points, fourth in the NBA at the time, to go along with six assists. And would earn another all-star nod and be named to another all-NBA team. The following season, he had similar numbers, but he also helped lead the Washington Wizards to a playoff push despite injuries that he was dealing with throughout the season.

[00:03:56] And during this year, he had his career high as well as a franchise record, 60 points in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers facing Kobe Bryant. And the success he was having gave way to his new persona or his nickname, Agent Zero, because he wore the number zero. And he used the word agent as he played in Washington, where there's lots of different CIA agents, FBI agents. It was a clever nod to where he played and his number.

[00:04:25] And by this time, he was 25 and one of the brightest stars in the NBA, taking a franchise like the Washington Wizards, who had struggled mightily with little success throughout their tenure. But Gilbert gave them hope. But unfortunately, in December 2009, there was an incident. When the Washington Wizards were flying back from a game on the West Coast, there was a high stakes card game called Bray,

[00:04:51] which is a mixture of poker and spades and very commonly played in NBA circles, as it allows for a lot of money to be gambled on. You have to remember, this is around the time when the iPhone was still new. They don't have the technology we have to play as many games on their phones. Tablets really wasn't a thing. You had computers. But it was still an infancy on what we have today. So lots of players still play cards, especially the veterans.

[00:05:20] And it was very common to get in these games. And the amounts of money put into these games would be thousands and thousands of dollars. These are NBA players, many being paid millions of dollars. But a lot of them were getting paid league minimum, which is still hundreds of thousands of dollars, compared to what average people make is a lot, but in the NBA circles is a little. And Javaris Crittenton of the Washington Wizards had already lost a lot of money and was pinching every penny.

[00:05:49] In mid-flight, there was an incident where Gilbert got into a game and increased the pot and got out, basically causing Javaris to have to pay even more money just because Gilbert got into the game. For Gilbert, this was nothing. He was one of the highest paid players on the team. But Javaris was a low paid player. And this caused him to really escalate conversations.

[00:06:12] Especially when Javaris lost the hand to fellow teammate JaVale McGee, losing him thousands of dollars. And Crittenton was furious, not only at McGee, but at Gilbert, who caused him to pay even more money. This led to multiple threats being thrown back and forth. Crittenton said, I'll burn your car. Crittenton came back with, I will shoot you. I'll shoot you in your knee. And Arenas said, I'll bring the guns for you to shoot me.

[00:06:39] And two days later, Gilbert Arenas followed up on this promise. He brought four unloaded handguns into the Wizards locker room and joked, pick one out. Now the incident escalated as Crittenton actually did point a gun at Arenas, causing teammates to panic and everyone fled the locker room. The aftermath was, luckily, no one was injured. But this was the beginning of the end of the careers for both these Wizards players.

[00:07:05] And this would dominate the headlines for months as it showed gun violence in the NBA. And violence was what the NBA wanted to get away from at the time. There was already connections with possible gangs and players wearing gang-type clothing from before that they wanted to get away from where they instituted a change in the dress code. And this was actual guns in their arena, which is supposed to be a safe haven where guns are never supposed to be. We've all gone through the metal detectors.

[00:07:35] We can't bring in a gun. And the players shouldn't be able to bring in a gun either. And the fallout from this is neither player shot a gun. The incident quickly became public knowledge and rocked the NBA. David Stern suspended both Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton indefinitely for the league to determine what they should do. And Gilbert went on to plead guilty to gun charges and was sentenced to probation as well as time in a halfway house of fine and community service.

[00:08:02] And Crittenton also accepted a similar plea but never played in the NBA again. Crittenton was a fringe NBA player and any skeptic and his talent did not outweigh his legal troubles. But Gilbert was a star in the NBA and he was able to come back due to how good he was as a player. I know it's a double standard but when someone is better at their job despite charges and gun violence

[00:08:29] even though there was no gun fired having guns in the locker room was a huge no-no. Now Gilbert would in a year later Gilbert would be traded to the Orlando Magic where he struggled with injuries throughout his time there and never averaged more than 10 points a game with the Orlando Magic and would retire following the 2012 season. And Gilbert would go on to become a regular NBA retiree

[00:08:54] and join kind of the media where he has his own podcast called No Chill with Gilbert Arenas and seems to be living a quiet life since then. But unfortunately for Javaris his life spiraled after this incident and he convicted voluntary manslaughter in a gang-related shootout in 2011 and was sentenced to 23 years in prison. Now it wasn't the only of those players.

[00:09:19] The Washington Wizards struggled and the following season would win just 26 games and it would be years before they would get back to being another contending team in the East. Now it's likely that Gilbert would have ended his career. His career was on the downside at that point. He had hit 30 years old which is usually when players start to go down unless you're LeBron James then you continue to play until you're 40 at an all-star level. But most players don't do that.

[00:09:45] He did attempt a comeback and play for the Shanghai Sharks in China but he would only play one season there. But he would end his career as a three-time all-star as well as being named the most improved player in his sophomore season. Although he never won a championship or really had much success in the playoffs he was for a moment a great scorer in the NBA. And if you want to check him out online he's got a lot of videos talking about this

[00:10:11] and also his podcast is on there so you can check him out to get more insights about what it's like to be an NBA player. And he's actually and just imagine if things would have escalated to him actually being shocked by Javaris as he did that later in life. Would have been a whole different thing. And let's just know that sometimes our ego can be bigger than this situation and better to play it safe and enjoy a career rather than throw it all away.

[00:10:42] I want to thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. If you'd like this please follow us on our social medias. We have pictures and videos of our episodes. You can check them out. We're on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, YouTube, Macedon, Blue Sky, LinkedIn. Wherever you'd like to socialize we're there for you. There's links in the description below and come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History. And did you get the answer to today's trivia question?

[00:11:12] What team and pick was Gilbert Arenas in the 2001 NBA draft? Gilbert Arenas was selected by the Golden State Warriors with the first pick number 31 in the second round which he used as motivation throughout his career feeling slighted and helped lead him to one of the most prolific scores in the 2000s.