hoyarooter
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Post by hoyarooter on Jan 7, 2010 20:18:44 GMT -5
I think it's a tad early to be coming down on His Eminence Stern in connection with his treatment of Crittenton. I fully expect that if this plays out the way it seems to be headed, Crittenton will be the recipient of a very lengthy suspension. It may not be a lifetime ban, but I think it will be long, like at least through next season.
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Post by hoyawatcher on Jan 7, 2010 21:10:40 GMT -5
The earlier reports per eyewitnesses were that Crit threw the guns Arena put in front of him out of the way and left the locker room. In that case he wouldn't get suspended.
If Wise's report is correct and Crit waived a loaded gun around the locker room he is gone for at least a year and probably forever. The question is If it is correct. I don't claim to know.
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jgalt
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Post by jgalt on Jan 8, 2010 0:37:31 GMT -5
You guys are nuts. If i am Stern, both are out of the league. If he wants to clean up the leagues image he needs to send a message that if you want to play around with guns and threaten people with them then you arent going to play in this league.
Crit is gone for threatening Arenas (and he should be prosecuted for it). Arenas is gone for joking around about it and bringing guns into the situation in the first place.
What if Crit had pulled the trigger? Arenas could be dead and Crit up for murder charges. Neither of these players (nor some posters) seem to get this. Yes, no one is dead, but does someone need to die for it to be a serious issue.
Both need to be gone, for good, and I wont accept anything less (not that stern is asking for my opinion)
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Cambridge
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Post by Cambridge on Jan 8, 2010 12:20:01 GMT -5
You guys are nuts. If i am Stern, both are out of the league. If he wants to clean up the leagues image he needs to send a message that if you want to play around with guns and threaten people with them then you arent going to play in this league. Crit is gone for threatening Arenas (and he should be prosecuted for it). Arenas is gone for joking around about it and bringing guns into the situation in the first place. What if Crit had pulled the trigger? Arenas could be dead and Crit up for murder charges. Neither of these players (nor some posters) seem to get this. Yes, no one is dead, but does someone need to die for it to be a serious issue. Both need to be gone, for good, and I wont accept anything less (not that stern is asking for my opinion) I think Arenas's pistol fingers was an unfortunate effort to use comedy to break the tension within the team, not a direct thumbing of the nose at Stern. Until Stern suspends everyone involved indefinitely, I will view the commissioner's office with incredibly cynical disdain.
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Post by jerseyhoya34 on Jan 8, 2010 13:22:25 GMT -5
A couple of thoughts -
1. I wouldn't blame an urban gun culture here as much as two people acting stupidly (to put it mildly). There are stupid gun owners inside and outside our cities and, admittedly, I can't wrap my head around the mentality of either group.
2. The stupidity of having teammates gamble for significant keeps has not received the attention it needs, although it is fairly mild when compared to the gun issue. I don't know of too many supposedly professional settings where people are sitting down to a game of bridge, poker, or whatever for their own personal/financial gain. In any event, the little card game was not likely to end well.
3. Has anyone seen anything about whether there is a community service component to Arenas's punishment? I think most leagues need to do better on that. NFL deserves some credit for the Vick punishment in this regard. To be fair, SU[cks] could have done a lot worse too when it came to Devendorf/community service and had done worse when other players got involved in off-court disputes.
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theexorcist
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Post by theexorcist on Jan 8, 2010 13:46:15 GMT -5
A couple of thoughts - 2. The stupidity of having teammates gamble for significant keeps has not received the attention it needs, although it is fairly mild when compared to the gun issue. I don't know of too many supposedly professional settings where people are sitting down to a game of bridge, poker, or whatever for their own personal/financial gain. In any event, the little card game was not likely to end well. 3. Has anyone seen anything about whether there is a community service component to Arenas's punishment? I think most leagues need to do better on that. NFL deserves some credit for the Vick punishment in this regard. To be fair, SU[cks] could have done a lot worse too when it came to Devendorf/community service and had done worse when other players got involved in off-court disputes. Above snipped... Anyway. In regard to 2, there's a fair amount of playing games, among deployed military members and players on other teams - all groups of people who travel together for months at a time. With players who have oodles of money, gambling makes it more interesting. Gambling appeals to professional athletes' competitive nature and allows for talk. You're not getting rid of it. On mandated community service, eh. Vick was a quasi-special case - you want him to see that dogs suffer and people love them, etc. What's Arenas going to do? Go to NRA training courses where they tell you the gun is not a toy, and have him pipe up and say "They're not kidding"?
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Cambridge
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Post by Cambridge on Jan 12, 2010 19:11:44 GMT -5
"As far as the NBA is concerned, Arenas is a nonperson. This is the penalty for not taking the situation seriously. But what is the situation, really? Arenas has reportedly been cooperating with the law-enforcement investigation into his possession of the guns. What he's not cooperating with is his prosecution in the court of public opinion. "U can take the thug out of the ghetto ..." another commenter wrote below the New York Post story. The anonymous name-callers were anticipating the mainstream discussion, which took for granted that Arenas was being a hoodlum. The Washington Post published a signed letter calling Arenas an "immature, overpaid thug." Elsewhere in the Wizards' hometown paper, columnist Sally Jenkins called Arenas a "soft guy pretending to be hard." Who was pretending what? Jenkins—who moonlights co-writing books with an athlete widely accused of doping about what a fine role model he is—lamented Arenas' inability to establish a convincing, respectable public persona. Sharpton compared Arenas' generation, unfavorably, to his own, saying younger people had lost the ambition "not to submit to a subculture that would confirm the worst depiction of who we were." What was Arenas doing, if not refusing to submit to his depiction? The John Wayne crack, the finger-guns in the huddle—this was not the behavior of an unrepentant thug, but of someone who couldn't imagine being seen as a menace. His teammates cracked up because they got the joke. " www.slate.com/id/2241241/
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Jan 12, 2010 19:25:52 GMT -5
Gilbert Arenas is as far from the traditional conception of "thug" as you can get in the NBA. Okay, maybe Shane Battier.
He's a moron in this situation, but you can tell who follows the NBA a little bit and who doesn't at all from their commentary.
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Cambridge
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Post by Cambridge on Jan 12, 2010 21:43:52 GMT -5
Gilbert Arenas is as far from the traditional conception of "thug" as you can get in the NBA. Okay, maybe Shane Battier. He's a moron in this situation, but you can tell who follows the NBA a little bit and who doesn't at all from their commentary. I agree completely. That was the gist my first comment in this thread.
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Cambridge
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Post by Cambridge on Jan 14, 2010 10:30:58 GMT -5
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Post by hoyawatcher on Jan 25, 2010 14:36:02 GMT -5
The earlier reports per eyewitnesses were that Crit threw the guns Arena put in front of him out of the way and left the locker room. In that case he wouldn't get suspended. If Wise's report is correct and Crit waived a loaded gun around the locker room he is gone for at least a year and probably forever. The question is If it is correct. I don't claim to know. Crit is now copping to having brought his own unloaded gun into the locker room. Dueling unloaded guns He will now take a long vacation courtesy of Mr. Stern. His best and only hope is that some team in Europe doesn't read the Washington Post. www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/25/AR2010012502032.html
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