Jan. 7, 2010

Stern's decision right for all after Arenas' mocking gesture

By Ken Berger | CBSSports.com Senior Writer
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The picture was worth 1,000 words, but David Stern didn't even need 200 to announce Wednesday he was suspending Gilbert Arenas indefinitely for "ongoing conduct" that made him "not currently fit to take the court in an NBA game."

Arenas' actions are wearing thin, not only with the league, but also with the fans. (AP)

That is why Arenas, by all accounts a decent person whose flaky alter ego has run amok here in a potentially devastating way, is not playing basketball and may not be for a very long time.

There are times when still photos are more damaging than the real thing, and this was one of those times. The Wizards idiotically rollicking with laughter as Arenas, the target of a weapons probe by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, sprayed fake gunfire in a pregame huddle Tuesday night represented two fingers too many in the eye of Stern and his league. It was a snapshot of privileged, pampered, above-the-law athletes, a ready-made illustration that lives in the minds of the average fan, and now, in infamy.

The NBA is perhaps at its zenith in terms of on-court talent, embarking on a golden era fueled by superstars like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul -- the list goes on. And yet look at the headlines that crossed Stern's desk this week: Jayson Williams, awaiting another trial on a reckless manslaughter charge in the shooting death of a limousine driver, crashed his Mercedes SUV into a tree on Manhattan's FDR Drive and faces a DWI charge. Right on cue, Arenas decided this would be a good time to make a pathetic joke out of his own firearms incident, which is before a District of Columbia grand jury that could indict him on felony charges for carrying a pistol without a license.

This is to say nothing of Delonte West, who faces a litany of weapons charges after being pulled over in Maryland for speeding on his motorcycle with two loaded handguns, a loaded shotgun and an 8.5-inch Bowie knife in September. Unlike Arenas, West's offense did not occur on NBA property, which is designated as a gun-free zone by the collective bargaining agreement. And unlike Arenas, West hasn't said a word publicly about his plight. So West plays on, for now, and, in fact, suited up and scored 14 points against the Wizards on Wednesday night.

The question now is, what happens next for Arenas? The criminal and basketball ramifications are potentially severe, with multiple sources telling CBSSports.com on Wednesday they wouldn't be surprised if Stern ultimately suspended Arenas for the rest of the season. But whereas Arenas' nightmare is only beginning, the damage to the NBA has already been done. That is why Stern responded as he did, rather than wait until the criminal investigation is over.

"In my mind, he did Gilbert a favor," an official familiar with the circumstances said. "And he did every player in this league a favor."

Whatever happens in front of the grand jury or in the court of Stern, Arenas has been enjoined from making a mockery of himself -- which is his right -- but also from eroding a business that has bestowed him with a $111 million contract to play basketball. One team official, speaking on condition of anonymity, predicted that Arenas would be suspended "at minimum" until the end of the season.

"The public is screaming for it," the official said. "Delonte West gets indicted, and now this. They don't want to see it anymore or hear about it anymore. They're sick of this hip-hop [expletive]."

The public pressure on Stern to convert the indefinite suspension to a lengthy one will be immense, but so will the pressure from owners league-wide who cannot afford having criminality and idiocy like this cost them any more money. The owners, many of whom have been whiplashed by the global recession, will pressure Stern to "set a tone" for the CBA talks scheduled to begin next month at All-Star weekend, the official said. They will want Stern to use Arenas to teach the players, and their union, a lesson.

Of course, without owners to bestow millions on players, there would be no players to perpetually disappoint and embarrass them. It goes both ways.

Arenas' statement Wednesday apologizing for his conduct, released by his beleaguered attorney Ken Wainstein, was too little too late to save him from Stern's wrath. And it was too late to undo the latest self-inflicted attack on the NBA's product and on its image. That's why some team officials gathered Wednesday gathered in Boise, Idaho, on a scouting mission at the D-League Showcase began asking the following question: Was Arenas' mockery of the NBA's gun culture so outrageous that it could rival the damage to the game inflicted by Latrell Sprewell and Ron Artest -- and thus warrant a similar penalty?

Sprewell was suspended for a full year and had his contract voided for choking Warriors coach P.J. Carlesimo in 1997, but the contract termination was overturned and the suspension reduced to the remaining 68 games of the season by an arbitrator. Artest served a 73-game suspension, which cost him more than $5 million, for going into the stands during the Palace brawl in 2004. Both incidents, in some ways, irreparably tarnished the league.

Arenas, once a darling of basketball for his quirkiness, his blogging acumen, and his breathtaking talent, has done that, too. He did it by bringing firearms into the NBA workplace, and as bad as that was, he found a way to make it worse. He screamed fire in the NBA's movie theater with his fake Butch Cassidy routine, painted every player with the gunslinger brush, and told every fan that he can go ahead and continue to believe the worst about NBA players.

Sadly, the weapons that Arenas apparently didn't aim at Javaris Crittenton in the Wizards locker room, he instead aimed at the whole sport. And for that, I say, good riddance. The rest of the season without Gilbert Arenas would send an unmistakable lesson to the fellow players he has tarnished.

Whether Arenas and the paying customers get the message remains to be seen.