Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 at 11:35 am  |  54 responses

Gilbert Arenas: Javaris Crittenton Had Become ‘More Gangsta’


Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton brought guns into the Washington Wizards’ locker room two years ago, sending both of their NBA careers into a tailspin. Gil tells the WaPo that Crittenton – who’s now facing very serious criminal charges — changed considerably after the incident at the Verizon Center became public: “Asked whether he had spoken to Javaris Crittenton since they were both suspended for the remainder of the 2009-2010 NBA season and Arenas had spent 30 days in a halfway house, Arenas replied, ‘No, but I heard he became more hard.’ More hard, he explained, meant ‘more gangsta.’ ‘You know, like some people turn over a new leaf when something bad like that changes their life. I heard Javaris went the other way — he became more ’hood, more hardened in that way. I don’t know if that’s the case, but that’s what I heard.’ Crittenton was on the lam for several days after being wanted by Atlanta police in connection with an Aug. 19 murder. He was arrested Monday evening after checking in for a red-eye flight in Orange County, Calif. Shuttled to a Los Angeles police station, he was booked on suspicion of being a fugitive from justice. A federal arrest warrant had been issued after the FBI found out he left his home for Southern California, where he was known to have family and friends, via a one-way ticket.”

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  • EJ Posted: Aug.30 at 11:44 am
    Why does a millionare have to be “gangsta”? Makes no sense at all.

  • Max Posted: Aug.30 at 11:44 am
    He’s a gangsta gangsta!

  • M Cho Posted: Aug.30 at 11:46 am
    Man, you’d think Gil would have just learned to keep his mouth shut by now. Talking hearsay about other people in trouble with the law, during a lockout when players are trying to keep PR positive — there’s so many things wrong with this.

  • Boing Dynasty Posted: Aug.30 at 11:51 am
    Believe half of what you see, none of what you “heard”.

  • kevin kaas Posted: Aug.30 at 11:53 am
    LOSER! When is the world going to wake up and realize that these people are JUNK! What parent in their right mind would want their child/grandchild to look up to these THUGS as role models? I am talking about ALL OF YOU! If you are a solid citizen/athlete demand that you’r boss quit employing these losers because they can run jump catch or shoot!

  • Stephen Posted: Aug.30 at 12:13 pm
    I think the actions of both of these gentlemen further enforces what is wrong with our culture. Throwing away an opportunity to make more money than your collective family could ever see in a hundred years. And it is probably the result of an idiotic dispute that would have no bearing on anything relevant. The point is they are both (like 80% of pro athletes) just dumb-a$$ people, who apparently need constant guidance and reassurance of their “coolness” or “gangster”.
    It should be required by society that a person reach an at least “average level of intellect” to be a role model (or to open a twitter account). Maybe like a class or something dealing with appropriate social behavior integrated into that year of college. You can take a man out of the hood, but its hard to take the hood out of the man.

  • UNFROZEN CAVEMAN LAWYER Posted: Aug.30 at 12:18 pm
    I DONT THINK ANYBODY HAS BEEN ‘ON THE LAM’ IN AT LEAST FIFTY YEARS.

  • niQ Posted: Aug.30 at 12:18 pm
    That gun incident with Arenas really fukt up Javaris’ career.

  • JTaylor21 Posted: Aug.30 at 12:51 pm
    Not a good look for Javaris. You don’t want an ex-teammate/employee saying that you became more “gangsta”.

  • Allenp Posted: Aug.30 at 12:55 pm
    Kevin Kass
    Did you, or any of your friends happen to go see The Town and The Departed, two movies based on real life “thugs” and “gangstas”? Did you enjoy watching them discuss the like of James “Whitey” Bulger wanted for 19 murders?
    One cat in the NBA messes up, it’s a reason to boycott the entire League. That sounds like another issue to me.

  • Gman Posted: Aug.30 at 12:57 pm
    ^ i know eh.

  • Boing Dynasty Posted: Aug.30 at 1:00 pm
    “what the f#ck you mean, YOOUUU people?”

  • Lp Posted: Aug.30 at 1:21 pm
    Arena is an @$$… Everybody knows that you not supposed to speak on anybody legal matters, especially if you don’t have anything good to. Say.

  • Kilo Posted: Aug.30 at 1:40 pm
    These cats in the NBA……. this is unbeliveable man.

  • dfrance21 Posted: Aug.30 at 1:42 pm
    No seriously tho “what the f#ck you mean, YOOUUU people?”

  • z Posted: Aug.30 at 1:57 pm
    kevin kaas
    you are a racist. that’s the only explanation for what you posted…

  • Enigmatic Posted: Aug.30 at 2:02 pm
    Kevin Kass’ middle name must be Kyle or Kurt or another name that starts with K.

  • JTaylor21 Posted: Aug.30 at 2:16 pm
    It’s probably “Klan”.

  • DieselMechanic Posted: Aug.30 at 2:26 pm
    @niQ no Javaris did that. We all have control of our destinies but too many people don’t take responsibility for that.

  • Allenp Posted: Aug.30 at 2:32 pm
    Stephen
    The vast majority of people are worried about being cool.
    That’s why they drive the cars they drive, buy the clothes they buy and do most things they do. A huge chunk of the American economy is built around telling people what is and is not cool.
    It’s crazy how folks find certain behaviors ridiculous in pro athletes and ignore them in the general population.
    If you allow your child to have an athletes as a role model, you’re an idiot. Sorry, it’s just true.

  • niQ Posted: Aug.30 at 2:57 pm
    @DieselMechanic. When did I say Javaris didn’t do that? Obviously he’s responsible for his actions, you’re telling me that gun incident didn’t have any effect on his career? … Really?

  • Slcik Ric Posted: Aug.30 at 3:15 pm
    smartest thing Allenp has said in a while

  • QGallday Posted: Aug.30 at 3:18 pm
    THAT MANS BED IS MADE…CANT NO ONE ELSE LAY IN IT MAN….SORRY FOR JAVARIS I KNO HE THINKING OF HOW HE COULDVE DONE THINGS FOR THE BETTER NOW.RITE?

  • vg Posted: Aug.30 at 3:59 pm
    “You People”? The world DOES realize many pro athletes are horrific influences, but they are just that, pro athletes. Cosign @Allenp People don’t actually look at these athletes as role models, and the people that say that usually mean that they admire the athlete’s TALENTS and SKILLS, not the actual person. I have never heard of a case where someone was dumb enough to do something bad and then blame an athlete for that decision. I’m not saying kids aren’t influenced to some extent by athletes that they see on TV, like wearing what their favorite players wear to have “swag”, but rarely do you see a kid dumb enough to bring a gun to their HS locker room because they saw Agent Zero do it.

  • The Seed Posted: Aug.30 at 4:28 pm
    Gilbert needs to learn how to keep his mouth close, Gilbert just added about 5 years to Javaris C. sentence if he is found guilty. BOOK IT!!!

  • AllBall Posted: Aug.30 at 4:33 pm
    So no athletes are role model material? Thanks for clearing that up Allenp. That generalisation is almost as bad as Kevin Kass’.

  • Allenp Posted: Aug.30 at 4:53 pm
    Why would you want an athlete as a role model who you have never even met?
    That’s asinine!
    You are making them your role model with very limited information, mainly because of how they play a game? That’s crazy. That is idiotic.
    I mean, it’s cool to be a fan, and follow athletes. Nothing wrong with that. And some of them seem like cool people.
    But, for the most part, we don’t know them at all. The general fan knows almost nothing “real” about their favorite athletes. How can you make them your role model?
    That is silly.

  • AllBall Posted: Aug.30 at 5:02 pm
    I’ve met a few soccer players numerous times (i’m from the U.K), and had chance to speak to them for a while. One player in particular (Championship level footballer, which is the league below Premiership) was a great guy, remembers our brief conversation if I ever bump into him, and takes time to talk to me. I would be happy with my son using this guy as a role model. Personally, I feel like I am too old to have a role model, but you saying that “letting your kids have any athlete as a role model is stupid” is, to use one of your favourites, asinine.
    You mentioned the general fan, but you didn’t say that initially, you said that any parent letting their child use any athlete as a role model is stupid. Now that’s just silly.

  • dfrance21 Posted: Aug.30 at 5:02 pm
    So only family members and close friends can serve as role models?

  • z Posted: Aug.30 at 5:13 pm
    wow, people, are you intentionally playing stupid? How about parents stop looking for “role models” and start being parenting their kids? Buying into this whole fetishizing of athletes is pretty naive on your part, people. If you tell your kid that such and such athlete is a role model, then as far as i’m concerned that’s like passing on your parental responsibilities. Further, if the athlete that you told your kid was a “role model” then proves to NOT be a good role model, then that’s on you as a parent for being stupid enough to buy into the hype…They’re athletes people, whether they’re “good” people should be irrelevent. If you’re really looking to athletes to provide a good, wholesome example to your kids after everything that’s happened during the media age…then you are flat out not as good of a parent as my two parents were, lol

  • z Posted: Aug.30 at 5:14 pm
    oh whoops, “being parenting” makes zero sense gramatically, i meant “being parents”

  • EJ Posted: Aug.30 at 5:21 pm
    Blaming role models for people’s problems is just stupid. If you’re a reasonable person, then you should know that nothing/nobody should be so idolized that it gets the benefit of doubt ever, just cause of their status. Use your own judgement, unless you’re really stupid like Javaris here. Then you should just crawl under a rock or something.

  • Allenp Posted: Aug.30 at 5:45 pm
    I’m going to leave this alone. If you felt my statement was too general, I understand.
    But, I still believe that given the very limited interaction we have athletes,(Hell you only had a brief conversation) setting them up as role models is stupid. It is just asking to be let down and “betrayed.” They are regular people who play sports really, REALLY well. I don’t any person I would say is my role model who I haven’t been around and observed closely for long periods of time.

  • LA Huey Posted: Aug.30 at 5:48 pm
    “It’s not about a salary, it’s all about reality”

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Aug.30 at 8:20 pm
    ^ wicka wicka wicka wicka, du du-du du du duuuuuu.

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Aug.30 at 8:21 pm
    Seriously though, stupid @ss quote from Gilbert Arenas. “More gangsta”? How old is this guy again?

  • what Posted: Aug.30 at 8:24 pm
    @AllBall: it’s not that no athlete is morally upright enough to be a role model, it is that allowing your children to emulate someone who is a) not paid to set a good example for your children and b) not someone on whom you have enough information to decide whether he is worth emulating is not a smart idea. By all accounts, before 1994 OJ Simpson was an engaging, intelligent, talented, and amiable person. The point is you have no way of knowing if those nice, friendly soccer players you met go home and torture squirrels or not, regardless of how nice they are to you.

  • Allenp Posted: Aug.30 at 8:30 pm
    That OJ example is a great one.

  • Nasteedunx Posted: Aug.30 at 8:37 pm
    Javaris: “I’m going back to Georgia. To Georgia. To Georgia. I’m going back to Georgia.” Feds in Cali: “Nah, I don’t think so.”

  • dfrance21 Posted: Aug.30 at 10:34 pm
    I just think its too general to say a child can’t look up to some one they don’t know personally. Athlete or not. I’ve watched enough Dateline to know that you seldom truly and completely know anyone, even the people close to you. You go to church everyday and think you know your pastor and then Eddie Long pops up. I think its perfectly normal and acceptable for a child to look up and want to emulate someone they see on TV. Its the parents job to monitor their child and make sure if said public figure does something dumb, that they step in and let their child know thats not the right way to conduct yourself.

  • Jukai Posted: Aug.30 at 11:44 pm
    Steve Nash is my role model. I plan on cheating on my wife IMMEDIATELY after she has a baby. Cause, well, hey, I wanna be like Steve Nash.

  • Allenp Posted: Aug.31 at 12:19 am
    Is that what Nash did? I didn’t know that at all.

  • Jukai Posted: Aug.31 at 1:11 am
    Allenp: Well, please understand that the same people who said Vince Carter was coming out of the closet and Delonte f*cked James’ mom are the people who say Nash was cheating on his wife when she was preggers. I don’t believe any of it.
    But that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna joke about it constantly.

  • jimmer Posted: Aug.31 at 4:29 am
    I suppose the concept of ‘role model’ is really what is at issue. Can we look up to other human beings when we don’t even know them? Could be wrong, but i’m fairly sure there is at least one rather major religion that is based entirely on that concept; i.e living your life in the way a certain gentleman did a few years back in the near east. So, taking other peoples lives as a model for our own appears historically and psychologically unavoidable to me. Idolising a person, whoever he or she maybe, is however very different from idolising a culture; i.e I wanna be like a ballplayer, I wanna be a gangsta. At that point you are admiring a lifestyle and not an individual, and the individuals become a collective symbol of it. So javaris crittenton becomes YOU PEOPLE, and he does it effortlessly by connecting in a decidedly unfortunate manner two parts of our culture which are ‘admired’ or ‘aspired to’ by many people, who want a ‘better’ life than their own.

  • kiwi_intheUK Posted: Aug.31 at 4:40 am
    he’s about to do 25 to life.

  • EJ Posted: Aug.31 at 5:29 am
    Even Jesus as a role model could be disastrous, cause walking on water might not be such a good idea.
    A friend of mine, who believes in Jesus, actually thought a video of some guys running on water was real…

  • UNFROZEN CAVEMAN LAWYER Posted: Aug.31 at 7:21 am
    IF YOUR KID NEEDS A ROLE MODEL, AND YOU AINT IT, YOURE BOTH FUCCED

  • EtheKnickfan Posted: Aug.31 at 10:46 am
    Parents need not worry. After I finish this blunt I will be your kids role model.

  • Tripset30 Posted: Aug.31 at 1:28 pm
    The NBA’s best players: LeBron
    Kobe*
    D-Wade
    Dirk
    Chris Paul
    Derrick Rose
    Dwight Howard Bunch of thugs I tell ya! The NBA is waaaaay too “gangsta”. *(Okay, so Kobe cheated on his wife. So did Tiger Woods. Certainly not thuggish though. If that were part of the definition than John Edwards might be the biggest thug out there.)

  • Tripset30 Posted: Aug.31 at 1:31 pm
    My point is guys like Crittenton are in the minority, meaning people like Mr. Kaas are making hasty generalizations based upon a small percentage of NBA guys that choose to live that lifestyle.

  • kane Posted: Aug.31 at 7:04 pm
    While crittenton was already screwed regardless of what gilbert said, he still shouldn’t have said nuttin.
    ..if anything offer him good luck dnt talk down on him when just a year ago u were stuffin 2-3 guns in ur locker too…whatever happens its not lookin too good for crittenton @ all
    .

  • The Philosopher Posted: Aug.31 at 10:31 pm
    Better him than me.

  • Max Posted: Sep.4 at 11:42 am
    Check out this basketball blog- nbathroughmyveins.wordpress.com
    It’s all about basketball and the latest article is an insightful look into the lockout.

  • dannym Posted: Sep.22 at 6:42 pm
    kthese players have no respect because they were taught none ,, its not there fault, now they are all greedy and all about themselves it is a side show to watch some of these atlethes parade around, white and black.

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