Mike Jones (former Wizards beat writer for the “now defunct Washington Times sports department”) reports that the team hasn’t decided what to do with regard to Gilbert Arenas.

It was believed that the Wizards would exercise their right to void the remaining four years and $80 million left on Arenas’ deal because of the felony conviction. This belief was further fueled by multiple media outlets outlining the Wizards’ options, and seemed to be further backed up by the TMZ report that Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld told Arenas he had the right to void the deal in a text message.

But according to a source speaking on the condition of anonymity, the Wizards have not had any discussions or communications with Arenas in regards to voiding the deal, and haven’t decided what their course of action is in the situation because the legal process must play out, and then David Stern, who already has suspended Arenas indefinitely, must decide what – if any – additional punishment the player will receive before being reinstated into the league.

If Arenas is able to avoid jail time, and is re-instate to the league by Stern, the Wizards are hopeful that they can mend what Arenas’ perceives as broken fences, and move forward with him as their franchise point guard.

“The Wizards did give him that $111 million contract when everyone thought they shouldn’t, and this still is a player who was averaging 22 points and almost seven assists in his first season back from a two-year layoff,” the source said. “They know that, and would like this thing to work, but just have to see.”

He’s also shooting a paltry 41% from the field and isn’t much of a defender. He wasn’t worth the contract even when he signed it, and he certainly isn’t worth it now. If the Wizards want to turn this thing around, hitching their wagon to an overpaid volume shooter with a long injury history and a tendency to bring guns into work isn’t the best way to do it.

Jones’s source uses the pronoun “they” to describe the Wizards, so it doesn’t sound like he/she is actually with the team. It will be interesting to see how the team proceeds; this could just be a ruse (by the source or team) to lead the media to think that Arenas’s fate hasn’t already been sealed. We shall see.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Get this — Gilbert Arenas feels disrespected by the Washington Wizards. Per the Washington Post…

A person close to Arenas said Thursday that Arenas believes President Ernie Grunfeld and the Wizards management failed to support him following his locker room confrontation on Dec. 21 with teammate Javaris Crittenton.

Arenas, the person close to the player said, has told NBA investigators that his flippant behavior following the incident, including the pantomiming of pistols before a game that led to an indefinite suspension from Stern, was because he felt the Wizards organization had turned its back on him.

“If your own franchise, the people you considered family, weren’t there for you when you needed them most, would you want to play for them and be around them anymore?” said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Arenas “was wrong for bringing guns into the locker room, and it’s going to mean pleading guilty to a felony. It’s serious business. But the way this came out and how Ernie and the organization handled the facts makes you wonder if he will ever play for them again.”

Let me get this straight: This clown brings guns into his place of business, threatens (jokingly or not) a teammate over a gambling debt, and expects the team to “support” him? When they don’t live up to his expectations, he mocks the situation during pregame festivities and them blames the organization’s lack of support for his complete lack of tact (and common sense)?

A quote later in the story sums it up best…

“Until Gilbert realizes none of this would have happened if he hadn’t brought guns in the locker room and accepts responsibility for his actions, he won’t be welcomed back anywhere,” said an NBA official on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

The Wizards need to do everything they can to void Arenas’s contract. They’ve already paid him $40 million of a deal worth $121 million, so it’s not like he’s going to walk away with nothing.

Per FoxSports.com…

Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas was charged with felony gun possession on Thursday in connection with a Dec. 21 locker room confrontation with a teammate.

Prosecutors charged Arenas with one count of carrying a pistol without a license, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. But Arenas reached a plea deal that could result in much less or even no jail time, according to the Washington Post.

Over on TrueHoop, J.A. Adande speculates (prior to the plea deal being announced) that the Wizards will want to terminate Arenas’s contract.

As far as criminal behavior, there have been countless misdemeanors that have received only minor suspensions from the league, including a seven-game suspension for Stephen Jackson for firing a gun outside an Indianapolis strip club in 2006.

A felony charge leaves no gray area. Nor is there much room for feelings. In the Wizards organization there is genuine concern for Gilbert Arenas the person, still a likable guy despite his horrendous decision, now facing the ultra-serious prospect of up to five years in prison. But if the case were to conclude with a guilty plea or felony conviction and a prison sentence it’s unimaginable that they would want to keep his salary cap-clogging contract on their books. There’s also a sense Stern will use this as a strong example of the penalties for violating his ban of guns on team property. One Wizards source has feared Stern’s punishment more than the court’s all along.

The Wizards are in a tough spot. If they try to void his contract and fail, then they’re stuck with a player who is due to make more than $80 million over the next four years and knows that the team tried to get rid of him. If they do manage to void his contract, they’ll lose him with no compensation. At this point, Arenas is more than a hindrance than a help, and the Wizards would be far better off rebuilding from scratch (or building around Caron Butler).

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TMZ is reporting (via “sources”) that the Washington Wizards have already informed Gilbert Arenas that they believe he is in violation of the morality clause that is in every NBA contract.

We’re told a team official was trading text messages with Arenas after the locker room incident. Sources tell TMZ … in one of the messages, the official told Arenas the team felt Agent Zero violated the clause in his contract prohibiting him from engaging in conduct detrimental to the team or the NBA … and they could have the contract voided as a result.

Most NBA contracts contain morality clauses — but it’s difficult to void an NBA contract on those grounds. The Indiana Pacers didn’t void Ron Artest’s contract after “The Malice at the Palace” in 2004.

What’s the point of having a morality clause in a contract if it can’t be exercised? If a player is brandishing a firearm in your locker room and threatening his co-workers, isn’t that immoral?

This will be an interesting story to watch. It is definitely in the best interests of the franchise to void his contract, which was bloated the day he signed it.

Sources have told TMZ that the Gilbert Arenas/Javaris Crittenton incident may have been caught on tape.

We’re told the Washington Wizards have told D.C. cops they have locker room surveillance video but are having trouble downloading it. The Geek Squad — aka computer-savvy detectives — are going to the Wizards organization today to help.

And get this — a source connected with the investigation tells TMZ the Wizards have been “over cooperative” with cops — as the source says, “almost as if they want Arenas to go down.”

Why would the Wizards want to go down? Hmm. Maybe it’s the four years and $80 million remaining on his contract. If he gets into serious trouble with the law, the Wizards may be able to void his contract.

Arenas’ contract would be nullified if convicted of a felony. Instead of having a team salary of $79 million, the Wizards would sit at a far more manageable $62 million, with their largest, long-term obligation magically off the books.

Making matters worse (or maybe better, from the Wizards perspective), Arenas did not have a license for the guns (TMZ).

SI.com has more on the possibility of voiding his contract.

The NBA’s collective bargaining agreement clearly states that a contract can be voided if a player “at any time, fails, refuses, or neglects to conform his personal conduct to standards of good citizenship, good moral character (defined here to mean not engaging in acts of moral turpitude, whether or not such acts would constitute a crime), and good sportsmanship …” It could be argued that any criminal charges leveled against Arenas would constitute a failure in personal conduct.

I’m a little torn on this issue. Part of me would like to see the Wizards suffer for signing a player coming off of an injury to such a bloated contract. But given his lack of remorse, Arenas should pay for what he did, and if that means the franchise can erase his deal from the books, then so be it.

I like the guy’s quirkiness, but this is ridiculous.

Here’s an excerpt from a nice piece by Kelly Dwyer over at Ball Don’t Lie…

Worm your way into your second gun-related hassle of your professional career? Passable, to a certain extent. Most people Gilbert’s age (or, really, half his age) would understand that even bringing four unloaded weapons into the workplace is a no-no of the highest order, but Gilbert’s a professional athlete.

Even though he grew up broke, even though he’s less than a decade removed from remembering “what it was like,” he’s still a professional athlete.

And professional athletes, as has been proven time and again, year after year, just have no idea how life actually works. It’s not a basketball thing, or an African-American thing, or even an American thing. Follow the Sunday papers for the latest on the various soccer ball-kicking types overseas, if you don’t believe me. Or even the international rulers of open-wheel driving organizations.

Living in a bubble. That’s what it’s called. Some of our politicians live in a bubble. Our movie stars live in a bubble. And our athletes live in a bubble.

Only in a bubble does it seem okay to take four unloaded weapons to work. Common sense would tell most people that this is not a good idea, but common sense has a tough time surviving in a bubble. The aforementioned people only interact with a select few, and most of those lucky folks are living in their own bubbles.

Common sense can’t penetrate this much bubble.

The NBA has suspended Gilbert Arenas indefinitely, per ESPN.

NBA commissioner David Stern has indefinitely suspended Gilbert Arenas, saying the Washington Wizards guard is “not currently fit to take the court” for a game.

A day after the former All-Star was photographed before a game in Philadelphia pointing his index fingers, as if they were guns, at his teammates, Stern warned in a statement on Wednesday that Arenas’ conduct will “ultimately result in a substantial suspension, and perhaps worse.”

Because Arenas violated NBA rules by bringing guns into Washington’s locker room, Stern decided to punish Arenas now. He said the suspension begins immediately.

“Although it is clear that the actions of Mr. Arenas will ultimately result in a substantial suspension, and perhaps worse, his ongoing conduct has led me to conclude that he is not currently fit to take the court in an NBA game,” Stern said in the statement. “Accordingly, I am suspending Mr. Arenas indefinitely, without pay, effective immediately pending the completion of the investigation by the NBA.”

It was only a matter of time before he was suspended. Stern was going to wait until the investigation was complete, but with Arenas running around making a mockery of his situation, the NBA had to act.

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Whenever a black celebrity makes headlines, the Rev. Al Sharpton has to comment. Here is what he said about the lack of outrage about the Gilbert Arenas/Javaris Crittenton standoff in the Washington Wizards locker room late last month.

“If it had been a white player pointing a gun at a black player, there would have been much more of an uproar. It’s almost as if people are saying, ‘Well, we don’t expect anything better from our black athletes.’”

– Rev. Al Sharpton, via NYDailyNews.com

Duh. Anytime you add race to an issue it’s going to create more of an uproar. If it had been a white athlete pulling a gun on a black athlete, or vice versa, it would have created a bigger stir because now race is added to the mix. If Sharpton wanted to make a stronger point, he should have said that there would have been more of an uproar if two white athletes were involved. Not that I agree, but at least the point holds some water.

I think the story came and went quickly due to the timing (during the holidays) and the fact that no shots were fired. We hear stories all the time about athletes firing shots (or being shot at) outside of bars or strip clubs, but this is the first time (that I can remember, anyway) that one athlete pulled a gun on another at work.

Sharpton does have a point about how President Obama attended a Wizards game at the same time that Arenas was storing guns in his locker, but that doesn’t have anything to do with race.

Per Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports….

An NBA investigation into Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas’ possession of guns inside the team’s locker room has been linked to a confrontation with teammate Javaris Crittenton, multiple sources told Yahoo! Sports.

The league’s ongoing probe hopes to determine whether Arenas had accessed any of his unloaded firearms while engaged in the dispute prior to a team practice at the Verizon Center on Dec. 21 in Washington. Tensions between Arenas and Crittenton escalated because of a festering disagreement between the two players, sources said.

Peter Vescey of the NY Post reports that the dispute was over a gambling debt.

NBA all-star Gilbert Arenas and his Washington Wizards teammate Javaris Crittenton drew guns on each other in the team’s locker room during a Christmas Eve dispute over a gambling debt, The Post has learned.

It was the three- time all-star Arenas, 27, who went for his gun first, sources said, draw ing on the 22-year-old Crittenton, who quickly brandished a firearm as well.

The duel in DC — unprecedented in sports history — was sparked when Crittenton became enraged at the veteran guard for refusing to make good on a gambling debt, a source said.

“I’m not your punk!” Crittenton shouted at Arenas, according to a league source close to the Wizards.

That prompted Arenas to draw on Crittenton, who then also grabbed for a gun, league security sources said.

A playground pal of Crittenton’s from Atlanta, Kendrick “Bookie Ball” Long, confirmed the locker-room standoff and said he learned of it directly from the third-year player out of Georgia Tech.

“He [Arenas] was f- – -ing with him; he [Crittenton] was just defending himself!” declared Long, who said the dispute was over money but would not elaborate.

Arenas has a reputation of being funny crazy, but this just sounds like crazy crazy.