Category: News (Page 137 of 199)

TMZ: Police say Arenas/Crittenton standoff caught on tape

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.

Saints place DE Grant on IR

This is a blow to the Saints’ defense. Charles Grant’s season is over, per nola.com.

New Orleans Saints starting left defensive end Charles Grant has had surgery to repair a torn triceps injury and has been placed on injured reserve, the Saints announced Tuesday.

It appears the injury occurred in the second quarter of Sunday’s 23-10 season-finale loss to the Carolina Panthers.

Grant was one of the few starters that the Saints didn’t rest.

Great Quotes: Rev. Al Sharpton

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.

Cowboys clinch NFC East title, draw rematch with Eagles

Tony Romo

The Cowboys definitely had a nice Sunday. After beating the Eagles 24-0, the Cowboys should be brimming with confidence. Nobody expected them to shut out the Eagles but they managed to do so easily.

Tony Romo got things going early on, throwing a pair of touchdown passes to Jason Witten and Patrick Crayton, respectively. Romo ended up completing 24 of 31 attempts for 311 yards. He’s finally heating up and looks just as good as the other top quarterback. By the end of the first half it was clear that something was wrong with Eagles.

From then on the Cowboys focused on their defense, which did just enough to prevent the Eagles from gaining any momentum. The Eagles couldn’t convert on third downs and made a couple errors that could have changed the tide of the game.

This is the time of the season when the Cowboys usually break down. If they continue communicating well on both fronts, the Cowboys might just be the team to beat in the playoffs. Strangely enough, they’ll face the Eagles in the first round. After today’s game, I’m sure they’re more than ready.

NBA investigating Arenas’ locker room dispute

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.

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