Gilbert Arenas Opens Up About The Card Game That Escalated In His Teammate Pointing A Loaded Gun In His Face

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It’s been nearly a decade since Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton engaged in one of the most infamous teammate kerfuffles in sports history and left both players suspended for the rest of the 2009-2010 season. What started as a card game over $1,100 ended with the two bringing several guns into the Wizards locker room and Crittenton pointing a loaded gun in Arenas face.

Arenas, who was charged with gun possession and served 30 days in a halfway house, recently spoke to Jon Gold of The Action Network about exactly how things escalated.

The 36-year-old Arenas told Gold that he joined a card game called booray with Crittenton and JaVale McGee on the team plane.

Arenas sprinkled in his signature trash talk with winning hands for McGee, thus costing Crittenton more money. Arenas’ instigating infuriated Crittenton, compounded with his duty to pay McGee his winnings, amounting to the two engaging in this exchange: “I play with guns,” said Arenas. “I play with guns too,” countered Crittenton.

“They figured it out, JaVale wins,” Arenas said. “The plane lands and now Javaris says to JaVale, ‘So you just gonna let me lose my money like that? You ain’t even gonna be a real n—- and give me a chance to get my money back? Aw hell naw, this is the type of sh*t that gets you f*cked up in these streets.’ I was like, ‘Javaris, I will burn your car, while you’re in it. Then we’ll find an extinguisher to help ya ass out,’ and he says, ‘Well, I’ll just shoot you then.’ I said, ‘Man, I’ll bring you the guns to shoot me!’”

Arenas also went on to say that the Celtics Big 3–Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen–would play the card game booray with incredible stakes.

“The game is the basketball court. It’s the practice gym. I’ve heard that those Celtics teams, with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, those guys were betting Rolls-Royces on a plane. There’s nothing fun about that. Those guys are trying to ruin you. It’s like putting Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Floyd Mayweather on a gambling table. That’s not about money. They have money. They’re trying to fuck you up. They’re trying to make you hurt.”

If you’re taking a long dump today, you gotta check out the entire piece over at The Action Network.

Or just check it out if you’re doing something else too. Your call.

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Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.