Arenas Now Has The Rest of 09-10 To Pull Gun Stunts

In a move that solidifies David Stern as one of the two “last dictator” commissioners in sports (with Roger Goodell), Gilbert Arenas will not take the floor again in 2009-10, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.

The NBA columnist reports that after a meeting with the commish in New York today, Arenas was presented with two options: sit out a full 82 games, which is the length of a full league season, or accept a suspension for the rest of the current season and promise not to appeal it.

Arenas reportedly took the latter.

Sources say the announcement will come officially on Wednesday. It’s also believed that his Wizards teammate, Javaris Crittendon, will receive the same punishment.

Crittendon, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor firearms charge last week, was on the other end of the locker room spat in which Arenas allegedly laid out three guns for his teammate to pick from to shoot him in his surgically repaired knee, a dispute stemming from an unpaid gambling debt.

Crittendon then, according to teammates, pulled his own gun on Arenas, loaded a round and cocked the firearm. Arenas previously pleaded guilty to felony weapons charges.

This, undoubtedly, is the correct move. Both Stern and Goodell have come down hard on player conduct in the wake of several incidents involving players like Ron Artest, Adam Jones, Marshawn Lynch and the late Chris Henry, but none of them have been nearly as severe as what happened in the Verizon Center locker room.

Even worse, Arenas, as evidenced by the picture above, never took the entire situation seriously. I’m not sure who instilled in his pea-sized brain that gun crime is hilarious, but before even stepping foot near an NBA floor again, he’d better replace the guy at the helm of his brain-ship, because he’s drunk at the wheel.

The Wizards season is already a catastrophe; the team sits at 14-30, mired in last place in the Southeast Division with only the ghastly New Jersey Nets keeping them from the Eastern Conference basement.

Now, the organization as a whole is taking a huge hit because of this.

It probably wouldn’t be the best time to bust out my throwback Wes Unseld Washington Bullets jersey either, now, would it?