In an interview with Jon Gold of The Action Network, Gilber Arenas described the start of the issue between him and Javaris Crittenton, which was born from the result of the card game Bourre during a team flight:
That led to Arenas and Crittenton reportedly pulling guns on each other in the locker room, and both players were suspended for the remainder of the season.
On the day of the incident, Arenas brought four unloaded guns into the locker room. He explained the rationale behind his decision, saying, “It was about me calling his bluff. You say you’re going to shoot me? Fine, I’ll bring you the guns to do it.”
When Arenas told Crittenton to pick a gun, Crittenton responded by saying, “Oh no, you don’t need to shoot me with one of those. I’ve got one right here.”
Per Gold, Crittenton then pointed a loaded gun at Arenas before the situation was eventually diffused.
Although it was widely reported initially that the dispute was over gambling debts, Arenas downplayed that notion:
“This had nothing to do with gambling debts. It was about the s–t-talking while I was losing. It was like someone scoring on you every time down. I’m the designated s–t-talker. I could be down $40,000, but if I irritated someone so bad they feel like they lost $20K? I’m happy. I won. I don’t feel like the biggest loser of the night.”
Still the craziest locker room beef of all time. On a slow Summer news day, revisiting this story is gold.
