There's nothing quite like having a crisis on your hands to start a new year and a new decade, but that's exactly what David Stern has with the revelation that two Washington Wizards players allegedly drew guns on each other before a recent practice.
If true, the dangerous and idiotic behavior by Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittendon should be used by Stern to set an example.
The problem is, this is not the aftermath of the riot at Auburn Hills when Stern wasted almost no time in handing out record suspensions to Ron Artest, among others, for running into the stands to exchange punches with unruly fans. In that case, albeit a very different case, Stern was right to rush to judgment. The entire episode was seen on TV by millions that very night and for days after, amounting to the worst night in NBA history. So Stern couldn't afford to wait when he knew his league would be flogged, publicly, if he did not take swift and appropriate action.
But in this case, Stern needs to treat this like other legal issues and wait to see what D.C. police and the U.S. Attorney's office find in their joint investigation. Gunplay goes beyond the basketball court and the NBA's jurisdiction.
Friday, the NBA said it was monitoring the police investigation while continuing to do its own, and Arenas denied the story to The Washington Post and to people who are acting as his advisers.
When you've got $80 million coming to you after this season, over the next four years, as Arenas does, and your contract could be voided in this kind of mess, it makes sense to tell the world that the allegations are false.
But if it turns out that Arenas and Crittenton did, in fact, draw weapons and are indicted on gun charges, then Stern should hope that the players are harshly penalized in local courts.
After that, Stern needs to follow up with additional penalties. They have to be severe. He has to turn this particular episode into a landmark case.
If the two drew guns, then Stern has to send a message that firearms will no longer be tolerated in the NBA.
No exceptions.
From here on out, players who don't abide by the rule should be banned from the league. For life.
Throw Arenas out. Throw Crittenton out. Consider what happened down in D.C. a warning to all players.
Harsh as it is, it's the only way to go, rather than to risk having players one day actually exchanging gunfire.
Does the NBA really need that? Just imagine the outcry, from coast to coast, if one player ever shot another. It would make Auburn Hills look like a minor fracas.
IF TRUE: What a pair of idiots. Never point a weapon at something you don't want to destroy. Guns are not used to impress people or threaten them, they are for defense and they are made to kill. PERIOD. If I pulled a gun on someone frivolously, I would lose my job and go to jail. They deserve the same.
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