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Javaris Crittenton vs Gilbert Arenas: What really happened in the locker room?
Javaris Crittenton and Gilbert Arenas got involved in one of the most notorious locker room confrontations in NBA history in 2009.
Javaris Crittenton and Gilbert Arenas got involved in one of the most notorious locker room confrontations in NBA history in 2009. The new Netflix documentary Untold: Shooting Guards centers on the tragic event in which Arenas and Crittenton pulled weapons on one another while playing for the Washington Wizards.
In the documentary, Arenas and Crittenton discussed what had happened before that tragic day.
“Yo, when you drive into the arena, I'm a throw gasoline on your car and burn it while you in it.' That was my threat to him,” Arenas stated.
On a December team flight, Arenas and Crittenton were fighting over a game of booray. The former acknowledged that he was attempting to annoy the latter, and he had no idea how that would end.
Crittenton warned Arenas, “If you shoot up my car, I'm going to shoot you in them bum-a** knees you got.”
Crittenton responded in a funny manner, saying that Arenas didn't care because his knee was already in an awful state.
"You keep talking about fighting, I play with guns," Crittenton remarked. “You better ask about me.”
“My comeback was, 'I want to see you do it, I'll bring you the guns,'” Arenas recounted.
“... [I said] 'Are you man enough? Do you have two of these to shoot me? You ain't got the cojones to do nothing like that. You ain't even built to do nothing like that.'”
Also Read: Where is Javaris Crittenton now? From NBA promising star to convicted felon
What really happened in the locker room?
Days later, arenas brought unloaded guns into the locker room. Crittenton grabbed a loaded one, surprising his teammates. However, nobody was harmed.
During pregame introductions, Arenas acted likehe had shot his teammates, which was the final nail in the coffin. In January 2010, he and Crittenton received season-long suspensions from then-NBA commissioner David Stern.
Crittenton was released by the Wizards following the expiration of his ban.
Arenas, on the other hand, did rejoin the Wizards, but his stay would not be long. By 2012, he had left the league after being transferred to the Orlando Magic in December 2010.
Arenas' and Crittenton's lives undoubtedly took rather different turns after their NBA careers. Arenas made the switch to sports journalism and is currently one of the industry's most well-known commentators.
Crittenton, on the other hand, shot and killed 22-year-old mother of four Jullian Jones in 2011. He apparently did not intend to harm her, and in 2015 he entered a plea of guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Crittenton was freed on April 21, 2023, after his initial sentence of 23 years in jail was subsequently lowered to 10 years.
