No good deed goes unpunished!
The teammate involved in a gunpoint confrontation with Washington Wizard star Gilbert Arenas got into the locker-room showdown after fronting the point guard $60,000 to cover a gambling debt to a third member of the NBA team.
The simmering feud between Arenas and backcourt mate Javaris Crittenton began on Dec. 19, when both lost big bucks to center JaVale McGee in a card game as the club flew home from Phoenix, according to MikeJonesSports, a blog by a former Washington Times sportswriter.
Arenas’ loss totaled $60,000, sources told The Post.
DC GRAND JURY TO CONVENE ON GUN CASE
Crittenton volunteered to front his teammate’s debt to McGee and, as a reward, found himself staring down the barrel of a gun — in a possibly career-ending controversy that rocked the sports world, the blog said.
It seems that Crittenton considered the monetary assist a loan. Arenas — who had objected to the results of the card game for reasons that were not made clear — apparently had other ideas.
It all came to a head on Dec. 21, when Arenas and Crittenton went one-on-one in the Verizon Center locker room in Washington.
Reached by phone yesterday, McGee — a bench-warming, 7-footer and son of Olympic gold-medal-winning basketball player Pamela McGee — refused to discuss the incident.
Meanwhile, Crittenton — who along with Arenas faces possible gun charges — has hired a lawyer.
“My job is to protect Javaris’ interest in connection with the ongoing investigation,” said the lawyer, Peter White.
“I know of no evidence that Javaris did anything wrong in connection with this incident, and I’m confident he’ll be cleared of any wrongdoing when this is completed.”
Arenas is expected to meet with investigators today to try to explain why he brought guns into the Wizards’ locker room last month. Crittenton is also set to tell his side to authorities today.
The confrontation unfolded when Arenas placed three guns on a chair by Crittenton’s locker with a handwritten sign that said “Pick one,” The Washington Post reported yesterday.
Arenas reportedly believed he’d been joking with Crittenton, who had comically threatened to shoot the veteran in his oft-injured leg days earlier.
But Arenas’ prank wasn’t so funny to Crittenton, who picked up at least one of the guns and angrily hurled it across the room, screaming that he had his own weapon, according to The Washington Post and Yahoo! Sports.
Arenas had no comment after practice yesterday — but had plenty to say on his Twitter page about the ongoing scandal.
Arenas insisted online he would have no motive to pull a gun on Crittenton: “why would i owe sumbody money and pull a pistol out sounds a little backwards rt . . . yea rt.”
Arenas, in the middle of six-year, $111 million deal, said he’d be flipping burgers if he weren’t an NBA star: “if i wasnt playin ball ill might be workin at Mc donalds. . . becuz i like there frys.”
Additional reporting by Matthew Nestel in Washington DC