| 07 January 2010
I’ve always told people who are curious about it, “just watch the first episode.” It’s the best pilot episode of any show that’s ever been created. It will suck you right in and you’ll be sold for the next 88 episodes after that. It’s compelling. It’s suspenseful. It’s just a fun way to kill some time.
The show revolves around Vic Mackey, a police officer who works in one of the roughest parts of Los Angeles. But he’s not your champion of the people. He’s a dirty cop. He’s a dirty cop that runs a four-man unit of dirty cops who make more deals with drug dealers for their own benefit than record companies. The ongoing storyline throughout this entire series is that Vic Mackey creates a world in which he digs deeper and deeper ditches for himself and can never really get out of his own way.
And that’s what I’ve been thinking about while watching this whole Gilbert Arenas saga play out. I’ve been hesitant to write anything about this whole ordeal because I felt like I was never being given the facts in their entirety. At first, we had the diner scene out of Pulp Fiction in which we were told everybody pulled a gun on everybody else in some sort of standoff over a $25,000 gambling debt. Turns out, it wasn’t that dramatic.
Now, we are all settling into the tale of Gilbert Arenas getting his Castor Troy on. Apparently, he laid out four guns in front of Javaris Crittenton with a note asking him to pick one. And Javaris might have responded by loading a live clip into his own gun whilst in the locker room. Maybe the guns were in the locker room for Gilbert because he was getting them out of his house. Maybe they weren’t. But whatever the deal actually is, it’s led to him being suspended indefinitely.
People are freaking out over the indefinite suspension, partly because it sounds too much like infinitely. Being suspended for an indefinite amount of time isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Hearing rumors that this will be at least the rest of the season certainly is, though. And it has Gilbert fans and Wizards fans up in arms with David Stern and his apparent “tyrannical” reign over the NBA.
Personally, I say grow up. This is the real world. Are having an abundance of unloaded handguns on you a crime? In most cities, it’s not. In Washington D.C it’s a bit of a touchy subject and with good reason. But this isn’t about crime. It’s about breaking the rules and rubbing it into the face of your boss while they’re trying to do their due diligence in figuring everything out.
Whether the federal and city detectives end up filing charges against Gilbert Arenas for carrying a gun on him doesn’t matter in this case. There are no guns allowed on NBA property, in NBA facilities. Period. It’s a safety issue. You can’t bring guns into the workplace – no matter what the reason is. It’s not even up for discussion. That’s a suspendable offense in this league. And Gilbert Arenas was going to be suspended for it, no matter what.
So why did the suspension come before the investigation was finished by the NBA and the proper authorities? Because Gil couldn’t leave it alone. We get it. He’s quirky. He’s crazy. He’s zany. He’s any adjective that supplants immature behavior and makes us exhale, “Oh Gilbert, will you ever learn?”
Well, Gilbert, will you ever learn? He went into Twitter rant after Twitter rant in which he made it clear that WE were the ones who don’t get it. Apparently, it’s his humor and we’re at fault if we don’t get it. It doesn’t matter if the fans think your actions and words are funny, Gil. What matters is you treating a potentially criminal act and your boss who is trying to sort it all out with respect. You don’t talk about how it’s no big deal. It’s potentially a big deal.
And you sure as hell don’t mock the situation in front of 12,000 people – not to mention the tens of thousands watching live on TV and the other million or two people who will see the highlights and Getty Images later on that night. That’s a slap in the face of authority. And you don’t slap the face of David Stern unless you expect a melee to come back your way.
(Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE via Getty Images)
Perhaps, we shouldn’t completely blame Gilbert for this. At some point, you have to blame society, television and movies over the last 70 years for glorifying guns as play things. The object of guns has become status in many neighborhoods and lost their reason for creation – to kill people. So with you, me, your mom, Gilbert and others being obscenely desensitized to what a gun is and what it does, it’s hard to think that Gilbert thought his four unloaded handguns were anything but a toy. They were anything but a prop in another one of his misunderstood pranks.
But ultimately, he showed poor judgment throughout this entire episode. Nick Young said he was going to get him a muzzle for his birthday. People around him and the organization pleaded for Gilbert to take this investigation seriously. They begged him to lay off and let it fade away into obscurity. He just couldn’t help himself. The class clown was going to get sent to the principal’s office because he couldn’t keep his mouth shot or sit still. He had to react. He had to push the envelope.
Well, you don’t show up David Stern. If Gilbert ends up being sent to detention without pay for five games, I’m fine with it. If it’s for 20 games, I’m fine with it. If it’s for the rest of the season, I’m good there too.
What Gilbert did was not only against league rules and possibly city/district/federal law; it was disrespectful to his team and his boss.
But he just couldn’t help himself. He had to keep digging that ditch deeper. Maybe next time, he’ll find the space to get out of his own way.
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