But here's one for you: What if the Wizards were winning? Say everything's hunky dory, Washington...

But here's one for you: What if the Wizards were winning? Say everything's hunky dory, Washington comes back from that West Coast trip with a 17-8 record, rather than 8-17. Say Arenas is averaging 29 points and eight assists and is on his way to a fourth All-Star appearance and the Comeback Player of the Year award. What then? Would the world have even known that possibly five guns were in the Wizards' locker room? Two league insiders say "No chance," and "Probably not." Charles Barkley last night on national television also said this wouldn't have gotten out if it was a winning squad.

As I wrote shortly after the initial report of Arenas storing guns in his locker, the Wizards aren't the first team to learn a player has a gun on team property, I'm told. The players are simply told Get that out of here, and receive a stern talking to. This situation is more serious than someone simply carrying a weapon on their person, but the insiders I asked seem to think that although Ernie Grunfeld would have been furious, that he would have huddled everyone together for a tongue lashing and swept it under the rug, and the Wizards would have went on jockeying for position among the Eastern Conference's elite.

Mike Jones plays the what-if game

I was wondering this same thing. Arenas is not the first person to bring a gun to the locker room. Why did this story get out? Was it a player? The Wizards front office? Some peon intern?

This should be pretty interesting to see what happens. I say everyone check their egos at the door and get back to playing ball. I also say that's unrealistic. Gil is still a baller.

over 2 years ago se7en 6 comments 0 recs |

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This Doesn't Make Sense to Me

Regardless of whether your team is 17-8 or 8-17, this sort of thing does irreparable harm to the organization. Ernie had to know that his chances of voiding Arenas’s contract were very slim in any case, so why push this so hard? If the Wizards had swept this under the rug, then they could have conceivably been able to trade Gilbert, along with Butler and Jamison, without alienating the rest of the team or other players in the league. The rebuilding process would be a lot smoother had this never became public.

Now, I’m not saying that sweeping an incident like this under the rug is the right thing, only that it doesn’t help the organization to throw the book at Gilbert regardless of the team’s record.

"It's OK for the Bullets to trade baskets, as long as they can score on their end." -- Words of wisdom from Phil Chenier

by cuppettcj on Jan 15, 2010 2:29 PM EST reply actions

I agree with you

My swag was phenomenal.

by se7en on Jan 15, 2010 2:47 PM EST up reply actions

Did I miss something? Are we all now saying that management leaked the original story? Everyone is blaming Grunfeld that it got out. Is that right?

by MR on Jan 15, 2010 4:03 PM EST reply actions

i resent this line of reasoning

but the insiders I asked seem to think that although Ernie Grunfeld would have been furious, that he would have huddled everyone together for a tongue lashing and swept it under the rug, and the Wizards would have went on jockeying for position among the Eastern Conference’s elite

based on how he’s handled transgressions in the past, and on how he traded for sprewell, my first thought is this is what ernie would have done regardless of whether we sucked or were elite. but i’m not sure i can give him the benefit of the doubt.

under no circumstances am i saying ernie should have swept this under the rug. i just wonder if there is any truth to mike jones’s reasoning. if so, it makes me not want to watch the nba.

that being said, i think the much more likely thing is that ernie knew he wouldn’t have been able to cover this up, and that it would backfire on him and the team eventually, and make the wizards look like the above – it would disgust me and several others even more than what’s happening now – and that he did this not out of doing the right thing, but out of a calculus that said he really didn’t have any other choice.

this is the first mike jones blog entry that i didn’t like. so f’ing cynical.

by DarrellWalkerFan on Jan 15, 2010 4:04 PM EST reply actions

Pollin -

I think Pollin’s views on guns influenced this to an extent. The man change the name of the team, just died and Gil highly disrespected a lot of what the franchise stands for. Abe didn’t die that long ago – grief is a powerful emotion.