Gilbert Arenas negotiating a plea agreement, and other links

This should probably be a FanShot, but I want to highlight several things from the recent Washington Post story on Gilbert Arenas as well as several other links.

One is that Arenas is indeed negotiating a plea agreement that would keep him out of jail entirely.  Because he brought four guns into the locker room, Arenas could face up to 20 years in prison (five per gun), but if this plea agreement works, he can get off with any number of lesser penalties.

The sources said it was unclear whether the plea agreement would set Arenas's punishment as probation, community service, a fine or some combination. But the negotiations would ensure that Arenas would not go to jail, one of the sources said.    

Of course, there remains a very good chance these negotiations collapse.  The article mentions how, if successful, Arenas could be in court today, but there's no Arenas case on the docket yet, so obviously there's still work to be done in terms of the agreement.  

However, the (potentially) more interesting part about this article is that new details are emerging on Javaris Crittenton's role in all of this.  Here's the interesting line:

An NBA official, on condition of anonymity, said league investigators met with many of the team's players this week. Union attorneys, including Billy Hunter, the head of the players' union, sat in on the interviews. The official added the NBA wants to conclude its investigation, which could result in further penalties to Arenas and some of his teammates, in the next week.

While at least three players testified to league officials they witnessed Crittenton chamber a round in his own gun, there are differences in their accounts. That, plus lack of proof that Crittenton took a weapon to the locker room, make it difficult for the NBA to severely punish the reserve guard, the official said.

A couple thoughts:

• Further penalties? 
• If this is true about Crittenton, then it's really unfortunate that we might not get to the bottom of this.  I'm having trouble figuring out how three people could agree on a central fact -- Crittenton chambering a round -- and disagree on everything else.  Also, the absence of Crittenton's gun is very suspicious.  Could he have given it to someone to hide (maybe even Arenas?)?  Could he have dropped it in the trash can or something?  Does he still have it?  This is the aspect of the whole story that remains unbelievably suspicious.  Determining what happened to that gun is the make-or-break aspect of all of this.
• Even without the gun, doesn't the NBA have to punish Crittenton severely in some way just for being involved in all of this?  

-I've been waiting for someone to write something trying to uncover Javaris Crittenton's character, and while this report by Tania Ganguli of the Orlando Sentinel isn't the most exhaustive story ever, it still is a really insightful look at Crittenton.  

I must say, this doesn't exactly paint a particularly wonderful picture of the guy.  Crittenton, who played with Dwight Howard in high school, seems cast as a stubborn, fiercely loyal guy who got too much too fast.  Here's what Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy headmistress Geraldine Thompson said about Crittenton.

"The one thing I’ve learned is when you get too much too quickly, and you have not had exposure to it before, it can be damaging to you," said Geraldine Thompson, the school’s headmistress. "And I think that’s the case."

Some relatively complimentary quotes follow from Dwight Howard Sr. and the SACA football coach, but then Thompson returns to the story to offer this one final line.

"There are some things that he really needs to work through. I can’t disclose all of those. I think that’s a part of what’s going on now."

Kind of ominous, isn't it?  Think of it this way: if the only thing he needed to work through was this case, then there would be no need to say "I can't disclose" his issues.  

-Even Michael Wilbon says we're going too far in our character assassination of Arenas.  A very good read.

-If you're into the whole "Free Gilbert" thing, you'll like this T-shirt.

-Finally, this made me laugh.  Stephen Colbert got in on "finger gunz" and made fun of it as only he can.