Bad sports, good sports: Gilbert Arenas is comically stupid
Intelligent professional athletes exist. They really do. Sometimes, though, it seems like the number of idiots in sports simply dwarfs the number of smart people. I guess that is because it is so much easier to write about the dopes. One such non-brain surgeon is Gilbert Arenas, a basketball player for the Washington Wizards of the NBA.
On Tuesday, the Wizards were opening their home preseason schedule by playing the Atlanta Hawks. Just before the game was to start, Arenas complained of a sore knee and asked to sit out the game. Afterward, it was revealed that Arenas was not actually hurt, but was trying to get some playing time for his friend Nick Young. No great investigation was done to determine this, of course. Amazingly, Arenas offered up the information himself.
I can only imagine that Arenas either thought that the whole thing was funny, so he might as well reveal his scheme, or else he thought he would sound like a hell of a guy for sacrificing his own playing time for the sake of his buddy. Instead, he showed what a blockhead he is. The game was over, and he had accomplished his goal. Going public with his true intentions could only have a negative outcome for him. It actually has, in fact, as he was fined $50,000 by the Wizards for his actions.
Arenas has a history of compounding his own stupidity, by the way. In late 2009, it was discovered that he had been keeping firearms in his locker at the Verizon Center, and had even had the guns out during some kind of argument with teammate Javaris Crittenton. He had no license, of course, and was charged with several crimes by D.C. police. Not yet suspended by the league a few nights later, Arenas decided that it was the right time to publicly make light of his predicament. He and his teammates staged a pre-game routine where he pretended to shoot his way out of the middle of a circle of players. Sheer genius. NBA Commissioner David Stern decided that his plan to await the outcome of the police investigation was a little too generous, and promptly suspended Arenas for the rest of the season.
This latest incident, in and of itself, is certainly not a major crime. It was a preseason game, and really meant very little in the big picture. The fact that it happened before he had even managed to play a regular season game following his previous suspension makes Arenas a certified moron.
Bad sports, continued:
2) Tennis player Ana Ivanovic was penalized 4 points, costing her a game, during her match against Patty Schnyder in the Generali Ladies tournament in Austria last week. Why was she penalized? Because she had to go to the bathroom. The delay and the penalty cost her that game, but not the match, as she still defeated Schnyder easily.
3) TJ Lavin, a BMX rider and MTV personality, was critically injured on Thursday in Las Vegas, when a stunt he was doing during qualifying went wrong.
4) In more ugly injury news, a Rutgers defensive tackle injured his spine making a tackle on Thursday and is currently paralyzed from the neck down. Eric LeGrand, a junior, was injured with just five minute left in the game. His long-term prognosis is not yet known.
5) Sports fans are forgiving people, at least toward their own players. One of these days, though, I wish those fans would refrain from the huge ovation that always seems to accompany the return of a player from an absence of his own making. Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was the recipient of very loud cheers during player introductions on Sunday as he returned from a league suspension for his offseason troubles that included charges of rape. Wouldn’t it have been enough to just not boo him? Did he really deserve the standing ovation? What exactly were they cheering?
6) This is a low blow, so to speak, but I can’t resist. Brett Favre, meet karma.
Good sports:
1) Only one Good Sports story made my list this week. Retiring Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox was cheered by the victorious San Francisco Giants after the Giants finished their series victory over the Braves in their National League Division Series. It was a classy move by the Giants, and well-deserved after Cox’ tremendous career as the manager of the Braves over the last twenty years.
Bad Sports, Good Sports appears every Monday.
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Allan, good post, as always!
May I recommend a “Good Sport” for next week’s column? And, yes, this IS a plug for a fellow Texan … Rangers pitcher Josh Hamilton. The Sporting News’ MLB Player of the Year has had to struggle with more than the usual challenges of a professional sports career … and he is the first to tell you about it, and who really comes first in his life, at the “I Am Second” website.
You know? Come to think of it … if I feel so strongly about it, I should get busy and post something of my own! :-)