Gilbert Arenas Gets Off Easy, Wizards Stuck

Gilbert Arenas appeared in court Friday and received a sentence of 30 days in a halfway house and 2 years probation for his gun charge. I'm not one of those people who complains about the different rules for the rich, but in the wake of this charge when you look at the questions surrounding it and the effects it will have, I'm having a hard time seeing how Arenas is being punished more than the Wizards.

Arenas was facing a felony charge for his little gun prank. Even with a guilty plea, the district attorney's office presented a case for jail time. This was a serious charge. The judge remarked that while Arenas was very irresponsible, he showed genuine remorse and was unlikely to be a repeat offender. Being a celebrity in this case helped him because Arenas is going to be under the microscope for quite sometime. He won't be able to carry a water pistol without every person in America seeing four different camera shots, but I'm really not sure about the 'genuine remorse.' Before charges were brought against him it became a team joke. Arenas even pretended to shoot his teammates during a pregame pump up. So while some reports say that Javaris Crittenton pulled his own gun and cocked it in response to Arenas' prank, he was only remorseful after he got in trouble. It's easy to appear remorseful when every television station in America runs quotes and interviews of you saying you're sorry, but he really didn't seem to act that way.

As a celebrity, you can't dismiss how much money he's losing because of his season suspension and cancelled endorsements. One figure says he's lost $7.4 million so far. That's a fair point, but Arenas is already a multi-millionaire. The richer you get, the less that money really means. Think about it. Whatever percentage of Arenas' salary that makes up, take a proportional amount out of your salary and you're in trouble. Arenas isn't going to be sitting at the old halfway house wondering how he will manage to make ends meet. With celebrities, monetary penalties really don't mean that much. That makes it imperative that they receive some other form of punishment because this is the only thing that really affects them.

One example you should consider is that of Plaxico Burress. Burress accidentally shot himself at a night club with his gun, was arrested, and accepted a plea deal for two years in prison. Arenas brought four guns into DC which is against DC's gun control laws and received 30 days in a halfway house. One got shot and is now in prison, the other thought it was no big deal and is headed to a halfway house. Doesn't it seem like the justice system got it wrong here?

Even if you feel Arenas' punishment is fair, the punishment for the Wizards is entirely unfair. Their star player is out for the season and too expensive to buy out. His trade value has understandably dropped and the Wizards can't really begin to rebuild their team until they deal with the giant elephant in the room. Best case scenario would be to void Arenas' contract, but this is not a realistic solution. Arenas is already suspended for the season and will be out of the halfway house before training camp this summer so the Wizards can't argue that his sentence will affect his ability to train and play. There of course is the morals clause of his contract. Yes, the NBA has a morals clause, but the fact that it's in the NBA is evidence enough of how useless it is. It's not even worth discussing.

The Wizards felt out interest for Arenas before this little gun incident and the prospects weren't encouraging. No one wanted an injury prone, unproven leader with an obscene contract. Add convicted felon to that resume and you could be describing a lot of NBA stars, but specifically for Arenas it's not promising that the Wizards will get any where near his value. Buying out Arenas, however, will cost the team $80 million. If Arenas is really desperate to get back on the court and leave Washington, which he hinted he would like to do, he may void a portion of that amount, but it still means a significant amount of money for a team poised for a massive rebuild.

So out of this entire situation, who really got the short end of the stick, Arenas who received no jail time for a gun felony or the Wizards who can't move forward without paying Arenas $80 million, trading for nothing, or rebuilding around a player who has proven he doesn't have enough to get this team over the threshold? New owner Ted Leonsis probably acquired the Wizards with the idea of rebuilding much the same way he did with the Capitals. The team already unloaded all their expensive talent at the deadline and acquired several prospects. Add a top draft pick the team can begin building around and this young team will be poised for future success. With this hanging over the team's head, however, it is difficult to start that process. Somehow after this big mess, Arenas still essentially holds the upper hand between himself and the Wizards and that's just not fair.