Wizards' Gilbert Arenas receives sentence for gun incident

On Friday, Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas received his sentencing for December 2009's gun incident in the locker room. According to the sentence handed out by DC Superior Court Judge Robert E. Morin, Arenas will serve one month in a halfway house, perform 400 hours of community service and pay a $5,000 fine.

The gun incident occurred in the Verizon Center locker room back on December 21. A dispute had arisen between Arenas and teammate Javaris Crittenton over a gambling debt worth just a few hundred dollars. Arenas brought several handguns into the team's locker room, laid them out near Javaris' locker along with a sign that said "PICK 1".

Due to the incident, Arenas was suspended by the league for the entire season to set a strong precedent for this situation. At his sentencing, Arenas apologized and said he wakes up daily wishing this never happened. In another recent pro sports gun incident, NFL star Plaxico Burress of the New York Giants was carrying an illegal firearm in his pants, when the gun went off and shot him in the leg. The NFL wide receiver was sentenced to 2 years in prison due to NY's gun laws. Some people, including the prosecutors in the Arenas case feel he got off lightly, avoiding any major jail time.

Read more about Arenas' sentencing here at ESPN.com

Marbury & Iverson Absences

Recent news from the NBA has surrounded two guards who many view as troubled superstars, looking to get on the right track. Iverson has been in the spotlight once again for another "practice" related incident. He missed a team practice Thanksgiving morning but issued a public apology statement saying it won't happen again. Iverson is not the Iverson of past who wouldn't care about missing practice, or apologize. His famous "practice..we talkin' bout practice?" highlight continues to be a favorite of ESPN, Fox Sports and Best Damn Sports Show Period. However, this is a more mature and committed to winning Iverson. He's in a much better environment for team winning and he's already made that known. Also, skipping a team practice is definitely not tolerated, but it's not as bad as missing actual games.

On the other hand is a player who hasn't played yet this season, even though he's physically able to. Stephon Marbury was suspended and fined for refusing to play for the Knicks this past Wednesday against Iverson's Pistons. Marbury had been specifically asked to play by his coach Mike D'Antoni. It seems to be a war of words as well, with Marbury saying he never told Coach D'Antoni he wouldn't play, simply that given a choice he'd prefer not to. Then again, it is the Knicks who recently decided they wanted Marbury's services upon trading away Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph. But to his discredit, Marbury was having similar player-coach issues last season with Isiah in town. This may be a carryover from last season's dismal New York team, or it may just be Marbury's personality. No matter what, it's clear one player wants to play and give his current team his all, while the other is riding the bench for a million dollar salary.

More on Marbury's issues in New York at Newsday.

Suns-Rockets Basketbrawl Punishments

You may have seen the highlights as a pretty-good sized fight broke out during the Houston Rockets vs. Phoenix Suns game just a few nights ago. According to AZCentral.com:

Just moments after Steve Nash clutched his shoulder after slamming into a McGrady screen, Suns forward Matt Barnes lowered his shoulder into a high screen set by Houston guard Rafer Alston as McGrady made the 3-pointer. Alston came back at Barnes in the middle of the floor, where Nash soon showed up as he raced out of the lane. McGrady shoved Nash out of the area, prompting Shaquille O'Neal to push down McGrady and give more-gentle pushes to Yao Ming and Alston as well. The dust-up carried crosscourt, with Suns coach Terry Porter trying to get between the combatants.

The incident definitely drew the attention of the league, as any instance of on-court violence has following the Pistons-Pacers melee years ago. Today the league handed out an assortment of punishments to the various individuals involved.

The main individuals behind the altercation, Raefer Alston of the Rockets and Matt Barnes of the Suns each received 2 games off from the league. The Suns will also miss their floor general, as Steve Nash was given a 1 game suspension. Suns center Shaquile O'Neal was fined $35,000 while T-Mac of the Rockets had his wallet lightened by $25,000.

In other Shaq news, despite the fine, he recently surpassed legend John Havlicek to become #10 on the all-time scoring list making for quite a milestone in the Big Aristotle's career.

In other fine news, the Sacramento Kings and their coach Reggie Theus were each fined $25,000 for their comments following a recent loss to Detroit.

Video footage of Suns-Rockets fight at USA Today blogs.

Ellis Moped Incident = 30 Day Suspension

The Golden State Warriors high-scoring guard, Monta Ellis, was injured in a motor cycle accident this past summer, hurting his ankle. While that is bad news in itself, Ellis then chose to lie to the team about the incident. Ellis told the Warriors he hurt himself playing pickup ball in Mississippi, but then came clean about the injury days later. Due to his lie, Ellis has now been suspended 30 games by Owner Chris Cohan, which will cost the guard a cool 3 million dollars.

When you see a headline about Ellis being suspended, you'd assume it was due to a fight in a preseason game, using drugs or some sort of off-court arrest/fan altercation. But for something that could have easily been avoided, Ellis has benched himself for almost half of an NBA season. Will the team be hurt by this? They might have been, as he was the second-leading scorer for the NBA's highest-scoring team last season, averaging 20.2 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists, helping his team try to make the final playoff spot. Ellis underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament and wouldn't be able to return to action to mid-December anyways.

In case you're wondering about the rule book, according to NBA.com: "Ellis violated Paragraph 12 of the NBA's uniform player contract, which prohibits a player from engaging "in any activity that a reasonable person would recognize as involving or exposing the participant to a substantial risk of bodily injury," including "driving or riding a motorcycle or mo-ped."

Other past motorcycle incidents in sports that are well known include Pittsburgh Steeler QB Ben Rothleisberger, and former Chicago Bulls/Duke guard, Jay Williams. Rothleisberger was able to recover from injuries he sustained, while Williams attempted to rehab but never was able to make an NBA return.

Read more about Ellis' Suspension by the Warriors at NBA.com

No Nonsense NBA Suspensions

From the Boston Herald:

"An NBA spokesman confirmed last night that the league is reviewing Paul Pierce [stats]’s grab of Jamal Crawford during the Celtics [team stats]’ exhibition loss in New York Monday night.

The C’s captain, rushing to the aid of teammate Ray Allen after the guard crashed to the floor following Crawford’s foul, grabbed the Knick under the chin.

Pierce later said he thought Crawford was about to “stand over” Allen. Asked about the league’s investigation before last night’s 82-71 loss to New Jersey, Pierce said, “Well, the league will look into it then.”

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Pierce's fate is unknown as of right now. Last week, Josh Howard was suspended for a fight with Sacramento's Brad Miller. This brings up how the NBA is being less tolerant of just about anything these days from its players and yes, even its referees.

Suspensions prior to the 2007-08 season:

10/20/07
Denver suspended J.R. Smith for the first 3 games of the regular season
for conduct detrimental to the team.

10/19/07
The NBA suspended Josh Howard (Dal) for 2 games for throwing a forearm at
the back of Brad Miller (Sac) after Miller intentionally shoved Devin
Harris (Dal) to the ground during Tuesday's Dal-Sac game.

9/17/07
The NBA reinstated suspended referee Joey Crawford. Crawford had been
suspended since 4/17/07 for improper conduct and a lack of
professionalism and for being a repeat offender following a Dallas-San
Antonio game where Crawford ejected Tim Duncan (SA) for simply
laughing while Duncan was on the bench.

8/31/07
The NBA suspended James Posey (Bos) for 1 game for his no contest plea
regarding a charge of reckless driving.

8/23/07
The NBA fined Seattle co-owner Aubrey McClendon $250,000 for his comments
from 2 weeks ago about the new owners' plans to move the team to Oklahoma.

7/14/07
The NBA suspended Ron Artest (Sac) for 7 games for his no contest plea in
May to a misdemeanor domestic violence charge.


7/14/07
The NBA suspended Stephen Jackson (GS) for 7 games for his guilty plea in
June to a felony count of criminal recklessness for firing a gun outside a
strip club last fall.

You can review a great listing of all publicized NBA suspensions dating back to 1994-95 here