Happy New Year, and wow, what a way to start off 2010! In the most amazing yet somehow completely unsurprising story of the year so far, Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton went all Walter Sobchak on each other and drew their guns in the locker room on Christmas Eve. Nobody got shot, but even if Agent Zero had pulled the trigger, I wouldn't have been too worried considering his shooting percentage this year is only 41%. (Zing!)
So, what's Gilbert got to say about this whole situation? According to his Twitter feed: "i wake up this morning and seen i was the new JOHN WAYNE..lmao media is too funny" Are people really calling him John Wayne? That doesn't make sense. Most of the time John Wayne actually, you know, won stuff. Otherwise, I cannot stress this enough -- you must read his other recent tweets. Hibachi's posting crazy stuff left and right. Even Deadspin is talking about it. Consider this gem: "yea i guess ur right men with kids party a diff way on new years...it usually starts and ends with the (jergens natural lotion) bottle"
Also, according to Bill Simmons, "FYI: if Gilbert is convicted of a felony, the Wiz can void his horrific contract ASAP. No wonder they reported it so quickly!"
Worst of the Night in Pictures:
Nationally Televised Friday Games:
Bricks at Hawks: This is the first game we get to celebrate the new year? Oh well. The Hawks haven't lost three straight all season. Probably not going to happen in this game.
All The Other Friday Games:
Magic at Timberwolves: The Magic suddenly are garbage on the road, and have lost three straight outside of Orlando. They play eight of their next 10 on the road as well. Thank God for this game in their case.
Kings at Lakers: The Lakers are banged up (Ron Ron's stairs, Kobe's finger), but the Kings are still not exactly the best team in the league. If Tyreke Evans doesn't play, this game could be horrendous.
Nationally Televised Saturday Games:
Thunder at Bucks: I'm starting to feel sorry for the Bucks. I really am.
All The Other Saturday Games:
Crabs at Nyets: Enjoy your free win, Crustaceans!
Bobcats at Heat: The Heat will still be cleaning themselves up after shitting the bed Thursday night, but the Bobcats are, after all, the Bobcats.
Timberwolves at Pacers: Huh. The Pacers might actually win a game! The Timberwolves are, after all, the Timberwolves, and they're on the second night of a back to back!
Spurs at
Raptors at Celtics: After the way the Celtics have blown games recently, I am just plain afraid to say anything about this game, especially after reading this injury report. Can we just skip to the next game? Thanks.
Rockets at Hornets: Knee-Mac is dominating in the fan-voting for the All-Star game. There is no justice in the world.
Magic at Bulls: The "when will he get fired?!" drama surrounding Vinny Del Negro is making every single Bulls game special right now. It's kind of fun, in a twisted way.
Grizzlies at Suns: Just remember: the Grizzlies are a feel-good story this season... and they're still really mediocre.
Nuggets at Jazz: Denver's not great on the road, and has lost three straight games. Utah hasn't looked good lately either, and has wins against just Philly and Minnesota in the past couple weeks. Ouch.
Warriors at Frail Blazers: The Warriors' tendancies to run-and-gun have me scared. We could see the kneecaps on the remaining Portland players all explode at once in this game.
Mavericks at Kings: A nice back-to-back for the Kings, eh?
Nationally Televised Sunday Games:
Spurs at Raptors: Back to back road games for the creaky-boned Spurs? Good thing the Heat were kind enough to let the Spurs' starters rest for most of their Thursday night game. How very generous!
All The Other Sunday Games:
Bobcats at Crabs: Both of these teams are on back-to-backs, but really, does it matter? It just means LeBron will score 32 instead of 38.
Pacers at Bricks: The D'Antoni defensive system could actually make this game halfway decent, even if both teams only shoot 39%.
76ers at Nuggets: Nothing like playing against the lowly Sixers to give you a good rest after playing in Utah the night before.
Mavericks at Lakers: Back-to-backs are definately a trend on this night. The Mavs get to spend two straight nights on the road and play the Lakers. Lucky them.
Labels: Bawful After Dark, Javaris Crittenton you are entering a world of pain my friend, Washington Bullets
52 Comments:
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Previous Posts
Bawful After Dark: New Year's Eve EditionWorst of the Night: December 30, 2009
Bawful After Dark: December 30, 2009
Worst of the Night: December 28, 2009
Bawful After Dark: December 28, 2009
Worst of Christmas Weekend
Bawful After Dark: Christmas Edition
Bawful After Dark: December 23, 2009
Worst of the Night: December 22, 2009
Bawful After Dark - December 22, 2009
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Another Blazer goes down...
Raymond -- Jesus. Just who exactly has the complete set of Frail Blazer voodoo dolls? This is getting out of hand.
Wasn't Aged Zero's gun unloaded? Did he learn nothing from Delonte West?
Yet somehow, Fisher has the best +/- on the Lakers at +1.
You're right, this has been a pretty bad blowout.
Guess what.
In the final 15 seconds...
- Westphal blows the inbound with a timeout when he had a man breaking open
- Udoka misses the two foul shots
- THE KINGS LET FREAKING KOBE BRYANT GO UNGUARDED FROM DOWNTOWN, AND HE EASILY MAKES THE THREE TO THE DELIGHT OF THE STAPLES CENTER FANS.
I mean. Seriously. You could not come up with a more painful way to lose the game than what just happened, not when you led by 15 at halftime and 20 at various points, not when you had a chance to ice it with free throws with 4 seconds to go.
The Association: Where Choking Happens. :(
It'd be really nice to actually have a non-stressful, not down to the wire game again. I'll take the win, of course, but I'm tired of forcing Kobe to be Basketball Jesus with buzzer beaters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScYggdxT0b4
There was so little defense by the Kings on that final possession, you could have gotten Frank Selvy out of retirement to make that shot.
No kidding. There's no excuse for leaving him so open like that, none at all. But I don't mean this just shot alone. I'm also referring to the multiple other buzzer beaters Kobe's made this season. He also has a history of buzzer beaters, which is even more ridiculous that they did virtually nothing to stop him. Were they not aware of who he is and what he tends to do?
Same thing with Lebron or Nash or Carmello or Pierce or any other shooter that can come through so well in the clutch. It's astounding when any of those guys get open looks in situations like that.
Also, I actually called Kobe "Basketball Jesus" in a negative light: I'm tired of Kobe needing to make/take buzzer beaters to be the Savior of the Game because the Lakers are talented enough to be able keep themselves from being in those positions. Why they keep finding themselves there is confounding.
Here...they WERE shutting down Kobe to some extent, particularly in the first half. Certainly more so than LeBron that night at Arco...so at least some attempt at defense would have been a good idea.
If the Kings miss the postseason by 3-4 games - assuming they're in sniffing distance, considering that the Grizzlies are even in contention for a spot now - it'll be this stretch of "moral victories" that will be one of the primary causes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNFsEnI9lFg
Kobe didn't step out of bounds, though I'd say he was as close to stepping out as he was to still having the ball in his hand when the lights on the backboard went off. Still, he was in bounds.
You can clearly see in the replay that Westphal is immediately glaring down at Kobe's feet when he makes the catch and not once does he, nor any other player on Sacramento's bench directly behind Kobe, remotely indicate that Kobe was out of bounds. If he was, I somehow doubt Westphal, after seeing such, would just walk away with his arms folded.
That's also a dubious push off at best.
I'll give you the push off, but his heel was on the line at every angle that they showed on the replay. I have no idea why Westphal kept his mouth shut, but he stepped out, if only slightly.
ESPN.com provides more failarious details -
Multiple sources told ESPN.com that an argument commenced during a card game on the team's overnight flight back to Washington from Phoenix on Dec. 19 and escalated into a heated exchange between Arenas and Crittenton. The Wizards had Dec. 20 off, but sources say the hostilities resumed Dec. 21 in the locker room on a practice day.
Sources say that Arenas, in response to what was said on the flight, placed three guns he owns on a chair near Crittenton's locker stall and invited him to pick one before practice on Dec. 21. Sources said that Crittenton subsequently let Arenas know that he had his own gun.
The newspaper also reported that the argument between Arenas and Crittenton was over "who had the bigger gun" and that there was never any intent to physically harm Crittenton, according to "a person who has spoken with Arenas recently."
And, um...THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
The Washington Post also spoke to Arenas' father, Gilbert Arenas Sr., who said: "From the respect of guns being pulled in the locker room and at each other... that's ludicrous. [Gilbert Jr.] bringing the guns to the locker room to keep away from his kids, that's true. [But] Gil did not pull a gun on anybody. That's about all that I can say."
It's simple - Westphal, and everyone on Sac's bench, kept their mouths shut because there was nothing to challenge. He was in bounds. Do you honestly think that not one player on the bench wouldn't have at least pointed to the line or something? Westphal literally had no reaction whatsoever. Not being overly demonstrative is one thing but he doesn't even throw his hands up. He doesn't even turn his head, he just walks away. No coach would just shrug and walk away when losing a game like that, especially if they saw that the player who made the shot had stepped out. ESPECIALLY since it's very clear that Westphal stared down at Kobe's feet after the catch. Regardless of whether or not Westphal felt he could convince the officials to overturn the call, he'd at least do SOMETHING.
It's Occam's Razor. Westphal didn't say Kobe stepped out because Kobe didn't step out.
If you can find a better one, I'd like to see it, but from this view looks pretty plain to me.
At this point, just get over it.
I wanted to find some random joke picture in response to yours as "definitive proof" of whether Kobe was in bounds or not, but in the process I ran across what is likely to be the best/worst manlove picture I've ever seen. "You want in on this?"
Jack Palance: Pick it up.
Sheepherder: I don't wanna pick it up. You're gonna shoot me.
Palance: Pick up the gun (BLAM) You all saw him, he had a gun.
2nd-4th Quarter Warriors: 48
ridiculous
Kings are now 1-5 since their comeback in Chitown.
I mean, seriously, did they use up all their goodwill in that one comeback? I almost want to take that back and take real victories over the 4 moral victories they've had since that game.
G Gilbert Arenas, Sebastian Telfair
F Stephen Jackson, Lonny Baxter
C Chris Wilcox
6th Man Delonte West
http://www.delonho.com/2010/01/03/steve-nash-i-am-awesome-so-vote-for-me/
(now time to shed a tear for the Kings being screwed over by moving to the West Coast all those years ago. lol.)
I mean you put lebron on any team and they are a contender. Some big underdogs but contenders. Right?
I mean even if he wins a championship this year he should go there.
Knicks add lebron, a solid defensive big man and a good trade or two they're right in there.
Who's with me? By the way I'm not a NY fan I don't even live in the US.
JESUS