‘DC Court of Appeals and Lincoln’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’
Reports are in: Gilbert Arenas was today sentenced to 2 years probation for his felony firearms conviction. Judge Robert Morin weighed the decision carefully, relying on the sentencing recommendation from the prosecutor’s office, and the 221-page document from Arenas’ attorneys with multiple character references, and Arenas’ own apology.
Arenas will also be forced to 400 hours of public service, and donate $5,000 to a victims of violence charity (Seriously? He made that much while you were just looking at him funny. That’s an insult to Justice right there.), and spend 30 days in a halfway house.
Arenas’ future with the Wizards is in question. Currently, he is serving a season-long suspension due to the incident which involved firearms in a December locker-room altercation at the Verizon Center. The Wizards have the option to seek to terminate Arenas’ contract, due to the felony conviction, and given Arenas’ large salary, and the horrific performance of the team (lost 13 straight) it would be understandable if the team might terminate his contract. 4 years and $80M is a big pill for the team to swallow when trading Arenas might be impossible.
Were I the owner of the Wizards, I’d terminate Arenas’ 4 years and offer him a 1-year, $1M chance to prove himself worthy of further investment while the Wizards rebuild from their horrific season. You want to be in DC, Gilbert? Give up the money and job security and show us you mean business.
I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I’m happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I’m done. Read Why I Love DC.
“Were I the owner of the Wizards, I’d terminate Arenas’ 4 years and offer him a 1-year, $1M chance to prove himself worthy of further investment while the Wizards rebuild from their horrific season.”
That’s not really how the collective bargaining agreement works.
His felony conviction allows the team to terminate his current contract, would the collective bargaining agreement prevent the Wizards from re-signing him? It’s not like he can play anywhere else.
“Were I the owner of the Wizards, I’d terminate Arenas’ 4 years and offer him a 1-year, $1M chance to prove himself worthy of further investment while the Wizards rebuild from their horrific season.”
That is a truly naive statement.
No Tom, a felony conviction doesn’t mean they can automatically terminate his contract. The players have a union and everything.
It wouldn’t be automatic, but I’d definitely fight the fight. From the NYT:
“The Wizards have plenty of reasons to seek termination, citing the morals clause that is part of every player’s contract. This clause gives the team the right to terminate the contract should the player “at any time fail, refuse, or neglect to conform his personal conduct to standards of good citizenship [or] good moral character (defined here to mean not engaging in acts of moral turpitude, whether or not such acts would constitute a crime).””
I think we can all agree a felony conviction is an “act of moral turpitude.”
They can SEEK to terminate the contract, but that doesn’t mean they’d get anywhere. In fact, they’d immediately hit a brick wall because there is no precedent for voiding a players contract under the morals clause.
Here’s a slightly better source.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?page=munson/100121
What an excellent example of a journalist lying, or at least exaggerating to an absolutely absurd extent. Tom Bridge reports “… which saw him pull a gun on his teammate in a December locker-room altercation at the Verizon Center…”
This is shocking! This is incredible news that we are now, for the very first time hearing. Why didn’t the prosecutor disclose this to the judge? Pulled a gun? Altercation? Who is this moron, Tom Bridge? Obviously an unbiased reporter, right?
I’m surprised that Coon’s post at Off the Dribble (NYT) didn’t include anything about the CBA’s firearms clause.
Seeking- We have heard it before, from that hack Peter Vecsey. Some people won’t let go of the narrative he put forth.
Tom if the Warriors couldn’t void Sprewell’s contract for choking his own coach do you really think the Wiz will be able to for probation?
Come on. Pay more attention
@Unsilent Majority & @Seeking Unbiased Truth – You are correct, the language was badly used surrounding the events in the locker room, and I have altered the post to match a more neutral tone. Do not think, though, that we are impartial newsmen here. We carry our passion for the city in with us. This was a blatant violation of the laws of Washington DC, and were this any other person with any other job, they’d be looking for new employment.
@JDP – I had forgotten that the Warriors were unsuccessful, but I don’t think the Wizards shouldn’t try.
You must be a comedian, cause you surely didn’t think through the following:
“Were I the owner of the Wizards, I’d terminate Arenas’ 4 years and offer him a 1-year, $1M chance to prove himself worthy of further investment while the Wizards rebuild from their horrific season. You want to be in DC, Gilbert? Give up the money and job security and show us you mean business.”
“Tom Bridge Says:
March 26th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
His felony conviction allows the team to terminate his current contract, would the collective bargaining agreement prevent the Wizards from re-signing him? It’s not like he can play anywhere else.”
This is laughable at best. First of all, like previous commenters said, terminating his contract is near impossible. They tried with Sprewell who choked his coach and it was overturned by an arbitrator.
Secondly, even if they were able to terminate the contract, they would essentially make him a free agent.
DURING ONE OF THE BIGGEST FREE AGENT SUMMERS IN NBA HISTORY!
Plenty of teams have made cap room to try to land Wade, Bosh, LeBron, Boozer and others. Those not landing the biggest names will be able to sign Arenas. They have no reason not to. His knee appears fine, he’s doing no jail time, he’s a former all-star who was matching his career numbers before the suspsension, and the probation pretty much keeps him in check for the next 2-3 years.
But yet you’d go to Arenas and tell him take one million dollars to play for a rebuilding team that just gutted their roster and took his face off the building and disavowed his existence for half a season or else????
All you’d hear is tires squealing and laughter.