Gilbert Arenas Pulls Gun on Teammate over Poker Debt?

UPDATE: Arenas and the Wizards are passing this off as an inside joke gone terribly awry.

The basketball exploits of Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas are well known since he has consistently been one of the league’s top scorers in recent years.  However, Arenas’ high-stakes poker exploits are a different story because few people know that he is a part-time rounder.  In fact, Arenas is often found playing online poker in the Wizards’ locker room before and after games

Perhaps more interesting is that Gilbert Arenas plays a lot of poker with his Washington Wizards teammates with thousands of dollars being exchanged amongst players.  Recently, Arenas racked up a $25,000 poker debt to fellow teammate Jarvaris Crittenton which resulted in a heated dispute.

Crittenton became angry over the debt that Arenas refuses to pay and yelled, “I’m not your punk!” during the exchange.  Arenas countered with some intimidation by placing three guns near Crittenton’s locker and telling him to ‘pick one’.  Eventually, the dispute boiled over to the two teammates pulling guns on each other in the Wizards’ locker room.

The situation has apparently been calmed down as Arenas told the media, “I can’t speak on that.  But if you know me, you’ve been here, I’ve never did anything (involving) violence.  Anything I do is funny…..well, it’s funny to me.”

Gilbert continued by speaking about how he brought the guns into the locker room in order to keep them away from his kids.  He said, “That’s bad judgment on my part to store them in here, and I take responsibility for that.  I have to deal with the police investigation.  I have to put it in their hands and see what they say.”

Arenas is also confident that him and Crittenton will remain friends as he stated, “We were friends before, we’re friends now.”  Unfortunately, his confidence in the situation will not guarantee his 6-year $111 million contract with the Wizards is safe.