Arenas Felony Charge and the Washington Wizards Next Move

It remains unfathomable that Arenas would attempt to mend his relationship with the Washington Wizards. Furthermore, it’s virtually inconceivable that the Wizards would try to fix bridges with a gun toting maniac like Arenas. The Washington area, the fans, the country and the owners have been appalled by Arenas’s immaturity regarding this incident.

Now I’m not going to wax poetic about social issues in this one. My stance is very clear, and in line with what many others think. You don’t bring guns to work unless you’re in the military and you don’t use them as a prop in a joke, or as a way of leveraging any sort of differences you have with anyone else.

What I am interested to see is how heavy David Stern and the league lean in favor of Washington’s obvious desire to void Arenas’s contract and how stiffly the player’s union will retaliate. The union must act in the best interest of Arenas, but I’m not even sure that they would try to defend a guy who was just convicted of a felony by grand jury. Although Arenas remains suspended by Stern, and it’s likely that he’ll have to sit out this entire season, the situation could play out to make next summer even more interesting.

Let’s say that Stern, the Wizards and the union void Arenas’s contract. The next logical step (and I know that common sense doesn’t usually factor in to these decisions) is to determine at which point Arenas is allowed to re-enter the league. In the NFL, Roger Goddell has allowed guys like Pacman and Michael Vick to come back after legal troubles but the NBA has no firm stance on the situation. Usually it’s a 15-game slap in the face or something like that. Arenas’s problem is much bigger. If it were up to me, slap a suspension without pay on Arenas until July 1 st, 2010.

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Actually, if it were up to me, I’d go as far as 2011, but the NBA is a league that is almost scared of its own players. Ron Artest was suspended for 73 games and the playoffs after punching a fan, but was allowed to come back the following year. Suspending Arenas any longer than this season would be beyond precedence for any kind of suspension the NBA has ever handed down. Of course, this isn’t exactly what you would call a normal situation.

So what happens to Arenas July 1 st? He becomes the pick of the free-agent litter after LeBron, Boozer, Bosh and Wade or off the board. He’s the booby prize if you can’t walk away with one of the top-3 in next summer’s free agent frenzy.

Would you be half surprised to see Gilbert Arenas in a New York Knick uniform if Donnie Walsh is unable to lure LeBron or Wade to the Big Apple? Would you be at all shocked to see the Toronto Raptors made a play to replace the defensively inept Calderon with a scoring machine like Arenas, especially in the wake of Bosh’s departure? Would it be inconceivable to see Arenas float to a team like Cleveland if they’re unable to keep LeBron? Moral character doesn’t always mean teams will stay away from players. Rasheed Wallace ended up on the Celtics for Christ’s sake.