Travel back: In December 2009, a heated gambling argument between Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton on a Wizards team flight spiraled into one of the league’s most shocking moments. We all remember the story by now. What started as trash talk turned into a full-blown locker room standoff, with both players allegedly bringing guns to practice. The NBA didn’t hesitate. Commissioner David Stern dropped the hammer. It was a 50-game suspension for Arenas and 38 for Crittenton. Just like that, a dispute over cards changed two lives forever. Where was the nuance? The recognition that one guy was instigating while the other was reacting?
Let’s be real. Gilbert Arenas was the one who turned this into a circus. He brought multiple guns to the locker room, joked about it on camera, and treated the whole thing like a movie bit. Meanwhile, Crittenton? He brought one weapon after feeling threatened, kept things quiet, and didn’t turn it into a spectacle. Yet when the NBA handed down suspensions, the league acted like both players were equally at fault. However, the truth might be deeper than what Untold: Shooting Guards showed.
Gilbert Arenas recently appeared on the All the Smoke podcast and dropped a bombshell. He said, “I have it they didn’t put it in the doc,” Arenas revealed, referencing a key text message that got left out. “But the text message that kind of started it was like, ‘Yo, say you didn’t have nothing, it was all me. I had the gun.”‘ He went even further, explaining how he tried to shield Crittenton from the fallout. “Like, I didn’t even think about police coming. I’m like, ‘If the media finds out or if the NBA comes, just… tell them I did it. I’ll take all the blame. Right? I’ll take all the blame.’” It means Arenas was trying to play damage control behind the scenes.
If his side of the story is true, then Gilbert Arenas is right about the documentary leaving a major chunk out; in fact, it might even be considered a bit misleading. In the scenes shown, Gil says, “I don’t feel guilty in the sense of ‘This happened because of me.’” This one statement comes across as the opposite situation to what he claimed on the podcast. He continued, “That was our independent decision-making. You know I can’t take credit for, you know, him throwing a gun across.” What we understand from Gil’s statements is that he did hold himself responsible for starting it, but not for how Javaris Crittenton responded, which is fair. After this whole case, Gilbert Arenas proved that he did send a message.
On No Chill Gil’s Instagram handle, he posted a video of himself reading out the message out loud while showing it to the viewers. His message was “Your new story, you were in the training room when you got out, there was three guns on your chair with a note that said, pick one.” He claims to have created a new version of what actually happened to save Crittenton. The message further read as “Send that to Javaris. I’ll take all the blame. He didn’t have a gun. He didn’t do anything. I’ll come up with the rest of the story. But that’s all he need to say. If we have to talk to the NBA office.”
It’s the closest thing we’ve seen to proof that Gilbert did try to shoulder the blame once he realized how badly things could go for Crittenton. But here’s the thing: Did it matter? The NBA still dropped the hammer on both of them. Maybe the league knew more than they let on. Maybe Crittenton never even used the excuse. Or maybe Gilbert’s attempt at damage control came too late.
Was Gilbert Arenas the one who always showed up for Javaris?
Back in their Wizards days, Gilbert Arenas tried to shield Crittenton, texting him to pin the gun incident entirely on himself. It was a bold move, one that might’ve saved Javaris’ career. But years later, when Crittenton was charged with murder in Atlanta, no locker-room loyalty could undo that. This wasn’t a scandal to spin; a young mother was dead, and Gilbert’s influence meant nothing in a courtroom. But Dwight Howard somehow managed to show up.
In 2015, Crittenton took a plea deal for Julian Jones’ murder, 23 23-year sentence, but was released by 2023. Gilbert Arenas had once shouldered blame for Javaris, but this? No amount of made-up stories about text messages could explain how a budding NBA star shot a woman. The system would have failed if that had happened. Gilbert’s past defense of Javaris suddenly felt meaningless. This wasn’t about NBA reputations anymore; it was about a life stolen and a family left without answers. The justice system moved on, but they never got the chance to.
So, who really came to help when Crittenton needed it the most? Rumors swirled about why Crittenton got such leniency, and one theory stood out. Javaris and Dwight Howard were high school teammates, and Dwight’s uncle happened to be the DA during the case. The primary detective of this case, on Untold: Shooting Guards, hinted at “influence,” leaving fans wondering, was it really Dwight Howard who was able to help Crittenton come out early?
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