The tension was palpable at Wizards practice today, though not on the practice court, where Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton were partners for shootaround. But in the hallway outside, one out-of-town reporter later got chided for nearly following Arenas into the locker room as Arenas hurried inside, and Crittenton eventually ducked out of the practice gym via another exit for the second straight day to avoid talking to the media. Mike James, who came to Arenas’s defense in a series of posts on his Twitter account (@mikejames7), also took a stern tone.
[I should also mention that Pamela McGee (@pamelamcgee34) has also gone to Twitter on behalf of JaVale McGee (@bigdaddywookie), but it is unclear whether it’s a trade request or simply a plea for more playing time for the second-year center.)
But most notably, Arenas did say, “Yessir,” as he was asked if he was going to talk to authorities this afternoon.
Wizards head coach Flip Saunders said “No,” neither he nor any of his players had received subpoenas despite a report today from The Examiner that a grand jury has convened to look at the Arenas/Crittenton locker room gun incident last month.
Some highlights from James, who began by addressing Arenas’ tweets as a way of dealing with the controversy: “That’s his own situation. However he feels like he needs to cope with it, that how he feels he needs to cope with it. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that, we’re not the ones to judge. Whatever’s going to happen is going to happen. What he did he did, but at the end fof the day we all got issues we have to face…
“I’m in his corner until whatever happens, that’s my teammate, that’s my brother here. Everyone’s quick to judge, but that ain’t the issue… God is the only judge in any situation, and whenever anything happens in life, the focus always has to be on him…
“It ain’t the situation, it ain’t the person and so my thing was just we can’t judge what he’s done. So many times, people call him stupid, ignorant, you know happens, well, why should an athlete carry guns and all the other issues, but what people don’t understand is that we are victims as athletes…
“We’re a team. We’re going to stick together in good times. We’re going to stick together during bad times. If you have an issue with one of your co-workers, on the next two days that you go to work, is there going to be a problem? I’m pretty sure you’re going to do what you have to do, and they’re going to do what they have to do. There’s still a job that has to be done every day.”
Saunders did hedge on whether Mike Miller would play tomorrow at Philadelphia, too, calling him 50-50 and then progressively backing away from that pronouncement: “There’s no question he’ll play Friday against Orlando, but Cleveland could be a possibility as far as some short-term play.”
Caron Butler, who was again complimented by Saunders but simultaneously has become the subject of trade speculation and rumors, said, “Just control what you can control. The only thing, as a player, that you can control is, the time that practice starts, coming an hour early, getting your treatment, getting a lift in, going out there, leaving it all on the court, talking to the media, saying all the right things [smile], getting in your car and getting on the plane, going to philly and playing hard out there.”
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