Gilbert Arenas has plead guilty to carrying a pistol without a license — a felony — and will be sentenced on March 26th. Prosecutors have agreed to seek a jail term of not more than six months.
That effectively ends his career with the Wizards right? Eh, not that simple.
Depends on what you mean by “Turpitude…”
Voiding Arenas’ contract is far from a slam dunk. It’s like more a contested 20-footer.
The NBA’s standard player contract includes a conduct clause, which gives teams the right to void contracts if players
at any time, fail, refuse, or neglect to conform his personal conduct to standards of good citizenship, good moral character (defined here to mean not engaging in acts of moral turpitude, whether or not such acts would constitute a crime).
But what does that mean, really? As Sports Illustrated legal expert Michael McCann points out, an independent arbitrator ruled that the Warriors couldn’t void Latrell Sprewell’s contract, even after Sprewell assaulted Golden State coach P.J. Carlesimo.
So we’ve got precedent telling us that an NBA contract can’t be voided for choking a coach… or firing a gun in the middle of a crowded street (Stephen Jackson)… or chasing fans into the stands and nearly sparking a riot (Ron Artest). You don’t need a law degree to argue — fairly convincingly — that any of those offenses were far more serious than carrying an unloaded pistol.
I don’t want to minimize what Arenas did; handling firearms is a major responsibility, and one that he didn’t approach with appropriate seriousness. But anyone who thinks Arenas’ mistake will become instant cap relief for Ernie Grunfeld and Wizards management should take a second look at recent NBA history.
Irreconcilable Differences?
Of course, that assumes that Arenas wants to stay — and that’s far from clear at this point. The Washington Post is reporting that Arenas feels management hasn’t supported him during this incident and its aftermath. “Not supportive” may be an understatement – other media outlets report that team officials told Arenas they will seek to void his deal.
Perhaps some sort of mutual parting of the ways could be arranged.
Contract buyouts aren’t rare — but most of the time, they involve players at the end of their deals and Arenas is signed for four more seasons after this one. The closest parallel might be Vin Baker’s split with the Boston Celtics.
When the one-time all-star struggled with alcoholism, and ballooned to well over 300 points, the Celtics sought to void Baker’s contract, citing the forward’s failure to maintain proper conditioning. Baker filed a grievance against the team, seeking to recoup $36 million owed him under the terms of his original deal. Baker and the Celtics eventually settled on a buyout worth a reported $16.5 million.
Would the Wizards be willing to pay what would likely be the largest buyout in league history to end the Arenas era in D.C. once and for all? Or will they try to void the deal — which will inevitably lead to a battle with the union?
This story is far from over.
Arenas Pleads Guilty to Felony originally appeared on About.com Basketball on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 17:31:41.
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