Hacker: The NBA - where stupidity happens

We’re used to training ground disputes between sportsmen in this country – some coaches actually encourage these things, saying they add spice to what can become a pretty monotonous routine. But the NBA is taking player-to-player altercations to a new level of idiocy.

Following a gambling dispute on a team flight, Gilbert Arenas, the All-Star point guard of the Washington Wizards and his teammate Javaris Crittenton saw their relationship become rather tetchy. This being America, though, and these being NBA players, there were to be none of the simple fisticuffs, or even the lesser-known “boot to the head” ala John Hartson, that we’ve come to expect from our overpaid, athletic idiots in this country. Instead, Crittenton returned to his locker the next day after a training session, to find four guns, owned by Arenas, laid out on the bench, with a note inviting him to choose his weapon in what was apparently an attempt at humour by the self-titled “Agent Zero”. Crittenton indicated that he did not require the use of any of Arenas’ weaponry, and promptly produced his own gun, brandishing the firearm in the direction of his teammate.

No shots were fired, and no one was injured. Both men have since taken quite a financial hit, though, as NBA Commissioner, David Stern, has suspended both men without pay for the remainder of the season. In Arenas’ case, that amounts to around $10 million, while Crittenton has cost himself around $700,000. Arenas could find himself in further hot water with the authorities, too, after pleading guilty to gun possession, a felony charge, with prosecutors asking that he serve six months in jail.

This is not the place to consider the basis of these events in the “right to bear arms” in the USA. Far more educated people than I have wasted enough time and ink on that, and will no doubt continue to do so.

What the moronic actions of these two men bring home to me, though, is the danger inherent in deifying superstar athletes; something all too common throughout the sporting world. The simple fact is that most of them don’t deserve it. Though their sporting prowess and athletic achievements are remarkable, as people, they are generally no better or worse than you or I. This story has received a lot of media attention not because of the events that transpired, but because of the principal players. There is no denying that what these guys did was stupid, but it’s no more or less stupid than the dozens of similar crimes perpetrated elsewhere in the US on the same day.

It is the idea that the off-pitch antics of athletes are worthy of media attention that I feel is dangerous. Giving them more attention than the man in the street only adds fuel to the idea that these athletes are somehow better than the rest of us as people, which in turn lets them think that drawing guns on one another is something to laugh about. The extension of the cult of celebrity to athletes is something with which we need to be very careful.