Gilbert Arenas said on Saturday he showed “bad judgment” in bringing guns into the Wizards locker room, but he declined to discuss details of an incident between him and a teammate that has drawn the attention of authorities.
Arenas has disputed a New York Post report that he and Javaris Crittenton brandished firearms in an argument over a gambling debt.
The player and the team have confirmed that Arenas had unloaded firearms in his locker, and the matter has expanded into an investigation involving Washington DC police as well as federal investigators and the NBA.
The family of late Wizards owner Abe Pollin said in a statement on Saturday they were troubled by the reports.
“The fact that guns were brought to the Verizon Center is dangerous and disappointing and showed extremely poor judgment,” they said.
“I agree,” Arenas said after Washington’s 97-86 loss to San Antonio. “That’s bad judgment on my part to store them in here, and I take responsibility for that.”
Arenas said he couldn’t comment specifically on the report that guns were drawn.
“I can’t speak on that,” he said. “But if you know me, you’ve been here, I’ve never did anything [involving] violence. Anything I do is funny — well, it’s funny to me.”
Asked whether accounts of the incident have been overblown, Arenas laughed and said: “A little.”
However, it’s a serious matter for the NBA, especially in a city that has some of the toughest gun laws in the country.
Pollin, who died on Nov. 24, changed his team’s name from the Bullets in the 1990s because of the connotation of violence.
NBA rules bar players from possessing firearms at league facilities or when traveling on league business.
“Guns have absolutely no place in a workplace environment and we will take further steps to ensure this never happens again,” the Pollin family statement said. “While the police investigation proceeds, we are limited in what we can say, but we want our fans to know that we will not rest until this situation is resolved and has come to a satisfactory conclusion.”
Arenas said that he wanted th firearms out of the house after the birth of his latest child.
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