NBA Commissioner David Stern views Gilbert Arenas' gun incident in the Washington Wizard's locker room last year as a black eye for the NBA. Stern is so upset about the occurrence apparently that he has issued a gag order for Arenas and the Wizards organization. Neither party is to talk about the incident in public anymore.
When Arenas was originally charged with his crime, everyone wanted to jump down his throat right away. We were all quick to crucify him and wish that he wouldn't be allowed to play in the NBA, hope for jail time, and some us even hoped the NBA would allow the Wizards to void his contract.
I'm not saying what Arenas did was okay, but we have allowed superstars to come back from much worse. If a star athlete was coming back from a drug addiction or a battle with alcohol abuse we would allow him to talk about his comeback in the public eye. He would be able to describe the difficulty of the battle, how he'd learned the error of his ways, and how he was going to show us he was a changed man.
Why is it any different with Arenas? The man knows now that what he did was wrong. He served his time, even if it was entirely too short. We all attacked him in the public spotlight; why shouldn't Arenas have the same opportunity to redeem himself in that same light?
Commissioners make some awful decisions sometimes, but issuing a gag order on a player coming back from something that was extremely difficult for him and allowed him to be made an example of in the spotlight has to be near the top. All it has done is make the issue seem even bigger than it was and force Arenas to not defend himself while he continues to be vilified by the public and press.
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