Arenas has been suspended indefinitely

An interesting story has developed in Washington D.C. throughout the day, as prosecutors have charged Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas with felony gun possession in connection to a December locker room incident with teammate Javaris Crittenton.  The maximum penalty for such a charge is five years in prison.

Arenas has apparently agreed to a plea deal in which he will serve little to no jail time.  However, that is not where my interests lie with this particular story.  Arenas has been suspended indefinitely by the NBA, a suspension that many project could last at least for the remainder of this season.  Even that is not the wrinkle in this case that has me interested.  Under a morality clause written into the contract, Washington could potentially have the opportunity to void Arenas’ contract, which was signed two summers ago as a six-year, $111 million dollar deal.  Apparently, clauses like this are highly popular among contracts to high-salary players.

The reason that detail interests me is that if Washington were to release Arenas, they would be releasing their superstar.  People can say what they want about Arenas, but while he missed almost all of last season due to injury, the team struggled on both ends of the court.  Arenas, although injury prone, is a superstar, who would easily be picked up by another team, and probably for a significantly cheap price considering many would probably fear to sign him based on his character.  But imagine if I were an agent and I came to you as a GM and told you I could get you a talented NBA all-star who averages over 20 points per game when healthy and you could sign him for under $10 million a year.  That is probably what the situation would look like if Arenas were to become a free agent because of this situation.

So the question comes down to Washington and their teams image.  Do you make the proper move and void the contract of a felon, of a player who openly admits to having several firearms, or do you leave him on your roster because you fear what he would do against your team as a future opponent.  Even if they were to void the contract, it is highly unlikely they would be able to sign a top-tier free agent seeing as how they have over $37 million committed to seven current players for next season, not including Arenas.  So in theory, releasing Arenas does not help the team, but it would set a standard.  It would set the standard that thugs would not be tolerated. Washington has nothing to gain by releasing Arenas, besides a heavy statement.  And one could only hope that other teams around the league would follow suit.  The NFL has made their statements surrounding these type of players.  Baseball has made a mockery of those who have been caught using steroids, publicly parading them around the media like circus freaks.  It is time for a person in the NBA to stand up and make a stand, and that could be Washington’s role for the taking.