On Thursday the Washington Post published an excerpt from Caron Butler’s new book, Tuff Juice: My Journey from the Streets to the NBA, that recounted the 2009 incident in which Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton brought guns into the Wizards locker room and Crittenton allegedly pointed a loaded weapon at Arenas.
Arenas went on Instagram on Thursday night to correct what he thought were errors in Butler’s recounting, mostly about who owed who money. In Butler’s account, Arenas owed Crittenton $1,100, while Arenas wanted to make clear that Crittenton was mad at him not over money owed, but because he believed Arenas mis-dealt a hand of cards.
The low-key way Arenas tells the story also makes it more chilling.
Arenas has since deleted the post, but it can be seen here. Here is a transcript of the post, via Deadspin:
I respect Caron Butler’s book and got my copy but the guns in the locker room story is FALSE in his book.
Butler and I were asleep and JaVale McGee, Javaris Crittenton, and Earl Boykins were playing cards. By the time I woke up Crittenton was balls deep in losing so I decided to join the game. Crittenton got booed which means he did get one book of spades, so he had to match the pot which was $1,100, but $800 was his so he just lost $800 and the pot is now $1,400 and $1,100 of it is his.
JaVale McGee won the first $1,100 pot so he scooped the money. Boykins asked JaVale, “can I get my $200 now since you have money?” JaVale said “after we land, I don’t wanna jinx myself. Crittenton spazzed—“give that [expletive] his money, you just won my money pay that [expletive]”—so I jumped in and said “damn dog, that’s between them two [expletive].” He turned to me and said “[expletive] you [expletive]” and I responded “[expletive] you owe me $200, I think you owe Caron Butler $300, but we ain’t saying [expletive].” Crittenton pops off again: “Oh [expletive] you [expletive] you would try to money-talk somebody.”
So now it’s my deal. Earl said “I’m out.” JaVale said “I don’t need cards.” Crittenton needed five new cards so most likely he was about to match the pot once again so I said “I’m out” knowing JaVale had AKQ, so since it was Crittenton’s money in the post there was no need to fight if he was going to get booed. I showed my hand and Crittenton got mad I had three trump cards and didn’t fight with him. So he screams “MISDEAL, Gil showed his hand!” JaVale said “[expletive] that I win, I have AKQ.”
So Crittenton tries to use misdeal as a way of starting the hand over so I said “y’all figure that out.” I walked to the back of the plane and they stayed arguing, but Earl convinced them that JaVale won. Crittenton yells loudly “[expletive] MISDEAL” so I yelled back “come get the [expletive] with yo hands if you wanna misdeal.”
When the plane lands he walks back talking tough, saying if we were in the streets “I’d pop you in your knees.” I said “[expletive] I’ll give you the guns to do it on Monday.” It was Saturday, and we had Sunday off. I get to the gym on Monday at 8 a.m. and put four empty guns on his chair and a note that said “pick one.” No one saw me touch a gun or put them there. With Crittenton came in I was in the training room. Crittenton, DeShawn Stevenson, Andray Blatche, and Dominic McGuire were the only ones in the locker room when I walked in.
So Crittenton says “what’s this [expletive]?” I said “you said you were gonna shoot me so [expletive] there go guns so pick one,” meaning pick the one you are going to shoot me with like you said. He said “I don’t need this [expletive].” That’s when Caron is now in the room, and a trainer. Crittenton takes the guns off his seat and throws them on the floor, hitting the trainers foot. He runs into the training room and Crittenton pulls out a little silver gun that Eddie Murphy shot the pinkie toe off with lol (I’m not going to say if it was loaded or pointed at me, no need to bash a man who can’t defend his name). Let’s just say I started laughing and said “put that Harlem Nights gun away, look at the [expletive] I’m GIVING you, imagine what I have at home so you can keep those.” The [expletive] end.
JaVale picks up my guns and takes them to my car. Caron hides Crittenton’s gun in the locker room. I was in the jacuzzi so Crittenton comes in with me and we started talking and he said I play too much, and I told him he was just a hot head. We started shooting around.
They called Crittenton first to ask what happened. I was last so the story became I pulled a gun and wanted to shoot Crittenton. But I owed him money LMAO. I owe money but I’m gonna shoot you #WhereTheyDoThatAt. If he owed me money, I make $20 million so I wouldn’t pull a GUN for $1,100 SMDH. This happened December 21, and the story was told January 1.
Like I said no one saw me touch, hold, grab, move anything. The funny thing is, I got suspended 50 games, charged with a felony and the only teammate Crittenton decided to call when he needed money for his mom was me because he knows I won’t hold a grudge against a teammate and I gave him $60,000 for his mom’s surgery. I sent money after he just said he was scared for his life, but I said “don’t worry about me, I’ll take the blame what do you need?”
I do regret making fun of him and calling his bluff, the same thing I’ve done with Matt Barnes and Derek Fisher is the same [expletive] I did that day. I wish him the best and Caron Butler’s book to sell out, but what I wrote is the real story.
The card game they were playing is called Bourré or Booray. You can read the rules here.
(Thanks to Deadspin for sharing.)
