 Two NBA players go Tarantino on each other. It must have looked like a scene from Reservoir Dogs. Two angry men pull guns on each other while arguing over money. The difference here is, both men were rich NBA basketball players, and the incident happened in the team’s locker room. That’s the report coming from sources such as the New York Post concerning why federal authorities and Washington, D.C. police are investigating Washington Wizards teammates Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton. Details remain sketchy, but both the NBA and the Wizards did confirm the probes were taking place. Professional athletes from Allen Iverson to Tom Brady have had gun-related incidents. But if the Washington story as described is accurate, it represents an explosive new example of America's pervasive athlete/gun culture. The incident is especially disturbing for the NBA for two reasons—one, Arenas is no insignificant journeyman. He’s a two-time all-star, who, when healthy, is one of the most devastating scorers in the league. The second reason is the alleged subject of the argument—a gambling debt. The NBA is still trying to shake suspicions of fixed games that were raised when ex-referee Tim Donaghy claimed that he influenced scores for the benefit of gamblers. The NBA says Donaghy was just one bad apple, but several players have hinted that, based on their personal observations, Donaghy was probably not the only ref under the thumb of organized crime. A confrontation of the sort described between Arenas and Crittenton, even if it involved no weapons, would have worried NBA bigwigs because of the rumor it was over a gambling debt. For now, those involved are keeping mum. Although Arenas did joke to journalists earlier this week, “You guys, I wanted to go rob banks, I wanted to be a bank robber on the weekends”—the suggestion perhaps being that highly paid athletes don't need to squabble over small change, thus the rumors swirling around he and Crittenton are ludicrous. But based on the previous behavior of figures in every sport from NASCAR to professional swimming, being rich and famous seems to have little effect on one’s propensity for finding trouble. NBA Player’s Association Executive Director Billy Hunter, asked for a comment on the Arenas situation, stated the obvious: “This is unprecedented in the history of sports. I’ve never heard of players pulling guns on each other in a locker room.”
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1953—Hemingway Wins Pulitzer
American author Ernest Hemingway, who had already written such literary classics as The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls, is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novella The Old Man and the Sea, the story of an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. 1970—Mass Shooting at Kent State
In the U.S., Ohio National Guard troops, who had been sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, open fire on a group of unarmed students, killing four and wounding nine. Some of the students had been protesting the United States' invasion of Cambodia, but others had been walking nearby or observing from a distance. The incident triggered a mass protest of four million college students nationwide, and eight of the guardsmen were indicted by a grand jury, but charges against all of them were eventually dismissed. 2003—Suzy Parker Dies
American model and actress Suzy Parker, who appeared the films Funny Face and Kiss Them for Me, was the first model to earn more than $100,000 a year, and who was a favorite target of the mid-century tabloids, dies at home in Montecito, California, surrounded by family friends, after electing to discontinue dialysis treatments. 1920—Negro National Baseball League Debuts
The first game of Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis, Indiana. The league, one of several that would be formed, was composed of The Chicago American Giants, The Detroit Stars, The Kansas City Monarchs, The Indianapolis ABCs, The St. Louis Giants, The Cuban Stars, The Dayton Marcos, and The Chicago Giants. 1955—Williams Wins Pulitzer
American playwright Tennessee Williams wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his controversial play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which tells the story of a southern family in crisis, explicitly deals with alcoholism, and contains a veiled subtext concerning homosexuality in southern society. In 1958 the play becomes a motion picture starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman.
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