Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas was sentenced on March 26 to a month in a halfway house and two years probation for violating Washington, D.C. gun laws late last year.
?Despite federal prosecutors requesting at least a three-month jail sentence for Arenas, D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert B. Morin instead ordered Arenas to spend 30 days in a halfway house, and perform 400 hours of community service, which Morin said cannot be performed at basketball clinics.
The three-time all-star will also have to pay $5,000 to a crime victim’s fund and register as a gun offender.
It may have been the best news of the last three months for Arenas, who pleaded guilty to threatening a teammate with weapons on Dec. 21. In late January, the NBA suspended Arenas for the remainder of the season.?
“I am very sorry that all this happened,” Arenas said during the proceeding, according to ESPN. “Every day I wake up wishing it didn’t.”?
Arenas was charged following a disagreement with teammate Javaris Crittenton over unpaid gambling debts. On Dec. 19, the two men exchanged threats as the team flew home from a road game. Two days later, Arenas brought guns to the Wizards locker room, and according to ESPN, left them on a chair near Crittenton’s locker with a note saying, “Pick 1.” Crittenton then displayed his own gun to Arenas.
Crittenton pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor gun charge in January and received a year of unsupervised probation.?
The sentence for Arenas may help the Wizards decide whether to void the remainder of Arenas’ six-year, $111 million contract, a move the player’s union has said it would oppose.