'Watch out! Fines for laughing', NBA announces

[Zerocious]

C'mon seriously? this is getting out of control.

http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wireta ... _be_fined/

this is getting to crazy for words. this is going to cause some contention between players.



edit: wizards idea, not nba. my bad!!!

[willbcocks]

To clarify, this decision was made by the Wizards, not NBA.

[Zerocious]

To clarify, this decision was made by the Wizards, not NBA.

osht, you're right. Ok, edited

i wouldnt put it past them/stern though, lol

[Ruzious]

"The official said the fines would be contingent in part on whether Arenas and his teammates planned it ahead of time."

Does anyone seriously have a problem with that?

[verbal8]

"The official said the fines would be contingent in part on whether Arenas and his teammates planned it ahead of time."

Does anyone seriously have a problem with that?

If it turns out to be impromtu reaction, I think the fines should be relatively minor. I think almost everyone has had a situation where they laughed at something and then thought afterward "Man that was really wrong". The NBA had the picture posted on their official website for a while.

However I can see severe fines if it was something that was orchestrated and they had time to give it some thought before hand.

[closg00]

WHAT AN ABSURDITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What's next from the thought police? This is completely OUTRAGEOUS!!

[daSwami]

ridiculous.

i wonder who's calling the shots on this for the Wiz. Irene!?

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I wonder if they also soiled Gilbert's poster and burned it after they took it down?.

The Pollin family fining the team for smiling shows how important they feel they are. Shows vindictiveness. Shows contempt and a lack of appreciation for the context in which the players were in.

Frankly, I hope they fine the players and have grievances filed against them by each and every player they fine.

I hope the old regime sells the team, haters that they are.

[barelyawake]

See, and we can't even poke fun at the absurdity of this fine for fear of being fined ourselves.

"This town needs an enema."
-- The Joker

[WizStorm]

I wonder if they also soiled Gilbert's poster and burned it after they took it down?.

The Pollin family fining the team for smiling shows how important they feel they are. Shows vindictiveness. Shows contempt and a lack of appreciation for the context in which the players were in.

Frankly, I hope they fine the players and have grievances filed against them by each and every player they fine.

I hope the old regime sells the team, haters that they are.

I would be real interested to see a story on the inner workings of the Wizards top management right now. From the overly terse team press release of the incident, tearing down Gil's poster outside the Verizon center to this fining anyone that had the audacity to smile at some goofball antics.

I certainly haven't read anything about Irene to know what kind of person she is, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's her overreactions and outright contempt for the Wizards' players what is driving all of this. One thing is for sure, we need new ownership in here pronto! And they need to start with an immediate and thorough house cleaning to put their stamp on this team and show that the old regime is gone for good.

I can only imagine what other players are thinking when they see just how quick the team turns on their own players. If that image isn't restored, we might as well have Clippers printed on our jerseys.

[closg00]

What an absurd organization. You have the Pollin & Unseld clan circus with Ernie Grunfeld the newest member of the inner-circle. Does anyone know if Ted Leonsis has a majority of the ownership of the team? I'm grasping for any glimpse of hope for the future.

[Donkey McDonkerton]

What an absurd organization. You have the Pollin & Unseld clan circus with Ernie Grunfeld the newest member of the inner-circle. Does anyone know if Ted Leonsis has a majority of the ownership of the team? I'm grasping for any glimpse of hope for the future.

True

[MJG]

I do think these fines are pretty ridiculous, no matter where they are coming from. Is there any proof that the smiles and laughs were genuine? I know I've let out a forced smile once or twice when a coworker made an inappropriate joke. And even if they really did find it funny, so what? I could see you issuing a strongly worded statement saying how disappointed you are that the teammates aren't taking this as seriously as they should, but that's it.

[Ruzious]

I wonder if they also soiled Gilbert's poster and burned it after they took it down?.

The Pollin family fining the team for smiling shows how important they feel they are. Shows vindictiveness. Shows contempt and a lack of appreciation for the context in which the players were in.

Frankly, I hope they fine the players and have grievances filed against them by each and every player they fine.

I hope the old regime sells the team, haters that they are.

Honestly, I thought you were joking at first (though I wasn't going to fine you). If you aren't joking, I don't get where you're coming from on this issue. The Pollin family's been through the recent death of their patriarch, and I think they're basically respecting what he stood for. You mention the context, but I think you're ignoring... the context.

[Donkey McDonkerton]

I respect Abe, not a fan of the rest of his family.

Didn't Abe say he treated all of his players as if they were his sons? So if his son is in trouble, you think he would cast him off like this?

[20MexicanosIn1Van]

I believe Nate brought up the point in another thread that Gilbert (or somebody else) could've made a joke, the team laughed, and then Gilbert made the hand gestures. I think this is a very likely possibility and would be ridiculous to fine them if this is the case.

[montestewart]

The problem is team leadership. Pollin is dead, Saunders is new, Grunfeld is pretty wooden, and regardless, he may be on the way out anyway. As has been discussed before, there are no real leaders among the players (with the exception of Jamison occasionally leading to victories with his defense).

The lack of leadership explains a lot of why players fail to execute simple plays and often seem oblivious to basketball fundamentals, routinely let games slip away in the fourth quarter, and don't even seem to know how to respond to individual and team failure. Lack of leadership explains a lot of why the Arenas-Crittendon gun thing (whichever version is true) happened.

The "Guns at Verizon" events (reports, admissions, Arenas' statements) tend to greatly reinforce an already established image that the NBA seems to constantly be struggling with: players as spoiled, childlike, aloof, ignorant, and dangerous idiots and narcissists who all take drugs, break laws without a care, carry guns and may draw them on anyone at any time. I've seen some people throw out that (at this time entirely unsubstantiated) stat that 70% of NBA players own or carry guns as if that somehow makes Arenas and Crittendon look better. For most, I doubt it does, but it does make the NBA look worse if true. The NBA, where shooting happens.

The Wizards and the whole NBA have a serious image problem. Times change, the economy gets worse, their image gets worse, and the response has to be more stringent, more severe, because players just aren't getting it. Looking at what another player got as punishment two or four or six years ago for something somewhat similar or completely different is not a gauge, it's a hope. The times and the trends and the exact circumstances (which are still being determined), along with the way this has been reported (including, and I can't say this enough, by Arenas himself) has made this a completely unique situation. It called for a unique response, and the Wizards are a rudderless ship with no particular response, other than dismay from the top.

The team should have called a meeting immediately: all players, staff, etc. Maybe Mrs. Pollin, maybe Wes Unseld, someone needed to tell them, collectively, how this is all looking and playing out, and ask them to comport themselves with dignity and respect.

Free speech under the Constitution only guarantees that your speech can't be deprived by the government (and there are loopholes related to safety and security, truth, etc.). Parents, school principals, commanding officers, etc. can deny free speech in a variety of circumstances, and/or can impose punishment over speech they object to. Employers can deny free speech and can punish speech.

The only things that seems clear are Arenas' hands gesturing like guns. As one poster joked, it looked like Oberto maybe didn't get the joke but was laughing just to fit in. Unless all admitted there was only one joke, a gun joke, and they all laughed at it, how can you prove who was laughing at what, and what level of laughter was acceptable?

Better leadership and communication from the top down might have avoided such a display. But then, if we had better leadership, maybe we wouldn't have witnessed this stupid gun incident in the first place. Hey, and maybe we'd have a better record.

[daSwami]

Honestly, I thought you were joking at first (though I wasn't going to fine you). If you aren't joking, I don't get where you're coming from on this issue. The Pollin family's been through the recent death of their patriarch, and I think they're basically respecting what he stood for. You mention the context, but I think you're ignoring... the context.

Abe's death had nothing to do with guns. And remember, Gil had gun charges pending against him when he was a free agent with Golden State, and this didn't prevent Abe from pursuing him with promises to make him the face of the franchise.

[montestewart]

Honestly, I thought you were joking at first (though I wasn't going to fine you). If you aren't joking, I don't get where you're coming from on this issue. The Pollin family's been through the recent death of their patriarch, and I think they're basically respecting what he stood for. You mention the context, but I think you're ignoring... the context.

Abe's death had nothing to do with guns. And remember, Gil had gun charges pending against him when he was a free agent with Golden State, and this didn't prevent Abe from pursuing him with promises to make him the face of the franchise.

Hasn't Arenas been quoted as saying Pollin met with him prior to the signing and confronted him about the charges? Maybe Pollin was satisfied with the answer combined with what he thought was Arenas' ability to further mature, given his age at the time.

[WizStorm]

Hasn't Arenas been quoted as saying Pollin met with him prior to the signing and confronted him about the charges? Maybe Pollin was satisfied with the answer combined with what he thought was Arenas' ability to further mature, given his age at the time.

Interesting read from the Post reflecting on Abe after he passed away...

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2009/11/agent_zero_on_abe_pollins_deat.html

And he was asked about his first meeting with the owner.
"It was kind of weird, because to be honest, I was coming off a gun charge in San Francisco, so I'm already nervous," Gilbert explained. "And I'm like, 'Aw, I don't think this guy's gonna pick me up.' And he's like, 'Oh no, we're family.' And then we just started talking about life. We started talking about family, him and my dad talked--I'm gonna take care of your son, I know he's a young kid, he's an extension of me--and from there we just bonded."

"He was my father away from home," Gilbert said of Pollin. "He was the one who believed in me, who took a chance on me....I couldn't do no wrong in his eyes. Ever since I've been here, he told me I just want to win one more championship. So as long as I'm here, that's what I'm gonna try to do. If I don't get a championship here, I didn't do my job in his eyes."

I do wonder what his reaction would be. Would Abe actually have tried to defend Gil from the false charges, yet still show outrage for the gun possession on team property? Something tells me he wouldn't have been quite so quick to throw him under the bus without an ounce of sympathy, like the current regime has done.