http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5031063Prosecutors wanted Arenas to go to jail for at least three months. They said he lied repeatedly about why the guns were in the locker room and tried to cover up what had happened. They also said he knew bringing guns into D.C. was illegal and has a prior gun conviction.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Kavanaugh wrote in court papers that "if any other individual -- without the fame, power, and the wealth of this defendant -- brought four firearms into Washington, D.C., for the purpose of a similar confrontation," they would surely go to jail.Also Arenas to almost assuredly get full salary:
http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/dime-100326-27/arenas2. But this was a felony conviction. Why wasn't that enough to violate the morals clause in Arenas' contract?
As ESPN.com's Chris Sheridan noted in an earlier Arenas FAQ in January after Arenas' guilty plea, there is specific language in the league's current labor agreement with the players specifying that a
"violent" felony triggers a minimum 10-game suspension. Reality here. Got to love the players union. If a player commits a "violent" felony, they will get a minimum 10 day suspension. Oh the harshness!
But even the last violent felony in the league -- Stephen Jackson, then with the Pacers, pleaded guilty in 2007 to a felony endangerment charge after firing rounds from a pistol in a strip-club parking lot in Indianapolis -- produced only a seven-game suspension ... and only after Jackson's participation in the infamous Indiana-Detroit melee that spilled into the stands at the Palace of Auburn Hills in November 2004.
Arenas supporters would argue that the former All-Star has been punished plenty already when you add up the 30 days in a halfway house, lost salary ($7.4 million) and cancellation of his endorsement deal with adidas on top of the damage to his reputation.
