Sunday, April 25, 2010

Gilbert Arenas Controversy

A recent conflict that made national headlines is the Gilbert Arenas gun incident. The incident was caused by a card debt that Mr. Arenas owed Javaris Crittenton. Mr. Arenas owed Mr. Crittenton 25,000 dollars from the card game. The argument between Mr. Arenas and Mr. Crittenton started 2 days before the gun incident, where they were arguing about the debt on the team plane (Perez 2010). Mr. Arenas was found with 3 guns in the Washington Wizards lockeroom. This was not Mr. Arenas first incident in breaking the law. In 2003, Mr. Arenas plead no contest to a misdemeanor for possessing a concealed weapon and driving without a license (Aldridge 2010). The Gilbert Arenas conflict has to be the biggest conflict in the last five years. Other major sports conflicts in the NBA were the Pacers- Pistons brawl and the Kobe Bryant’s sexual assault case. Those two incidents were huge but happened over five years ago.

The gun incident has all the drama to be considered a major sports conflict. It involved NBA superstar Gilbert Arenas along with the illegal activity of bringing a weapon into the lockeroom. The incident is so serious that the Washington Wizards have the right to void the rest of Arenas contract. Normally NBA contracts are guaranteed unless a player commits a felony or is an embarrassment to the team. Arenas also carried the firearms in Washington D.C., where the president of the United States resides.

No one was physically hurt during the clash between Mr. Arenas and Mr. Crittenton. Therefore, how should Mr. Arenas be punished for bringing guns into the lockeroom? The NBA responded by kicking Mr. Arenas out the NBA for a year. The main question is; should Mr. Arenas be banned from the NBA for life? Kevin Balistreri, a High School teacher from Miami wants Mr. Arenas banned for life. Mr. Balistreri wrote that guns have no place in a sports lockeroom (2010). Teammates of Mr. Arenas agreed with Mr. Balistreri comments in saying that the lockeroom is sacred and you are suppose to feel safe in there (Aldridge 2010). Mr. Balistreri builds up a legit case against Mr. Arenas explaining that he is role model and it is inexcusable for him to bring guns into the lockeroom. He understands the scope of gun violence and the devastating effect it has on countless lives. The NBA needs to send a message to kids that gun violence is no laughing matter. Mr. Arenas is a millionaire who acted like a thug, while there is children grow up playing basketball on the streets of their neighborhoods that are in constant fear of gun violence.

I was personally associated with a gun violence incident took the life of one of my friends. His name was Ty Wallace and he was a teammate of mine at Arcadia University. Mr. Wallace was the cousin of NBA superstar Rasheed Wallace. Mr. Wallace was a good friend of mine who died in a drug-busting incident with undercover cops who shot Mr. Wallace to death after he had pulled out a gun. Mr. Wallace was a great teammate and friend and this incident was the precedence of gun violence. I agree with Mr. Balistreri’s comments that this incident should be taken very seriously. The aftermath of Gilbert Arenas bringing guns into the lockeroom left no one hurt, just a story that made national headlines.

Mr. Arenas punishment is serving a 30-day sentence in a halfway house and two years of supervised probation. Other punishment for Mr. Arenas includes 400 hours of community service and donating 5 thousand dollars to victims of violent crimes along with being suspended for the entire NBA season by commissioner David Stern. The punishment for Mr. Arenas is debatable by many different points of views and that is what makes Mr. Arenas infamous gun incident the biggest sports conflict in the last five years.

References

Aldridge, D. (2010). Arenas Faces Serious Consequences in alleged gun incident retrieved from: http://www.nba.com/2010/news/01/01/wizards.arenas/index.html

Balistreri, K. (2010) Kick Gilbert Arenas out the NBA: Retrieved from EBSCO on April22, 2010.

Perez, A. (2010). Gilbert Arenas sentenced to 30 days in halfway house: Retrieved from:

http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/03/26/gilbert-arenas-sentenced-to-30-days-in-halfway-house/

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Marcus Jordan shoe controversy

Marcus Jordan is the son of the famous Michael Jordan. A recent controversy is Marcus Jordan wearing Nike Air Jordan’s while playing basketball at University of Central Florida. The issue at hand is that UCF is sponsored by Adidas. Adidas sponsors all of the sports at UCF. Now there was an exception to the rule in which a kicker got to wear a different brand of shoe because the shoe did not fit properly. (Povtak 2009) My question is why is it a big deal that Marcus Jordan wears his father’s shoes if the kicker got to wear a different pair of shoes. Plus Jordan agreed to wear Adidas for the rest of his uniform.

Marcus Jordan was told by UCF that he would be an exception to rule when he was being recruited by UCF. In an article by Nike Depaula, Jordan explains that he has a high level of respect for Adidas (2009). Jordan explained that wearing the Jordan brand shoes had an importance to his family. The result was that Adidas cut off the contract with UCF because Marcus Jordan story hit the national stage. The decision of Marcus Jordan to wear the Jordan brand shoes cost them 2 million dollars a year according to Povtak (2009).

The reason that this story became national is because he is the son of Michael Jordan. I feel that if Adidas allows a major name like Jordan to wear his own brand of shoes then other student athletes will think it is okay to wear there own brand of shoes. The reality of the situation is that there is a substantial amount of money involved in Adidas contract with UCF. I do not disagree with adidas decision to stop the contract with UCF. The reason that I do not disagree with Adidas is because they had a contract with UCF and UCF broke the rules. Marcus Jordan was in a catch 22 situation because he is the son of Michael Jordan and his dad has his own shoe brand. If Marcus did not wear his fathers shoes, it would hurt his family and be a bad business decision for Michael Jordan.

I think the pressure put on Jordan was unfair. According to Tim Dahlberg this issue could have been easily ignored (2009). If Adidas had ignored this issue they would still have the contract with UCF. Marcus Jordan was willing to wear all Adidas apparel just not wear Adidas shoes. The UCF coach had brought Marcus Jordan to put their school on a national map. It is also not Jordans fault because he was up front in honoring his father’s legacy. This controversy comes from the fact that Nike made his father a very rich man and wearing any other shoes would be disrespectful to his family (Dahlberg 2009).

Marcus’s father Michael did the same thing in the Olympic games. Based on Michael Jordan’s success and personality he has a protected property right in their name. It allowed Michael to protect and control the use of his identity for commercial purposes. Jordan had opted out the NBA license agreement. In the 1992 Olympic games Jordan put a flag over the Reebok logo of their basketball warm up suits (Conrad 2008). I do not feel that Marcus Jordan was wrong for supporting his family legacy for which his dad worked so hard to build. Adidas could have ignored that Marcus Jordan did not wear their shoe brand and that he was willing to wear the rest of the Adidas equipment. The controversy ended with UCF signing a five-year contract with Nike (Depaula 2009).

References

Conrad, M (2008). The Business of Sports: A Primer for Journalists. Routledge. Mahwah, NJ.

Dahlberg, T (2009). Marcus Jordan just wants to be like Mike and wear his Nike sneakers. Retrieved from http://blog.taragana.com/sports/2009/11/07/marcus-jordan-just-wants-to-be-like-mike-and-wear-his-nike-sneakers-44261/

DePaula, N (2009). UCF &Nike Agree To 5 Year Deal. Retrieved from http://solecollector.com/live/all/ucf-nike-agree-to-5-year-deal/

Povtak, T. (2009). Marcus Jordan won’t wear Adidas. Retrieved from http://ncaabasketball.fanhouse.com/2009/10/15/marcus-jordan-wont-wear-adidas-at-ucf/