Stephen A Smith shared some stern advice for Gilbert Arenas during a recent episode of his eponymous talk show after the former NBA star was arrested for allegedly operating an illegal gambling business. Smith cited a clip of Arenas joking about how many of the former athletes Smith's spoken with on ESPN have dealt with legal trouble.
"Bro, I need you not to play around," Smith began, as caught by Complex. "My brother, I do not want to see you in jail at all. It’s not a good look, it’s nothing to laugh about. It’s nothing to joke about when the feds come raiding your home. I don’t want to see that. I can assure you that anybody who wants to do business with you, I’m one of those people, ESPN, Underdog, a whole bunch of sponsors and advertisers, we don't want to see that."
Gilbert Arenas' Arrest
Authorities arrested Arenas as part of a bigger federal indictment. They claim that he allegedly rented out his Encino mansion to hold high-stakes card games from September 2021 to July 2022. "At Arenas’ direction, Arthur Kats, 51, of West Hollywood, staged the mansion to host the games, found co-conspirators to host the games, and collected rent from the co-conspirators on Arenas’ behalf," a press release from the Justice Department alleges. Police charged five other people in the indictment.
Arenas has paid his bail and is out of jail. After getting out, he went live on social media and joked about planning to "snitch" on his co-defendants. "Good luck in court. I'm pretty sure I ain't gonna be there when it's starting to go, cause, yeah, I'm snitching," he said. "There was one n***a in there, he must have been the head... They gave him a translator, the translator said, 'Yeah, you're not going to [be bonded] out today, probably next week.' He's like, 'Oh, it's okay, it's okay.' Hey, what about me? Where my lawyer?! ... I'm not used to this shit right here, this like Kwame Brown house, there's seven n***as in this room. One shitter, six n***as."
