"Fighting is a business decision" -- Arenas on the lack of brawls in today's NBA
Gilbert Arenas- Isaiah Stewart-LeBron James
What is a deciding factor for Gilbert Arenas to be involved in a fight against an NBA player? "How much it's gonna cost me," he said. "It actually is a business decision."
Agent Zero explains why players don't want to fight
Rudy Gobert hit it on the head following a scuffle with the Pacers' big man Myles Turner, talking about the artificially created "hold me back" moments we're seeing more and more on NBA hardwoods. "Guys need to stop acting like they're gonna fight," he said. "It's cool for the cameras, but they know we aren't gonna fight. Guys that are not about that life need to stop acting like they are."
The act is usually just a smoke-screen to postpone the inevitable and allow the rest of the guys to stand between the two warring parties. But why is it so rare for guys to actually cross the line and allow such situations to escalate? According to Agent Zero, potential consequences are the thing that's holding them back.
"Back in the day, fines were only $5000," Arenas said. "So you've got two things going on with situations that happen in the game; you have being fined which is a max of I think $50,000, and being suspended. Depending on how much you make per game determines if you are actually gonna fight."
"The top 20, when it comes to pay, they're not fighting," Gilbert continued. "They're not even gonna think about fighting. They might get rowdy and rough, but they not trying to get suspended because that's gonna anywhere from $200,000 to half a million dollarsevery game they're suspended."
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The LeBron James-Isaiah Stewart altercation is the latest example of on-court fights not being worth it -- the Pistons center received a two-game suspension, forfeiting $45,000 in the process, while the one-game suspension cost LeBron $284,000. According to Arenas, no words can justify losing that much money.
"I don't care what you tell me in this game, you're not worth half a million dollars for me to throw a punch," Arenas said. "You can tell me my wife's cheating on me, for five-hundred thousand dollars, I just get a new wife."
Who would Arenas fight in today's NBA
Fines and suspensions aside, who would Arenas square up against without having to deal with consequences? The 3x All-Star first said who he would avoid at all costs. "Anyone I can lose to," Gil said. "I don't wanna fight somebody I'm gonna lose to. From the shooting guard to center the center, off-limits. But when it comes to these point guards, it really depends."
I could fight one of the Ball brothers. You know what, I won’t fight the Ball brothers because they come in threes, plus they got pops. And he looks like he will punch. So we’ll go ahead and scratch them off. I’ll go with….is Ricky Rubio still in the league?
Gilbert Arenas, No Chill with Gilbert Arenas
He is. He's playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, having a solid all-around season off the bench. Who would win in a fight between the two -- it's hard to tell. But ever Rubio has had a fair share of scuffles throughout his 12-year NBA run. But nothing but scuffles. Everything else would've been a poor business decision by Ricky, or any other NBA player allowing on-court altercations to escalate.
