Crittenton wants to put gun incident behind him

Javaris Crittenton hasn’t been doing a lot of public appearances lately, and when he does he apologizes a lot.

Which is exactly what happened when his former college coach Paul Hewitt got him on his radio show on 790 The Zone in Atlanta and asked him what he wanted to say to the public about the gun incident that led to him and Gilbert Arenas being suspended for the season.

“Just that I am sorry for the incident to all of my fans and all of my family too, all the kids that look up to me. It wasn’t good. At this point, just moving forward and having positive thoughts and just working really hard getting ready for next season.”

“Yeah that is it. I just want to put this behind me. It was definitely a mistake. A mistake that shouldn’t have happened, but you know everything happens for a reason and really opened my eyes and I just want to move forward. Positive thoughts and positive people around me and doing the right thing.”

Crittenton has learned the hard lesson for players, that the NBA is not about basketball and only basketball.

I had to learn the hard way that this is a business. It really opened my eyes, the first time I was traded. I really was like, wow, this is a business. This is for real. It’s not just about basketball. Sometimes those things can be good and sometimes those things can be bad when you know that it is a business because in a way I fell to this sometimes. It is a business and everything is business-minded, it almost makes you lose your love for the game sometimes.”

Crittenton has game - he is very quick with pretty good handles. He can get to the rim and finish. The problem is hitting any kind of jumper, and he turns the ball over too much (both bad things for a guard in the NBA). He’s one of those guys where you see the potential but wonder if he can ever live up to it. He’s running out of chances to prove he can. But he will get another chance. Somewhere.