Untold

To be a star in the NBA,

you have to be an image that people will buy.

And I was one of those players.

Here's Arenas. This for the win.

- - Yes!

You're not a regular-ass person.

You are a business.

- Gilbert. - Gilbert!

I was the golden boy.

I was on billboards. I was on the cover of a video game.

I had my own shoe line.

I was the likeable dude.

Gilbert, for the win. Yeah!

Agent Zero wins the game at the buzzer for Washington.

But sometimes,

you can end up going down a road that you don't want to be on.

Authorities in Washington, DC are investigating reports

that pro basketball players drew guns on each other

inside their locker room last week.

New, headline-grabbing mix of superstars and guns.

Everyone's talking about this. This is far beyond sports.

Arenas tweeted, quote,

"I wake up this morning and seen I was the new John Wayne."

Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.

- Seen any guns in the locker room? - Nah, never.

You gotta be prepared when you're dealing with someone like Gil.

Oh!

Gilbert was such a household name at that time.

I think people forget there was another player involved.

Taking guns has proven costly for Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton.

- Javaris Crittenton. - Javaris Crittenton.

Javaris Crittenton had the ability to change his destiny.

He didn't do that. He chose the wrong path.

I think our decisions that day ruined his life.

Former NBA star Javaris Crittenton

was sentenced in 2015 to 23 years in prison.

His attorney confirmed that he was resentenced,

and scheduled to be released immediately.

When I played everything back over in my mind,

like, man, how did you get here?

It's some fucked up shit that don't make sense.

But at the same time,

life is about choices

and how you deal with things, know what I mean?

All I know how to do is be honest.

So we're gonna cut the bullshit right now.

When I was a little kid,

me and my father moved from Tampa to Los Angeles

because he had dreams of being a Hollywood star.

He really wanted to be famous.

I felt like trying to be an actor,

raise money for both me and him, and possibly for my family.

As you say, Hollywood.

He worked as a bodyguard for Mike Tyson,

Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme.

So I got to see a lot of, you know, movie stars growing up.

The stigma of growing up in the Valley is soft, like Santa Monica or Malibu.

You know, what we consider whitewashed.

You know, um... It's a safe place, how about that?

Two more, that's all we need. Come on. Yeah, come on, let's go! Yes!

- - We won our first game!

- Okay, here, interview him. - Ahh!

Tell me about it.

It was wonderful.

- - He looked.

Tell me about that block.

It was wonderful.

I think my personality was probably just, you know...

I was a guy that took all the tops off the, you know, the sprinklers.

Dyed a jacuzzi red.

Looks like somebody, you know, was bleeding and that.

The bus comedian.

Used to switch kids' lunches.

You know, where I could sit back and just...

"Oh yeah, he's pissed."

Yeah!

You know, when you're growing up,

you're just creating personalities to protect yourself.

Look at this, look at this.

And I learned that from my dad without even knowing.

You know, growing up, like, I never met my mother.

So, um, I was raised by my father, you know, single father.

But no matter what he was going through,

the house was always laughter.

He's an actor, but, you know, he loved funny.

And so it seemed to me early in life that the best actors were comedians.

They could turn the drama of life into comedy.

My persona was a jokester.

I dealt with pain through laughter.

No matter what was going on in my life,

I can turn it into comedy.

So I never took nothing serious.

Walk me through your childhood. What was young Javaris like?

Um...

Young Javaris, boy, that was a long time ago, man.

Um...

I was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Capitol Homes Projects, to be exact.

It wasn't the best place to grow up in.

A lot of poverty, drugs, violence.

But at the same time, I have some of my best memories there.

Even though you were in the hood, we had love.

I was raised by a lot of women.

My mom, my grandma, aunties.

They taught me respect.

They taught me how to love. They taught me the importance of family.

I had Javaris when I was a senior in high school.

At that time in my life, Javaris was my life.

When I worked and went to school,

either my mom or my grandmother watched him.

We all had a shift, you know.

That's the reason why Javaris, you know, became who he is.

But there's only so much that a mother can teach a son.

Certain things has to come from a man.

You know, and, um, Javaris didn't have that.

It was a challenge not having many male figures in my life.

It was like, I didn't really know how to respect men like that.

It's not that I would be disrespectful.

How do you receive it? Because I'm not used to receiving it.

For Javaris, respect is everything.

You can't even be around him if you're not respectful.

That's how we were taught. We... We don't do that.

These have been my beliefs since a kid.

You know, like, I don't let people talk to me any type of way,

treat me any type of way.

Even once I learned to respect, you know,

coaches and the men, you know, that I didn't know, like,

I'm big on respect.

I'm big on giving it, and I'm big on getting it.

When I got to high school,

the idea of being an NBA player wasn't realistic to me.

I didn't think that I was good enough to be an NBA player.

- Number 25, Gilbert Arenas. - Come on, Gil! Come on, Gil. Yeah!

I felt I was behind the curve, so I had to make up for it.

So every part of my day had to do with basketball.

Gil!

He was kind of goofy, kind of a prankster a little bit.

He was always ready with a joke, and always ready to laugh.

How do you know Gil?

How do I know Gil?

I was his high school basketball coach, his varsity basketball coach.

I don't think he believed that he was a real basketball player yet,

but I've been around a lot of basketball players,

and what he had, I'd never seen before on this side of the Valley.

I remember Coach says, "Can I talk to you outside, son?"

"Oh shit, I did something wrong."

I said, "Gil, I'm going to say something to you

that I'm probably never going to say again."

"You have a chance at becoming a professional basketball player."

And he's looking at me like, "What? What are you talking about?"

Oh my! It's the Gilbert Arenas Show!

I ended up at Arizona.

Now I'm in shape, faster, stronger than I was before.

I tell you, he's a big-time athlete. He's got style, he's got flair.

It's great to see a kid that didn't get that publicity,

and he comes out and just earns a position on the floor.

I led the team in scoring.

We go to the National Championship game,

and after that, I was like, "Okay, I'm going to enter the draft."

Right before the NBA Draft, you have pre-draft camp,

which is like The Hunger Games, right?

So one-on-one, five-on-five. You know, we're doing a shuttle drill.

Here is the apex, this is the jungle.

Who is the top lion?

I'm coming out as him.

The media was doing questioning, and they asked me,

"What do you wanna get out of being in the NBA? What do you wanna be in the NBA?"

And I was like, "Yeah, I want to be a pimp."

The guy says, "Wait, excuse me, what did you just say?"

Now I have two choices.

Back down, which now makes me look weak,

or double down, which I don't back down from anything.

So I said, "Oh, my bad."

"I want to be an international pimp."

And the look in his face, like, "Oh shit." Right?

Going into that draft day, that moment, I'm confident.

It's a big night in the big city,

and all roads lead to the Garden.

I was praised for my skill work,

so that's what I was dependent on.

It was expected that he was gonna be drafted in the first round,

which means it's no-cut contract and a lot of money and all this,

da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

With the third pick in the 2001 draft,

the Atlanta Hawks select Pau Gasol.

The Detroit Pistons select Rodney White from Charlotte.

So you start hearing names come off the board.

I remember my college teammate, Richard Jefferson, hitting me.

He was like, "Hey, good luck in the draft. I think I'm about to get called soon."

"You're gonna be called before me?"

The third or fourth best player on our team.

"Get the fuck out of here." Is he crazy?

"Are you crazy? You're crazy, man." Click.

The Houston Rockets select Richard Jefferson from the University of Arizona.