Fighting in the NBA is a pretty rare occurrence these days. The league fixed it so that any in-game physical altercations would hit players where it hurts the most: their bank accounts. To be clear, that’s a good thing. All the hemming and hawing about players being soft today and how much tougher it was in the 80s and 90s is such a tired argument.
Now, what goes on behind the scenes is a little bit different. There are no doubt all sorts of run-ins between teammates that we’re not privy to. Practices can get heated. As can be human nature, guys get sick of being around each other every day. Someone inevitably gets fed up and crosses the line.
Good teammates can recover from it and move forward — just look at what happened after Michael Jordan punched Steve Kerr. There apparently was a similar situation with the Washington Wizards in the early 2000s between Gilbert Arenas and notorious hothead Steve Blake.
On a recent episode of his No Chill Gil podcast, Arenas talked how confused he was that after throwing punches at one another in practice, Blake wanted to go out to dinner together afterward and discuss plays.
“During practice I elbowed Steve Blake and he swung at me,” Arenas said. “I was like, ‘Damn, wait hold on.’ Oh, really? Did the white boy just throw a punch at me? Is that how we’re working here, right? We’re going through it, like wrestling on the floor. Practiced ended. He’s like, ‘Hey, man, y’all want to go to Legal Seafood?’
“What are you talking to me like that for? Don’t be talking to me like that. He was like, ‘Let’s go to Legal Seafood, food on me; let’s go through these plays.’ No, it’s just off the court this is him. On the court, he’s a whole different person. Then, we go to Legal Food and talk about plays. We didn’t even talk about him throwing a punch at me and we over here fighting in the corner.”
That certainly wasn’t the first or last time Blake had a confrontation with a teammate.
Blake had a reputation for not backing down against anyone, despite his size disadvantage, and was often the instigator in some of these incidences.
Arenas’ latest story only adds to the myth surrounding the former Maryland standout who had a solid NBA career as mostly a reserve but sometimes starting point guard.
