The Gilbert Arenas-Javaris Crittenton gun incident will always be the story people will remember from the late-2000s Washington Wizards . What began as a dispute over a card game eventually spilled into the locker room, where firearms got involved. It was an absurd situation that understandably overshadowed almost everything else happening with the team.
But apparently, the craziness wasn't limited to Agent Zero and Javaris. Brendan Haywood remembers another day when the Wizards' locker room nearly turned into a fighting cage, thanks to Mike James . The veteran point guard lost his cool over an accusation, which led to a challenge to the entire team.
The strangest part was that every Wizard at the time knew James as their spiritual leader in every sense of the word.
If you think we're done with the Gil-Javaris story, no, we're not. It's actually the starting point of this entire anecdote.
According to Haywood, the Wizards' starting center at the time, the NBA media had just learned what happened and were writing about it. "Baby Huey" recalled that the first circulated version wasn't very accurate, but it didn't take long for the media to get wind of the real score.
Now, a rumor was circulating in their own locker room. Everyone was scratching their heads over how the real scoop got out. Everybody's fingers were somehow pointed at James, but nobody actually told him to his face until Caron Butler did.
That's when all hell broke loose.
"Mike hears that, and he goes absolutely ballistic," remembered Haywood. "All of a sudden, Mike James runs up in front of the locker room, takes his shirt off, throws it down in the middle of the locker room, and was like, 'Yo, anybody who thinks I'm snitching can fight me right now.' So, I'm sitting over there and was like, 'What the hell is wrong with the dude?' We don't know what Mike was talking about because they were having a different conversation. He got triggered when Caron (Butler) told him that everybody thought he was snitching."
In NBA circles, you'd rather get called a thief than a snitch. It was the unwritten rule and tradition of the locker room that nothing goes out, especially something as wild as the gun incident between Arenas and Crittenton.
But here's the thing: James previously had no violent inclination. In fact, he was the guy who brought everyone together and talked about the gospel with his teammates, especially on the road.
"Before this situation happened, he was the guy who led the Bible study… Mike James would pick a Bible verse, he would go over the Bible verse, we would talk about it, and we would have a good time in the name of the Lord in Mike James' hotel room," continued Haywood. "So, the guy that leads the Bible study all of a sudden flips out, starts using all the four-letter words, threatening everybody with no shirt on."
And as if that wasn't enough, "Pit Bull" turned cryptic after Haywood asked him what was going on. That's when B-Wood realized the dude was as nutty as a fruitcake.
"He's mouthing off, and he's getting aggressive. I don't like his aggressive talk from a dude that's only like 6'3″. I don't like it. All of a sudden, he said something that let me know he was completely unhinged. He said, 'I ain't talking to nobody, but I'm talking to everybody.' To this day, I still don't know what that means," added Haywood.
Like everything about the Wizards at the time, the situation just kept getting worse. Mike was in a fighting mood, and his teammates were frustrated because they didn't know what the hell was going on.
Then Nick Young came out of the shower and made James even madder by calling him "an angry snitch." James tried to go after Young, but everyone intervened. DeShawn Stevenson tried to talk some sense into Mike, but the latter wouldn't have any of it. In the blink of an eye, James and Stevenson almost came to blows.
"At first, Mike's trying to fight the locker room, then he's trying to fight Nick, then he's trying to fight DeShawn Stevenson. Eventually, we calmed him down and ushered him out of the locker room," Haywood recalled.
Apparently, Haywood and the others did a fantastic job of pacifying the angry "Pit Bull." He got so chill afterward that he now wanted to continue their road tradition of holding a Bible study in his hotel room. Now it was James' teammates' turn to make him realize he had better start practicing what he preached.
"Mike would pop in and out of different personalities. He acted as if nothing happened," said Haywood. "He's like, 'Hey guys, any of y'all want to go Bible study in my room when we get done?' We're like, 'Hell no.' Ain't nobody going to be in that Bible study meeting but you and Jesus, my boy. You just tried to fight everybody in the locker room. You threatened people with no shirt on, and now you want us to go back and pass the collection plate around for the congregation?"
"No, man. Bible study canceled, and that was actually the last Bible study we ever done. Your Bible study leader can't be the guy that threatens to beat everybody up," the UNC product stated.
Not long after, that was also the last the Wizards saw of James. The team decided to go in a different direction, prioritizing the young guns over the vet. He was eventually bought out on March 1, 2010, after appearing in only four games for Washington that season.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Oct 5, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
