Gilbert Arenas, a three-time NBA all-star whose arrest on gun possession charges left him out of the league for most of the 2008-2009 season, says that as a man who has made mistakes he’s ready to forgive Donald Sterling. The Los Angeles Clippers owner asked for forgiveness in an interview that aired last night with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
“I’ll be the first to accept ur apology,” Agent Zero said on Instagram. “[A]s a man who’s made a mistake or two in life I know how hard it is to look at your self in the mirror when you let so many ppl down but for anybody who can’t and won’t accept his apology u need to look in the mirror because were not perfect..forgiveness will destroy racism not more hatred.”
Like Sterling, the 32-year-old Arenas finds himself on the outside of the NBA looking in. He last played competitive basketball in China during the 2012-2013 season after an 11-year career in the NBA, mainly with Golden State and Washington.
“Am I entitled to one mistake?” Sterling asked in a jaw-dropping interview with Anderson Cooper in which he strangely intensified attacks on Magic Johnson and praised the woman responsible for taping his conversations as “beautiful” and “special.” The recorded conversation sparking much of the controversy involved the octogenarian owner telling his mistress not to bring the former Lakers great to Clippers games. Sterling, who appeared as combative as he did contrite, asked Cooper of Magic Johnson: “What has he done? Can you tell me? He’s got AIDS.”