Alijah Arenas will begin his college basketball career this fall at USC after committing to the Trojans in January. The son of former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas was the 10th-ranked player in the Class of 2025 and a McDonald’s All-American this season, but found himself in a terrifying situation in late April when he crashed his Cybertruck into a fire hydrant and tree.
The car caught on fire and Arenas was unable to get himself out as the doors locked and the bulletproof windows made it so he could not break them himself. He was rescued by some bystanders and pulled from the fiery crash. Arenas was put in an induced coma overnight, but recovered and was released from the hospital less than a week later.
On Monday, Gilbert Arenas spoke with Matt Barnes about the crash on the “All The Smoke” podcast and explained what happened and what his message was to Alijah after the fact.
Gilbert said the Cybertruck’s steering wheel malfunctioning while Alijah was driving led to the crash and disputed claims that Alijah had fallen asleep, saying he was on the phone with 9-1-1 for 10 minutes inside the car as it caught on fire before he was rescued.
“The car malfunctioned on him,” Arenas said. “The steering wheel went limp and ran him right into a tree. Once he got his personality back, which was once they got the drugs out of him, our jokes came back. Like, damn boy, you almost went extra crispy on me, man. You almost went extra crispy, dawg.
“He couldn’t break the window. I seen that people were like, ‘oh, he fell asleep.’ I’m looking at, he’s on the phone with 9-1-1 — I’m trying to get that call — he’s on the phone with them for 10 minutes, so I know he was at least in the car for 10 minutes,” Arenas continued. “If you are a parent and your teen has this car, you might want to put a hammer in that joint, something that can break the window. Because physically, he said he was trying to kick the window in and couldn’t.
“I told him, I’m gonna just be honest with you — cause when he got home we had flowers for him. And I gave him that speech. You’re a lucky one to see this. Most people don’t get to see the flowers and how everyone reacts when something happens. So you get to witness what the world did when you was sleep. When you was in induced coma. This is what’s supposed to make you great, that you watch life that could’ve just ended. You can’t take this shit for granted.”
Thankfully Alijah Arenas will be able to continue his promising young basketball career without much interruption, and as his father told him, his frightening crash is a reminder of how fragile all of this is and to embrace the opportunity he’s been given.
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