Gilbert Arenas blames Cybertruck for crash that sent son to hospital

Alijah Arenas, a five-star recruit and son of former NBA star Gilbert Arenas, was in a single-vehicle accident early in the morning on April 24 that saw his vehicle, a Tesla Cybertruck, crash into a fire hydrant and a tree.

The younger Arenas was stuck in the vehicle, which caught on fire, due to its doors locking and the bulletproof windows making it impossible for him to break out. He was rescued by onlookers, but not after inhaling a dangerous amount of smoke 

Alijah Arenas was taken to the hospital and put into a medically induced coma. He was released less than a week later and appears to be well on his road to recovery, but now his father is telling the story and blaming the Cybertruck for the incident.

"The car malfunctioned on him," Gilbert Arenas said, ironically perhaps, on Matt Barnes' "All The Smoke" Podcast (h/t CBS Sports). "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."

The elder Arenas relayed that he believes his son was in the car for at least 10 minutes trying to escape. He now has advice for parents of kids with a Cybertruck.

"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," Gilbert Arenas said.

A 6-foot-6, 195-pound shooting guard from Chatsworth, California, Alijah Arenas is ranked as the top shooting guard in the 2025 class, according to the 247Sports Composite.