'The Car Malfunctioned On Them': Gilbert Arenas Reveals the Details of Son Alijah’s Horrifying Cybertruck Accident

The past month hasn’t been easy for Gilbert Arenas and his family. His eldest son, Alijah, was involved in an unfortunate car accident in late April. After spending some private time with his loved ones, Gilbert has now shared details of the traumatic event.

It was on April 24 that ESPN insider Shams Charania broke the news about USC commit Alijah Arenas’ accident while he was driving his Cybertruck. Charania reported that the incident was “serious” and that Alijah had been placed in an induced coma.

Thankfully, the injuries he sustained weren’t serious, and he’s now on pace to make a full recovery. The Arenas family had asked for some time to process the sudden chain of events before sharing what had truly happened, but Gilbert now feels it’s the right moment to speak out.

The former Wizards star appeared on the All The Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes. Barnes posed the question that many had been dying to hear answered. While Gilbert couldn’t go into too much detail, he did open up about what caused the accident.

“Long story short, the car malfunctioned on ’em,” Gilbert said. “The steering wheel went limp, and he ran right into a tree.”

It was another run-of-the-mill day for Alijah. He typically wakes up at four in the morning to work out at the gym before school, and his Cybertruck has a built-in tracking feature, which Gilbert has access to. On his end, it looked as though his son was at the gym like any other Thursday.

Sadly, that wasn’t the case.

Alijah’s car had crashed, and because of the said malfunction, the location didn’t update on the GPS feature. So, Gilbert was completely out of the loop until Izela, his daughter, called him to inform him of what had happened. It took some time for Gilbert to come to terms with everything, but he eventually did and made his way to the hospital to check on Alijah.

Now, despite the absence of serious injuries, the Arenas family is proceeding with caution until he’s fully back to his usual self — and by the looks of it, that won’t take too long. As soon as he woke up from the induced coma, a sense of normalcy returned.

“Once he got his personality back — which was once they took the drugs out of him — you know, our jokes came back…” Gilbert added.

Alijah and the Arenas family still plan for the five-star prospect to be ready for his freshman season at USC in the fall. The 6-foot-6 guard is the seventh-ranked player in the class of 2025. The NBA is the end goal, and he has all the tools to thrive at basketball’s highest level.