Maybe Latrell Sprewell thinks no one has been paying attention. With the help of Johnnie Cochran Jr., he is trying to cast himself as a victim.
Back up a minute, here. Wasn't it Sprewell, the basketball superstar of the Golden State Warriors, who tried to choke his coach, P.J. Carlesimo? Wasn't it Sprewell who then returned several minutes later and tried to punch the coach?Yet there he was this week, finally ready to read an apology to Carlesimo and flanked by several NBA players. His attorney calls his one-year suspension from the NBA fundamentally unfair. Other players, most notably Charles Barkley of the Houston Rockets, are calling for a boycott of the all-star game to protest the punishment.
Meanwhile, a nation full of hopeful and impressionable young people watches with rapt interest.
To be honest, the NBA may have trouble defending its one-year suspension in court. After all, it only suspended Dennis Rodman for 11 games when he kicked a courtside cameraman for no reason at all. One could reasonably argue that an attack against a yelling and screaming coach is less of an infraction than an attack against an innocent bystander.
But, while the difference is a matter of degrees, the principle is one of supreme importance for the NBA. For the sake of its credibility and reputation as family entertainment, and for the sake of its position as one of the world's most watched sports leagues, it must send the message that violence is intolerable.
Players and their apologists always will react strongly to punishment. Remember that Rodman's 11-game suspension was protested by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who said it robbed Rodman of his dignity.
What about the dignity of the true victims - Carlesimo, the cameraman and any other person who has been physically harmed by a player? The NBA's suspension of Sprewell was prudent and reasonable. Slick attorneys and whining fellow players aside, it ought to stand.