Behind the closed doors of a downtown law office, an arbitrator begins hearing testimony Tuesday on whether the NBA and the Golden State Warriors unjustly punished Latrell Sprewell for choking and threatening to kill coach P.J. Carlesimo.
Sprewell was thrown out of the league for a year, the longest suspension in NBA history, and the remaining three years of his contract with Golden State, valued at $25 million, were terminated.Assistant coaches, Warrior players, Carlesimo and Sprewell are among those expected to testify just a few blocks from the apartment where Carlesimo lived when he was coach of the Portland Trail Blazers from 1994 to 1997.
Carlesimo and several Warrior players were expected to testify on Wednesday.
"I hope people can keep an open mind," Sprewell is quoted in Tuesday's New York Post as saying. "I wasn't trying to kill P.J.
"Death threats! That's not the person I am. I was angry, but I didn't mean what I said. You know how people say things they don't mean when they're angry," Sprewell told Post sports writer Peter Vecsey last Thursday.
"This has taught me a lot about my aggressiveness. I've learned I've got to get control of it. I'm working on that."
It was not known whether any of the Blazers who used to play for Carlesimo before he was fired after last season will be called as witnesses.
Many of those who testify will relive the Golden State practice of Dec. 1, when Sprewell choked Carlesimo and threatened to kill him. According to some witnesses, Sprewell left the gym after the attack, but returned 20 minutes later and assaulted the coach again.
They also may address the personalities of both Sprewell, a sometimes sullen player, and Carlesimo, an intense coach with a reputation as a screamer.
But exactly what is said at the hearing is supposed to remain secret.
At the urging of the NBA and Warriors, arbitrator John Feerick, a Fordham law professor, has issued a limited gag order barring any of those involved from commenting on the details of the testimony. Only the names of those who testified and the length of their testimony are to be made public.
The hearing will last through Friday in Portland, where the Warriors were in town to play the Trail Blazers tonight, then shifts to New York Feb. 3-4.
Each side will then have 10 days to file briefs, and Feerick can rule any time within the following 30 days.
If that schedule holds, it will mean that Sprewell will know his fate by March 16 at the latest. Feerick already has turned down a union request for an expedited decision.
Sprewell has filed two grievances, one against the league for its unprecedented one-year suspension, the other against the Warriors for terminating his contract.
Lawyers from the National Basketball Players Union will argue on Sprewell's behalf.
They will argue:
- There was no precedent for a one-year suspension, even in the most egregious altercations. No suspensions were issued when Alvin Robertson of the Detroit Pistons choked assistant coach Billy McKinney several years ago, nor was any action early this season when Tom Chambers of Phoenix punched strength and conditioning coach Robin Pound.
- The Maxwell-Rodman-Van Exel factor.
Vernon Maxwell of Houston received only a 10-game fan or running into the stands in Portland and punching a fan, Dennis Rodman got 11 games for kicking a cameraman and six for head-butting a referee, and Nick Van Exel got seven for shoving a referee with his forearm.
- Sprewell was a victim of a double dose of penalties.
Historically, the league has taken disciplinary action for incidents that happen in games; teams have taken action for incidents that happened at practices. Sprewell was punished by both the team and the league.
- Sprewell did not receive due process.
In the days after the altercation, union director Billy Hunter tried to arrange a meeting between Sprewell and league officials. Hunter contends that when he called deputy commissioner Russ Granik to finalize the meeting, he was told that it was too late - a one-year suspension already had been decided upon.
The league will contend Sprewell had a chance to explain his side of the story in a phone conversation with director of security Horace Balmer. The union will counter that Sprewell had a right to union representation during the investigation - an issue the league and union had supposedly settled just two weeks earlier.
- Sprewell may not have punched Carlesimo after returning 20 minutes following the first altercation.
Hunter says he has interviewed six players who claim Sprewell did not punch Carlesimo. NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik maintains all the witnesses described the same thing - a punch that struck Carlesimo.