| Monday, November 22
By David Aldridge Special to ESPN.com |
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Two years ago, two men got in a fight, and the whole world seemed to
change.
| | Sprewell says he'll get a mixed response on Saturday. |
Latrell Fontaine Sprewell put his hands around Peter John Carlesimo's
neck and threatened to kill him. They were separated then. They remain
joined in the public consciousness today.
You remember the outrage, the debate, the code phrases about "cornrows"
and "well-paid athletes," and what people would infer but would not say
directly. How both Sprewell and Carlesimo became caricatures of themselves,
symbols of everything that was wrong with players or coaches. Bomb-thrower
or control freak. Threat to the neighborhood or militia man. Take your pick.
Neither was accurate.
Two years later, this Saturday, Sprewell's Knicks will go to Golden
State to play Carlesimo's Warriors. Sprewell has recovered; he's got a brand
new $61-million deal and the love of 15,000,000 New Yorkers. Carlesimo
continues to struggle with a new group of Warriors. Only Donyell Marshall
remains from the team that witnessed the altercation.
"I pretty much know what to expect," Sprewell told me last Sunday. "I
think I'll get a mixed response. I think I've still got a lot of pretty
faithful fans in the Bay Area. It's just going to be interesting to me how
many boos I get as opposed to cheers."
Sprewell is still angry with the Warriors' organization, still thinks he
was vilified. Whether you agree with him or not, it's how he feels. Whether
he's justified to feel that way about a team that gave him a $32 million
deal, basically, on spec, that looked to him for leadership he didn't give
every night, it's how he feels. He says he very rarely talks with friends in
Oakland about the Warriors, and maybe that's true.
But I doubt it.
If he runs into Carlesimo before tipoff, Sprewell said he'd be willing
to shake hands. But it would be a hollow gesture.
"That wouldn't erase everything," Sprewell said. "I can't sit and say
that if the man came to me and said 'let's forgive and forget,' I'm not so
stubborn that I'm going to say 'get out of my face.' I respect him as a
person, and I'll treat him with respect. But it's not honest to say it'll
erase all the things I had to go through and all the tough times during that
period."
I asked Carlesimo, during a conference call with reporters, if the
incident or the aftermath of the incident changed him in any way that was
noticeable to him.
"I don't want to be so naive as to say you're not changed by any
incident that occurs in your life, much less a significant one," he said.
"I'd like to think I'm the same person. I'd like to think my values are the
same. I think that my effort, my dedication, whatever you want to call it,
are the same. My answer would be no, I don't think I have."
Did he learn who his friends were?
"I didn't see any difference at all in terms of the way people treated
me, or any friends, how they reacted," he said. "I think I've been real well
grounded and fortunate in that for a long time. I don't think people changed
toward me and how they reacted as a result of this."
Sprewell is hoping that he'll be back in Oakland in February for the
All-Star game. But whether or not he makes it, he'll never think about the
place the same way.
"I don't know if you've ever been in an accident," Sprewell said. "When
you go past that same spot, you always remember where you had that wreck.
Some people refuse to go that way because they just don't want to remember
it. I think every time I play there, I'm always going to remember."
"It's over with," Carlesimo told another reporter during the conference
call. "I don't harbor any resentment. I don't feel anything toward that. I
think the best thing for both of us is to get on with this. He's doing that.
He's earned himself a great contract in New York. He's doing a great job
moving on in NY, and I'm trying to do the same."
All in all, not a bad idea.
A deal that makes sense
The Warriors and Nets will chat about a Donyell Marshall-Kendall Gill swap,
but the deal probably will wait until Jason Caffey returns from the injured
list. Another potential problem: Nets are already on the till for $55
million among seven players -- Jayson Williams ($15 million), Keith Van Horn
($10M), Stephon Marbury ($11M), Kerry Kittles ($8.5M), Jim McIlvaine ($6M),
Lucious Harris and Jamie Feick ($2.5M each) -- in two years. That's the first
year of the escrow tax account, with a dollar tax for every dollar a team is
above the salary cap. The cap is estimated to be at $56 million that year.
Would the Nets take on Marshall's $6.5 million, knowing it would put them
over the cap? Probably depends on how much money George Steinbrenner gets in
local TV revenues in his new Yankees TV contract. (Believe me when I tell
you -- the Boss is going to be very involved in the Nets' operation now that
the two teams have merged their business departments.)
The Warriors aren't sure if Gill can play the 2 consistently, but they
figure he's better than John Starks. The Nets, who've gotten little offensively
from Scott Burrell at the 3, are intrigued by Marshall there. They want
to keep Van Horn at the 4.
Meanwhile, the Nets are tearing their hair out figuring what to do about
Marbury. Starchild has been dissing teammates left and right, sapping Don
Casey's energy and dropping already-drooping morale further below sea level.
"I think the other players are flatlining because of him," says one member
of the Nets.
Tragedy in Dallas
Given my penchant for taking shots at Nellie whenever I can, you may be surprised to know that I'm taking his side in this whole Leon Smith mess.
It's tragic that Smith apparently ingested more than 250 aspirin in Dallas
this week, and you hope the young man can get the kind of help that he
clearly needs. But no one forced this kid to declare for the draft. Based on
the people I spoke with before the draft, no one in the NBA gave this kid
any reason to believe he'd be taken high.
Where are all the street agents and hustlers in Chicago that had their
hands in this kid's pocket? The ones that filled his head with grandiose dreams he
didn't have the slightest chance of redeeming?
It seems to me that Nellie was one of the few people telling Smith the
truth about his abilities. Should he have set up a more nurturing environment
for him? This is professional basketball. Coaches are concerned with one
thing -- which one of these guys is gonna keep me employed tonight? They
aren't interested -- or, for that matter, qualified -- to be confidants or baby
sitters.
Leon Smith shouldn't have been on the Mavericks' injured list, learning
nothing about playing basketball, or in the CBA, or playing in Europe. He
should have been sitting at at desk at some college, trying to get some kind
of education.
I'll say it again and again. This is why high school kids don't belong
in the NBA.
Quote of the Week
"He's everybody's cousin now."
-- My "NBA 2Night" tag-team partner Fred Carter, on the Sonics'
rejuvenated Vin Baker.
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