OK, so hockey has been a little dull lately, but they never really heat
up til the playoffs, so I guess we can use this time to discuss some recent
events in the NBA, or the knucklehead league.

   I don't remember his name, but this guy (if you can call him that) punched
his coach in the face twice and then pulled some other crap. His team canceled
his $32 mil contract and the NBA suspended him for a year without pay. Do you
think this is harsh enough, or do you think it was totally bogus.
 I for one, think he should have been brought up on charges for assault at
the very least, fined and permanently barred from the sport. But being the
cynic that I am, I think this knucklehead will do every talk show from Jerry
to Oprah, cry rasicm, then cash in on his bad boy image with a few Pizza Hut
commercials and maybe an endorsement from No Excuses. He will earn more than
the $7 million that he was to get playing basketball, and that is wrong, but
then again, this is the 90's where anything can and does happen.

  Let us go forth and discuss

8 responses total.

Latrell Sprewell is not a great enough player to draw any attention from
companines giving out endorsement perks.  Golden State is not a big market.
Sprewell wanted out for at least that reason.  If his contract had a
cancellation clause based on some really bad behavior, and what he has done
satisifies that badness, then the team had the right to do what it did.  Did
it or the league have the *duty* to do what they did?  Well the team spokesman
said they didn't want to trade him.  And there was little chance he was ever
going to play for that team again.  So instead of haggling over what amount
of suspension would be proper (the team initially suspended him for 10 games),
they decided to cancel his contract, which essentially makes him a free agent.
As for the league, I guess it thought it had a PR problem.  You haven't heard
the last of this, that part is certain.

  I heard on the 5pm news that the Mayor of SF has come out in support of Mr.
Spreewell, which makes him a bigger knucklehead as Spreewell is. How clueless
is Willie Brown? You really have to wonder about that.

Sprewell will go play in Europe for a year, making big bucks playing
for someplace like Barcelona, Spain or Greece.  Then he'll come back
"totally reformed" as an unrestricted free agent, and being that putting
attitude aside, he is a hell of a good ballplayer, he will get a
contract for more money with a better (read: contending) team.  Thats
justice for 'ya.

I don't follow basketball much, but I don't see why this incident shouldn'y
have the same effect on the sport as the ear-biting incident did on Boxing.

I have trouble understanding the players' position. I don't care what
Carlesimo might have said or how he said it. It changes nothing.

I'm glad the league acted wquickly to suspend him for a full year.
Sprewell is lucky that assault charges were not filed with the police.

  If I hit my boss, I'd be fired and in jail. No ifs ands or buts. 

  Spreewell needs to grow up, or learn to play hockey where it's OK to
hit the opposition. 

It's not OK in hockey to do what he did to PJC.

It probably ought not be OK to do a lot of things they allow, too.

in baseball or basketball, you deck anyone, you get ejectedand suspended...
in Hockey you deck someone, they first of all encourage the decked guy to
get up and fight back, and once the two guys get tired of fighting, they 
get to go rest their fists in the penalty box and later comeback in
the game!

The normal fighting that occurs *during* a hockey name is in no way similar
to the Sprewell incident.  Any unilateral attack - with fists, sticks, etc.
- during a game by one player would result in his being ejected from the game
("game misconduct", "match penalty"), and probable subsequent team & league
action, probably including suspension.

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