When Latrell Sprewell was named to his first All-Star team in 1994, in only his second NBA season, someone suggested to him that his days of anonymity were over. No longer would public-address announcers mistakenly introduce him as Ladell or turn his last name into "Sprool." He was a celebrity now, which
meant he was about to be discovered by the media. The public would have a chance to get to know him. A slight smile crossed his face as Sprewell considered that possibility. "Everybody's going to get to know me?" he said. "I don't think so."
He was right. Very few people have really come to know Sprewell, 27, during his NBA career. Throughout his six years with the Golden State Warriors he guarded his past and his private life as tenaciously as he guarded opposing players, often politely asking reporters who wanted to write feature stories about him not to bother calling his family or friends back home in Milwaukee. "I'm not into having people talking all about what I was like as a kid or what I did way back when," he said at that All-Star Game.
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