"There was just a buildup of anger and frustration and having it all bottled up and not being able to express myself. At that point, it just came to a head," says Latrell Sprewell on ESPN Classic's SportsCentury series.
Regardless of what he accomplishes in basketball, Latrell Sprewell will live in infamy as the player who attacked and threatened to kill his coach. During a Golden State Warriors practice in 1997, Sprewell snapped, choking P.J. Carlesimo before returning about 20 minutes later to continue the assault.
NBA Commissioner David Stern suspended Sprewell for 82 games before an arbitrator reduced the sentence to 68 games, costing Sprewell $6.4 million and his shoe deal with Converse.
Sprewell deemed the punishment too harsh. "I wasn't choking P.J. that hard," Sprewell told 60 Minutes. "I mean, he could breathe."
Stern called Sprewell a symbol of the "widening gulf" between professional athletes and the fans. Sprewell claimed his being an African-American tainted the public's view of the attack on his coach. "I want people to know I'm not a bad guy," he said. "I never said I shouldn't be punished for what I did. We just said the punishment was excessive."
