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Featured Image Credit: Getty Images
Topics: NBA
Ryan Baldi
When basketball star Latrell Sprewell attacked his own coach in 1997, it wound up hitting him in the pocket.
Best known for his time with the Golden State Warriors and the New York Knicks, Sprewell was one of the top guards in the NBA in the 1990s.
A tough defender who peaked as a scorer with an average of 24.2 points per game in the 1996-97 season, Sprewell was a four-time All-Star during a career that began with him being drafted with the 24th overall pick in 1992.
The 6ft 5ins wing played 913 NBA games in total and helped the Knicks reach the NBA finals in 1999.
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But Sprewell was also something of a controversial figure. And once, during a Warriors practice session in 1997, his temper boiled over and ended up costing him millions.
When the team's coach, PJ Carlesimo, instructed Sprewell to put more power behind his passes, the player reacted angrily.
He grabbed Carlesimo by the throat and began to choke the coach. Sprewell then stormed out of the building only to then return 20 minutes later to continue the assault.
David Stern, the NBA's commissioner, levied Sprewell with an 82-game suspension, a ban that was later reduced to 68 games after the player appealed the decision.
The suspension cost Sprewell $6.4 million in lost salary and his violent outburst led to him being dropped by Converse, the show company with whom he had an endorsement deal.
"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," Sprewell told ESPN Classic's SportsCentury series of the incident
"I wasn't choking P.J. that hard," Sprewell told 60 Minutes. "I mean, he could breathe."
This wasn't Sprewell's first brush with controversy. In 1993, he'd fought with teammate Byron Houston. And in 1995, an altercation with Jerome Kersey led to Sprewell threatening his teammate with a plank of wood and claiming he'd return with a gun.
And while serving the suspension for the attack on Carlesimo, Sprewell was charged with reckless driving for his part in a 90mph car crash that injured two people.