Latrell Sprewell Choking Incident Often Gave Media Wrong Idea

The media got it wrong when it came to how it portrayed former NBA player Latrell Sprewell. In 1997, Sprewell infamously choked his coach P.J. Carlesimo when he was playing for the Golden State Warriors. Sprewell received a 68 game suspension and labeled a pariah. In January 1999, Sprewell was traded to the New York Knicks in exchanged for Terry Cummings, Chris Mills and the Knicks beloved two guard John Starks. At the time, Sprewell still had the incident hanging over his head. The media constantly brought it up and were largely adamant about portraying him in a negative light. One of those media members was former New York Times columnist Mike Wise. He was assigned to write about Sprewell being a massive stain on the game of basketball. He wrote the piece, but ultimately had an epiphany about Sprewell's game. "The New York Times Magazine asked me to write a long piece on Sprewell about not why he's a bad person, but why he's bad for a basketball team," he said in an interview with Back In the Day Hoops on