Thursday, December 1, 2005

This player really did choke (his coach)...

If you were the proverbial fly on the wall at Golden State's practice on December 1, 1997, you would have heard something like this transpire between the coach and his superstar player: Coach: "Okay Latrell let's make those passes crisper, you've gotta step it up, I don't care if this is practice or not", Superstar player: "I don't want to hear it today, just back off". Enraged, the superstar player surprised everyone by lunging at the coach. The next sound heard would come from the coach: "aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrghhhhh, I....ca-ca-can't breathe, let go of me...ca-ca-can't breattttthhhhe"...

Latrell Sprewell after administering a windsor knot on coach P.J. Carlesimo's neck without a tie was then ushered off the practice floor apparently to get his second wind. Sprewell would return about 20 minutes later to throw punches at the coach, landing a glancing blow before being separated by his Warrior teammates...

The sports world waited to see how Golden State would penalize Sprewell, responsible for the first known incident of a player choking a coach but it was a short wait. Sprewell was suspended for a year and the remainder of his 4 year, $23 million contract was terminated...

Where are Carlesimo and Sprewell today ? The answer follows in my commentary...

1913) The first service station opens in Pittsburgh...

1917) Father Edward Flanagan opens "Boy's Town" in Nebraska (the farm village was for wayward boys. In 1979 it was opened to girls (so how come they didn't rename it "Boys & Girls Town" ???)...

1924) The first pro hockey game in the U.S. is played at the Boston Arena with the Boston Bruins beating the Montreal Maroons 2-1 (both teams had just become members of the 7-year old NHL which previously consisted of just 4 teams, all of them in Canada)...

1942) Nationwide gasoline rationing begins in the U.S. (to conserve fuel for war efforts)...

1955) Rosa Parks, a black seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, refuses to give her seat on a bus to a white man. Mrs. Parks was arrested marking a milestone in the civil rights movement in the U.S...

1957) Buddy Holly & the Crickets and Sam Cooke make their debuts on "The Ed Sullivan Show" (they perform "That'll Be The Day" & "You Send Me" respectively)...

1960) Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee become America's favorite couple as they walk down the aisle...

1965) An airlift of refugees from Cuba to the U.S. begins...

1968) Janis Joplin makes her final appearance with Big Brother & the Holding Company...

1969) The U.S. government holds its 1st draft lottery since WWII...

1972) Martha & the Vandellas make their farewell appearance in Detroit, fittingly...

1973) David Ben-Gurion, the founding father of Israel and its 1st prime minister dies at 87...

1982) Epic Records releases its all-time selling LP "Thriller" by Michael Jackson (to: Epic Records: on behalf of everyone at CBS Records, THANK YOU)...

1992) In Mineola, Amy Fisher is sentenced to 5 to 15 years in prison for the shooting and serious wounding of Mary Jo Buttafuoco (Fisher was known as the "Long Island Lolita" for her affair with Joey Buttafuoco, Mary Jo's husband)...

1997) A 14-year old student opens fire on a morning prayer group at a high school in West Paducah, Kentucky, killing 3 students and wounding 5...

1997) Latrell Sprewell chokes his coach (feature story)...

1997) Westinghouse formally changes its name to CBS...

1998) Exxon announces the purchase of Mobil for $73.7 billion creating the largest company in the world to-date...

2002) Michael Vick of Atlanta sets an NFL single-game record for quarterbacks when he rushes for 173 yards, including a game-winning 46 yard TD run (the previous record of 150 yards was set by Green Bay Packer QB Tobin Rote in 1951)...

Happy Birthday To...

1934) Billy Paul ("Me & Mrs. Jones")...

1935) Woody Allen...

1935) Lou Rawls...

1939) Lee Trevino...

1940) Richard Pryor...

1945) Bette Midler...

1946) Gilbert O'Sullivan (I pick up the hat trick today having worked on Gilbert, Billy Paul and Lou Rawls product in my record promotion days)...

1960) Carol Alt...

Commentary...

Following the choking incident, Sprewell sat out the rest of the '97-'98 season but signed with the Knicks the following season, played several more years before finally retiring. He would be fined and suspended again in those years and in 2004 in the final season of a $62 million contract said he was insulted by an contract extension offer of between $27 million and $30 million and was quoted as saying: "I've got my family to feed". Unless his family was the size of Texas, that mere pittance should have been enough...

P.J. Carlesimo stayed 2 years as coach of Golden State after the choking incident and is now an assistant coach at San Antonio...

This humble blogger thanks you...Mel