Spreewell Snubed for NBA All-Stars

[XZavirer]

Well well well, what a surprise. Hey genius. When you strangle your coach you can pretty well expext that the rest of the coaching minnions aren't gonna be voting you any invites to the All-Star Game. Duhhhhhhh!

[MrJack]

It's nice to see one of the true sleazeballs of sports get stiffed by the all star voters....Had I choked my boss, I'd still be in prison....Latrene Spew-well sucks!!!
:barf: :barf: :barf:

[caliyanksfan]

sprewell has apoligized for that incident ad nauseum and has proven to be a different man now, both on and off the court.

i don't know how NBA all-star voting is done, but i think this is a shame. if the fans had more clout in this issue (at least the new york fans), houston would not have been the only knicks player to have made the team.

btw, what do you guys think of the harrington/strickland trade? (since you seem to enjoy giving your opinions so much).*

~~jl

*sorry, i could not resist. i LOVE sprewell;).

[PettittesPrincess]

I'm glad Latrell wasn't voted in. I thought Jason Williams shoul dhave been from the Kings though. In the Sacramento area the fans all had voting drives to get Weber in though, and I guess it worked.

[Nome]

I really cannot venture an opinion about whether Spree belonges on the All Star team or not. As it turns out he was named as a replacement for an injured player.

What I can say is that when the coach strangling incident, I was so incensed I wanted nothing less than to see him banned from basketball for life.

More recently my opinion has softened. While there is absolutely no excuse for what he did. At the same time Carlissimo must bear some blame for the incident. His in the face, abusive coaching style needs to be weaned out of sports. We don't need him or Bobby Knight as coaches. They ALMOST deserve retribution. Again Spree bears the brunt of his action but Carlissimo wasn't an innocent bystander.

My opinion has NOT softened because he is on the Knicks. The only thing being on the Knicks has done for my change in attitude is that he is more visible to me than he would be playing for Portland or San Antonio.

[patrick.o]

The reality is that if one of us choked our boss, we probably wouldn't be in prison. If our boss decided to press charges (which PJ could have done but declined) we would probably get probation at worst. That wasn't a mugging or an attempted robbery that involved an assault, is was an assault after an argument and a history of verbal beration, and it caused no permanant damage or hospital time.
And you would not be banned from working in whatever industry you work for. If your employer let you go, you could go to any other employer in your industry and get a job, especially if you are very good at doing something that not very many people are good at.

Lots of people think there is a double standard for celebrities, that they get away with things that regular people can't. While in some cases that can be true, I think the real double standard is that celebrities are much more castigated and publicly humiliated for their mistakes than regular people. If seahorse is having a lousy day and is rude to some little kid, it doesn't sully his reputation the way it does if Knobluach is rude to an autograph hound. If caliyanksfan gets a DWI and is found to have a tiny bit of pot on her she doesn't get publicly humiliated and though of as a bad person like Cliff Robinson. If Nome has a fight with his boss and his co-workers have to pull him off, he doesn't get suspended from the entire industry he works in for a year and then have strangers make a choke sign at him when he finally gets back on the job.
When athletes achieve their goal of becoming one of the best at what they do, they inherit the burden of fame. Some guys are like Jeter and embrace the burden. Others are like Barkley and shun it. But either way if they make a mistake there seems to be no forgiving and forgetting by the public, only rehashing.

I was appalled by what Spreewell did and also by the pitbull story. But he's been a model citizen since the day he put on his Knicks uniform, a team leader, a stand up guy with a great attitude. He hasn't once shown any inclination that those things in his past were the rule rather than the exception. Some people do change, do regret some of the things they did in the past, and do mature. I'm admittedly not so great at forgetting, but I can forgive.

Everyone deserves a second chance.

[caliyanksfan]

you're right about the double standard, patrick. but, i also agree that every deserves a second chance.:)

~~jl