Warriors coach P.J. Carlesimo always had closed practices so, at first, no one noticed anything wrong on the day of Dec. 1, 1997. But while beat writers chatted with the first-year Warriors coach, one reporter noticed long scratches across Carlesimo's neck.
"I made a joking comment, 'Did you cut yourself shaving today? Did you have a bad razor?'" a reporter recalled in an ESPN Classic documentary on Sprewell. "And he looked at me and he said, 'No comment.'"
By the end of the day, the sports world was stunned to learn Carlesimo had been choked by star Latrell Sprewell — and it only got stranger from there.
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Twenty years later, exactly what went down at Warriors practice that day is still something of a mystery. In the absence of cameras, we only have the eyewitness testimony of coaches and teammates. But supposedly, the incident went something like this:
Carlesimo had been riding Sprewell hard since arriving at Golden State that season. That day in December, he allegedly told Sprewell he wasn't passing sharply. Sprewell didn't like that.
"He was telling him he wasn't throwing passes hard enough," then-Warriors teammate Bimbo Coles told ESPN in a documentary. "It's embarrassing when a coach does that to you."
Carlesimo and Sprewell started jawing at each other, crossing the court until they were close enough to touch. Then, Sprewell reached out a choked Carlesimo with his bare hands and, according to some reports, threatened to kill him.
"I wasn't choking P.J. that hard," Sprewell famously said on '60 Minutes.' "I mean, he could breathe."
After a few shocking seconds, players pulled Sprewell away from Carlesimo, and Sprewell was ejected from practice. He took a shower, changed into street clothes and then — according to the Warriors organization — he returned to commit a second assault on his coach, punching Carlesimo before being escorted out.
"If it had been a boxing match, his blows would have scored points," a source told the Examiner at the time.
It's been 20 years since Latrell Sprewell choked Warriors coach P.J. Carlesimo: Where are they now?
"I made a joking comment, 'Did you cut yourself shaving today? Did you have a bad razor?'" a reporter recalled in an ESPN Classic documentary on Sprewell. "And he looked at me and he said, 'No comment.'"
By the end of the day, the sports world was stunned to learn Carlesimo had been choked by star Latrell Sprewell — and it only got stranger from there.
---
Twenty years later, exactly what went down at Warriors practice that day is still something of a mystery. In the absence of cameras, we only have the eyewitness testimony of coaches and teammates. But supposedly, the incident went something like this:
Carlesimo had been riding Sprewell hard since arriving at Golden State that season. That day in December, he allegedly told Sprewell he wasn't passing sharply. Sprewell didn't like that.
"He was telling him he wasn't throwing passes hard enough," then-Warriors teammate Bimbo Coles told ESPN in a documentary. "It's embarrassing when a coach does that to you."
Carlesimo and Sprewell started jawing at each other, crossing the court until they were close enough to touch. Then, Sprewell reached out a choked Carlesimo with his bare hands and, according to some reports, threatened to kill him.
"I wasn't choking P.J. that hard," Sprewell famously said on '60 Minutes.' "I mean, he could breathe."
After a few shocking seconds, players pulled Sprewell away from Carlesimo, and Sprewell was ejected from practice. He took a shower, changed into street clothes and then — according to the Warriors organization — he returned to commit a second assault on his coach, punching Carlesimo before being escorted out.
"If it had been a boxing match, his blows would have scored points," a source told the Examiner at the time.
It's been 20 years since Latrell Sprewell choked Warriors coach P.J. Carlesimo: Where are they now?
choking nikkas like I'm sprewell 
to spree. Glad he choked that cac and let him know we won't tolerate be looked down:escosalute:
