Any other day, the Bulls would be the talk of the town. But with Latrell Sprewell’s grievance hearing against the NBA and the Golden State Warriors taking place here, the game between the Bulls and the Portland Trail Blazers played second fiddle in the city’s sports pages.
Thursday was the third day of testimony in the hearings. The league suspended Sprewell for a year for attacking Golden State coach P.J. Carlesimo, and the Warriors terminated Sprewell’s contract with three years and close to $24 million left on it.
Sprewell and the players union filed a grievance, arguing that the penalty was too harsh.
While most of the Bulls declined comment on the Sprewell case, coach Phil Jackson said the Warriors had a right to fire Sprewell. He also said the NBA’s one-year suspension might have been too severe.
“I think there’s some reason to say that might be a little bit long,” Jackson said. “To take away his opportunity to earn money for that amount of time, I think there’s some ways to bend around that so that everyone can be happy.”
Jackson said it was only a matter of time before a situation such as the Sprewell-Carlesimo confrontation arose.
“Occasionally, you’re going to have ruffled feathers–these things will happen. We just hope it’s settled in a way the players, the owners and the coaches all feel comfortable with.”
Jackson said it’s incumbent on coaches to stop incidents short of confrontation, which is difficult in an age of more temperamental players.
“By that I mean not bringing things to a confrontational mode every time,” he said. “There are other ways of doing it. It’s not a win-lose thing with every conflict.”
More on Sprewell: Bulls third-year forward Jason Caffey was a teammate of Sprewell’s at the University of Alabama. Caffey was a freshman when Sprewell was a senior.
“I was surprised because I know Latrell on a personal level,” Caffey said. “Nothing like that ever has happened in the years I have known him.”
Caffey believes Sprewell’s punishment was too severe. “Any time you take a man’s total income away and just leave him out to dry, not knowing where he’s going to get his money for his next meal, it’s pretty harsh,” he said.
Running free: Nobody was surprised that Scottie Pippen’s best offensive game of the season–29 points Tuesday against the Vancouver Grizzlies–came during this trip. The Western Conference’s wide-open style of play suits Pippen. He always seems to play well against teams from the West.
“It’s more of an open-court game,” Pippen said. “It’s more geared for running and getting up and down the floor. It’s a more athletic game than in the East, which is more of a halfcourt style of game. I’m more of a runner, I guess you can say.”
