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 Case dismissed Lawsuit challenging Sprewell suspension thrown out
Posted: Monday March 29, 1999 07:20 PM
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Latrell Sprewell's lawsuit against the NBA, challenging his 68-game suspension for choking his coach, was dismissed Monday by a federal judge who said it was so worthless that Sprewell must pay the league's court costs. Sprewell, whose original one-year suspension was cut to the remaining 68 games of the 1997-98 season by an arbitrator, claimed in his $30 million suit that the punishment still exceeded the arbitrator's authority and that he was a victim of racial discrimination. He noted that a white player, Tom Chambers, wasn't suspended for punching a Phoenix Suns assistant coach a few weeks before Sprewell attacked Golden State Warriors coach P.J. Carlesimo. U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker first dismissed the suit last July, saying its factual claims were too vague to prove any legal violations. He gave Sprewell one more chance to file an amended suit with more specific claims, but said the player should seriously consider dropping the case. Sprewell re-filed the suit, but Walker said the new version was virtually the same as the old version, and neither one had any legal merit. Sprewell's "second baseless [suit] forced unnecessary expenditures by defendants [the NBA and the Warriors] and a wasteful diversion of this court's resources," Walker said in a ruling made public Monday. He invited the league and the team to submit statements of their attorneys' fees and expenses for the dismissal motion. Sprewell will appeal the dismissal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said attorney Robert Thompson Jr. "Latrell made the decision to appeal because he believes strongly in his case," Thompson said by telephone from Atlanta. "We're very confident about the results on appeal." Frank Rothman, a lawyer for the NBA, said Walker was right to penalize Sprewell for a frivolous suit. "Mr. Sprewell had his full hearing in arbitration," Rothman said. "He wanted a second shot at it and the law doesn't give you that. "For choking the head coach the way he did, he should have been charged with a crime. I think he got off very light." Sprewell, a former all-star guard, argued with Carlesimo during a practice in December 1997, then grabbed him around the neck and threatened to kill him, according to witnesses at his arbitration hearing. After they were separated and Sprewell left the floor to shower and change, he returned and, according to witnesses, punched Carlesimo and threatened him again. The Warriors initially suspended him for 10 games, then terminated the last three years and $24 million of his contract. The league increased the suspension to a year. But arbitrator John Feerick, after a lengthy hearing, ruled the punishment excessive and ordered Sprewell reinstated last July 1. He was later traded to the New York Knicks. Sprewell said the 68-game suspension cost him $6.4 million in salary. His suit sought the return of $5.4 million as well as additional damages. He argued that the arbitrator had exceeded his authority by allowing both the league and the Warriors to impose separate punishments. He also accused NBA investigators of destroying interview notes and doctoring evidence. The suit claimed racial discrimination on several grounds: that whites like Chambers were treated more leniently, that the Warriors had insisted on broader rights to terminate Sprewell's contract than they demanded in white players' contracts, and that most of the team's and league's upper management is white. Walker said the arbitrator had reasonably concluded that Sprewell's punishment was authorized by the NBA's union contract, and had considered and rejected his complaints about the evidence. Feerick also examined the Chambers incident and others cited by Sprewell and found that differing punishments were based on the seriousness of the offense, not the race of the player, the judge said. Sprewell's factual claims, even if proven, would not show that the Warriors or the league were motivated by racism, Walker said. And even if racial bias were shown, the judge said, Sprewell failed to demonstrate "a public policy that specifically militates against suspension of an employee who violently attacks his employer."
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