Sprewell & the Sports Law

[Steve Huffman <stevhuff@eastky.net>]

I found this article under Sports Law.

“Players First
Sports Management Inc.”

The Latrell Sprewell Incident

What will happen next?

On Wednesday, December 3, 1997, the 1-14 Golden State Warriers
 terminated the four year $32 million contract of starting guard
 Latrell Sprewell who had been leading the team with an average
of 21.4 ppg. A day after the contract was terminated, Commissioner
David Stern added an additional one year suspension, preventing
any team from re-signing Sprewell until December of 1998.

The next day, the Players Association filed grievences on behalf
of Latrell Sprewell challenging both the suspension and contract
termination. The results of these grievence hearings should set
the groundwork for future disciplinary action in the NBA and
other professional leagues.

Should Golden State be allowed to terminate Latrell Sprewell's
contract?

Section 16(a)(i) of the uniform players contract provides:

"The team may terminate this contract ... if the player ...
 shall .. at any time, fail, refuse or neglect to
conform his personal conduct to standards of good citizenship,
 good moral charater (defined here to mean not engaging
in acts of moral turpitude, whether or not such acts would
constitute a crime) and good sportsmanship ..."

The allegations against Latrell Sprewell, twice physically
attacking his coach, P.J. Carlesimo, would  appear to fall under
this language.

The language of this clause, though, can be very ambiguous.
One picking up a newspaper can find several acts of NBA
players that would be considered poor citizenship, questionable
 moral  character, or bad sportsmanship. From Scotty Pippen's
 refusal to play in the closing seconds of a playoff  game to Alan
Iverson's arrest for possessing a handgun, the NBA cannot place
its players on a pedestal of prime examples of good citizenship
and sportsmanship. A broad reading of this clause could   give
carte blanche to any NBA team to start trimming large salaries
of marginal players to promote such ambiguous goals as
"citizenship, morality, and sportsmanship."


The battle in this case will not be over what Latrell Sprewell did
(assuming there does not exist some overwhelming justification
 for his actions such as a racial slur) but instead on what should
be the appropriate standard to judge a player's conduct under this
clause.

Look for the Players Association to attempt to establish a strict
 standard which would only punish repetitive behavior. For example,
 "a team may terminate a contract if the player engages in repetitive
 acts of such an outrageous or reckless manner as to shock the
 conscious of the public."

While such a standard may not save Sprewell, he has been accused
of twice attacking the coach, it will make it difficult to punish
players for isolated incidents.

The League itself will look for a more relaxed standard to judge
 players conduct. Perhaps urging the arbitrator to terminate a
 contract based solely on "willful misconduct". (A term used by
the Federal Government to determine whether an employee
 forfeits his entitlement to unemployment  compensation
benefits). While a more liberal standard would enable more
players to be released, the  ability of any other team to sign
the player and improve their club would deter such actions,
letting the free agent market  restrict the number of times
players would be released.

While Latrell Sprewell fights for the balance remaining on his
32 million dollar contract, his lawyers will be fighting to set
the standards by which all future terminations under the
morality clause will be judged.

Was David Stern's one year suspension reasonable?

The standard contract also grants the power to the league
 to fine a player up to $25,000.00 or suspend a player for
 any amount of time. Given the size of NBA contracts,
the power to fine a players is meaningless next to the
power to suspend a player. The NBA Players Association
has rightly conceded that Sprewell should be fined and
suspended for his actions. The issue at hand, though, is
 whether the one-year suspension is unduly excessive.




The issue will not involve significant legal battles as fights
 over suspension have taken  place in the NBA, NFL, NHL
and MLB. Sprewell will be aided by the fact that except
for Mike Tyson's suspension for biting Evender Holyfield,
 his suspension by far exceeds that handed out in professional
sports for other outrageous conduct. To uphold the suspension,
 the arbitrator would reset the standard  to judge future
conduct, allowing more sever susupensions to be handed down
by the league.

Expect Sprewell's suspension to be reduced dramatically.
 While it still may end up being the longest suspension in NBA
history, it will not be out of line with past disciplinary actions.

OTHER LONG TERM SUSPENSIONS IN PROFESSIONAL SPORTS

NBA     Kermit Washington
               One punch knockout
               26 games

NBA     Dennis Rodman
                6 incidents including kicking camerman
                21 games

NHL     Dale Hunter
                Deliberate late hit after goal scored
                21 games

NHL     Tom Lysiac
                 Tripping official
                 20 games

MLB    Albert Belle
                Striking player with forearm/Using illegal bat
                2/6 games

NFL     Michael Irvin
                Conviction of drug charge
                5 games

MLB    Roberto Alomar
               Spitting on umpire
               5 games

MLB    Julian Tavarez
               Throwing umpire to ground
               3 games



Steve Huffman

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