Former Warriors guard Brian Shaw was on the roster during an infamous 1997 confrontation when All-Star forward Latrell Sprewell notoriously chocked PJ Carlesimo in practice. Shaw revealed the full story behind what went down between Sprewell and the coach on that day while talking to Paul George on Podcast P.
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“We’re at practice one day, PJ comes in and goes, ‘You gotta give me more than that’ to Spree. Spree was a worker. He said nothing and continued shooting, he went away. He came back a couple of minutes later, ‘If that’s all you gonna give me, get the f**k out of my gym.’ Spree said, ‘You say one more thing to me, I’ll f**k you up.’
He came back and said something again, and that’s when Spree took the ball, dropped it, walked over to PJ, and grabbed him around the neck. The other player, because of how PJ used to talk to them, was like, ‘f**k it, go ahead. Choke the sh*t out of his ass.’ He was like a crazed animal, he never let go of PJ’s neck. He was kicking assistants trying to pry them loose. They finally did it, security came in and kicked him out.”
Sprewell’s career was dramatically altered after this moment. He had been a future cornerstone of the Warriros up until that point, making three All-Star games on the franchise in the previous season. The choke led to Sprewell being suspended for the rest of the season, as he had to fight in court to stop the Warriors from terminating his three-year, $27 million contract entirely.
The Warriors would eventually trade him to the New York Knicks, who used him off the bench as a role player due to concerns about his demeanor after the choking incident. But Sprewell proved to everyone he was a changed man, gradually earning a bigger role and returning to the All-Star Game in 2001 with a Knicks jersey on.
He retired in 2005 on the Timberwolves, turning down a contract from the franchise he still regrets. He averaged 18.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 4.0 assists for his career, making four All-Star appearances and one all-NBA First Team appearance from his time with Golden State.
Brian Shaw Revealed How The Warriors Punished Everyone Who Took Sprewell’s Side
Shaw is an assistant coach himself, currently working for the Clippers and having enjoyed stints on the championship-winning Lakers as well. Despite him being a coach, Shaw still thinks that the coaches and front office in Golden State treated Sprewell and the players who supported him badly.
The first instance came with the team instructing the players not to talk about the choke as the team leaked the news to the media to paint Sprewell negatively.
“By the time I got home, and I lived 10 minutes from the practice facility, they already had pictures of PJ’s neck and the finger marks on his neck. The Warriors got to put out their spin on what happened, but we got a gag order and couldn’t talk about it. They ended up suspending Spree for the rest of the season. All the endorsements he had, they dropped him, kinda painted him as the villain. We don’t condone what he did, but there are two sides to every story.”
Shaw then revealed that he and a bunch of Warriors players decided to show their support for Sprewell by standing behind him during his first press conference after the incident. This gesture led to Shaw and other players getting either traded or cut from the franchise.
“We decided as a team that when he has a press conference, we’re gonna go and stand behind him as a show of support to our teammate. Me, Bimbo Coles, Joe Smith, Felton Spencer, Duane Ferrell. Robert Horry, who was playing for Houston and we were about to play them, even came and stood behind with us. We stand behind him, he apologizes, and two weeks later, what do you know? I am in the hotel, I get two knocks on the door. It was PJ Carlesimo. ‘You and Joe Smith have been traded to Philadelphia for Jim Jackson and Clarence Weatherspoon. All that stood behind him were either traded or cut.”
It’s wild that the Warriors went through all this trouble to shield an at-best mediocre coach like Carlesimo. He joined the Warriors in 1997 after failing with the Trail Blazers, being sacked by Golden State by 1999. He would return to the league as an assistant under Gregg Popovich. His next attempt at head coaching was becoming the first coach in the history of the OKC Thunder but got fired 13 games in after going 1-12 to start the season.
He last coached in the NBA as the interim head coach of the Brooklyn Nets in 2013.
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