Happy 4th! + Latrell Sprewell: The American Dream

intrupted by the occasional laugh when I saw tubby Victor Alexander.
That was really the time when I was becoming a huge W fan.
Sidenote: saw two warrior jerseys walking around last night at Universal City Walk (Davis and Fisher).  A rare sighting here in LA.

One of my favorite pre-choking coach memories was a Warriors road game in Atlanta.  I don't remember what year it was, but the Warriors were losing and off an inbound pass with a few seconds left, the Warriors ran a screen for Spre and he nailed a 3 at the buzzer!  The team ran off the court with the upset win!!

Spre was drafted for his defense, which he was great at, but when he realized he could score in this league, his head grew big and he didn't play as hard on defense as when he first started.  Sadly, I'll always consider him a player with a great chance to be a part of something big, but never really realized his potential due to his ego.  

The Warriors had their chance to build a true contender around Spree and Webber, with veteran leadership of Mullin and Hardaway, and a legit head coach in Don Nelson back in '94.  It's too bad the stars on the team also turned out to be huge headcases.  

Webber left because management sided with Don Nelson.  Then Don Nelson leaves the organization, so the Warriors lose their best player and the head coach that the best player clashed with.  The results were 24 fewer games won the next season.

I don't think having Spree after the PJ incident would have mattered much.  That happened 3 or 4 years after the Warriors last made the playoffs, and they were never close with Spree.  If Spree, Webber, and Nelson could have co-existed, the Warriors probably would have made the playoffs for the rest of the decade and been contenders in the West for a couple of years.

Great dunks and steals on the highlight reel.  Spree played well with the Warriors but his career went downhill starting with the last year he was here.  He shot pretty poorly from the field (career 42%), especially for a guy who drove to the basket a lot.  His defense did decline as pgtogo stated.  He also never got close to as many assists again, and his TO went up.  I don't think he's any better than JRich now, and I think JRich has the potential to be better. And he hasn't imploded the team the way Sprewell did; that puts him way ahead IMO.