Latrell Sprewell
Jonathan Kirsch (Commentary, Dec. 14) proves that even one with his perspicacity can miss badly. His discussion of the repeated felonious acts of Latrell Sprewell in the context of abusive bosses suggests a rough moral equivalence between crime and boorishness. There isn’t one, and we are ill served by pretending to the contrary.
However loud, churlish and demeaning P.J. Carlesimo may have been, he did not merit two assaults and an express death threat. While society needs to worry sometime about the boss who is a “screamer,” this is the wrong context for that discussion. We need to keep distinct words and acts. Kirsch invites a trip down a slippery slope.
BERT H. DEIXLER
Los Angeles
*
Re “The Sprewell Incident Wasn’t About Race, but the Reactions Are,” Commentary, Dec. 12:
I was happy to see Jesse Jackson mention that not all scraps between blacks and whites are status reports on civil rights, but neither was the reaction to the Sprewell incident. The outcry from the public and the media and the stiff penalty by the league are society’s reaction to watching criminal activity by all kinds of people being plea-bargained away. This is about justice systems that are exploited by certainly the rich as well as the not so rich, regardless of race.
With regard to the often-protected world of the professional athlete, just because the cowardly actions of Shaquille O’Neal and others have been basically overlooked doesn’t justify the status quo. Society wins some and loses some. In this case, if after a deserved hearing Sprewell is found guilty, as he himself seemed to initially admit (before his self-serving apology and soon-to-come defense that his coach was unfairly abrasive), then Sprewell loses and society wins.
KIP GILMAN
Los Angeles
*
I find it troublesome to consider the entire incident a “blowup.” The initial act of violence could be categorized as a workplace blowup, but when Sprewell made the decision to return 20 minutes later to inflict bodily harm and threaten Carlesimo’s life, I would consider that a premeditated felony assault.
SCOTT ROBERTS
Los Angeles