Doing White Thing? Maybe Not, but the Punishment Is Too Light

About this time last year, a black professional athlete choked his white coach, left the building, then returned in hopes of attacking him again.

For this, Latrell Sprewell received the most expensive penalty in professional sports history.

He was suspended for 68 games. The missed work cost him $6.4 million.

How I applauded.

Race? This wasn’t about race, this was about morality.

Double standard? No, Sprewell was being treated like any employee who assaults his boss.

It was an easy case, an easy column.

Until Sunday afternoon, when Kevin Greene picked up my theory by its flimsy collar and shoved it backward.

Greene, a white linebacker for the Carolina Panthers, attacked white assistant coach Kevin Steele on national television.

Yes, he only grabbed him by the shirt, and, yes, he shoved him only about 10 feet.

But he attacked him.

For this, Greene was suspended for one game.

The missed work will cost him $117,647.05.

The NFL said nothing.

Kevin Greene is no Latrell Sprewell.

His attack was not premeditated. It occurred moments after the Washington Redskins had scored a touchdown through a hole he was supposed to be filling.

His coach wanted to know where he was. Greene explained he was given the wrong defense. The coach pointed. Greene jumped. Stuff happens.

There is a difference between an emotional outburst during the heat of a game and an attack during a lull in practice--particularly when a second, attempted attack comes later.

There is a difference between the wrinkles on Steele’s shirt and red marks on P.J. Carlesimo’s neck.

There is a difference between a guy who was instantly, tearfully sorry, and a cretin who has shown his repentance by suing everyone in sight.

But is there a $6.3-million difference?

I think not.

This is not to say that Sprewell didn’t deserve everything he got, because he did.

The Golden State Warriors did right by trying to nullify the remaining $23.7 million on his contract, and an arbitrator was weak by reinstating most of the contract.

Often after such incidents, the offending athlete spends the next few months trying to make nice with everyone, trying to prove that he isn’t such a bad guy after all.

Not Sprewell. If anything, he has shown that he is even a bigger lout than we thought.

His latest act of suing agent Arn Tellem for not protecting his salary in the event that he would be suspended for choking a coach would be laughable, if it wasn’t so sad.

This is not a defense of Sprewell.

This is an offensive against the treatment of Greene, who wasn’t even removed from the game when the incident happened, even though it was still early in the second quarter.

“They got together and got back to where [Greene] regained his poise,” said Dom Capers, Carolina coach. “I felt it was fine to put him back in at that point in time.”

Right. As long as your most famous player is happy, you’re happy.

Funny, but two weeks ago, Capers wasn’t so lenient when running back Fred Lane grabbed his crotch during a touchdown dance.

Lane’s penalty? The same as Greene’s. One game. Go figure.

Greene should have been suspended at least for the rest of the season. Since that is only two games, he also should have been forced to miss the first few weeks of next season.

He should have been fined by the league, which apparently cares more about shirts being untucked than off-field thuggery being unchecked.

Yes, even though a game was being played at the time, this attack occurred off the official playing field, the same as if it happened in a hallway or parking lot or alley.

The difference between the shoulders and the neck is inches.

The difference between the penalties given Kevin Greene and Latrell Sprewell is light-years.

It should have been mere miles.

Which raises the question.

Why?

There are many possible excuses. There are no acceptable ones.

Maybe those in power don’t feel there is any reason to be afraid of the blond-haired, swaggering Greene.

Last year, maybe those in power felt they had every reason to fear the sulking, corn-rowed Sprewell.

Or maybe those in power figure that the weight of an incident is measured by the color of your skin.

A black guy attacking a white guy is an assault.

A white guy attacking a white guy is an argument.

Maybe. I hope not. We all should hope not.

“No matter what happened, you can’t justify what Kevin Greene did,” Capers said.

You also can’t justify what Capers didn’t do.

Mike Minter, the Panther sitting on the bench next to Greene during the incident, spoke for many who saw the incident on television when he said, “I was thinking, ‘Wow.’ I couldn’t believe it.”

When something like this happened a year ago, it seemed that everybody believed it.

Race? Maybe.

Double standard? You bet.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com