12 Players who turned their back on the Golden State Warriors

3. Latrell Sprewell

Latrell Sprewell should be known for how he built a long basketball career from humble beginnings. The Wisconsin native went from playing basketball at a community college for two seasons to going in the first round of the 1992 NBA Draft, where he was selected by the Golden State Warriors.

Sprewell was good from the jump and an All-Star by his second season, when he made the All-NBA First Team and finished second in Defensive Player of the Year. The 6'5" wing was a lockdown perimeter defender and averaged 21 points per game that year to boot. He would make three All-Star Games in his first five seasons in the league.

The moment in question for Sprewell came in December of 1997, when the guard got into an argument with head coach P.J. Carlesimo during practice that ended with Sprewell threatening to kill Carlesimo and then grabbed him around the throat, choking him for 7-10 seconds before he was dragged off of him. A few minutes later he came back and punched Carlesimo.

The incident kicked off a serious chain of events, including a season-long suspension and a reckless driving charge that included three months of house arrest. At the time, Sprewell's 68-game suspension was the longest such suspension in league history until Ron Artest missed 86 games in the "Malice at the Palace" incident.

Unsurprisingly, Sprewell never played another game for the Warriors. They sent him packing to the New York Knicks and never looked back.