Sprewell's career was overshadowed by a 1997 incident in which he choked and punched then-Warriors coach P. J. Carlesimo during practice, which resulted in a 68-game suspension.
Sprewell played competitively with the Three Rivers Community College Raiders Basketball Team in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, from 1988 to 1990, and from 1990 to 1992 for the Alabama Crimson Tide, where he was a teammate of future NBA players Robert Horry, Jason Caffey, James Robinson, and Marcus Webb.
His performance steadily improved, leading the team in scoring and representing the Western Conference in the 1994, 1995, and 1997 NBA All-Star Games.
Sprewell took the case to arbitration and the contract voiding was overturned, but the league suspended him for the rest of the season without pay, which amounted to 68 games.
During the time he was serving his suspension, Sprewell was charged with reckless driving for his role in a 90-mile-per-hour accident that injured two people.
[8] Due to the NBA lockout, Sprewell did not play again until February 1999,[9] after the Warriors traded him to the New York Knicks for John Starks, Chris Mills, and Terry Cummings.
[citation needed] The Knicks, who at the time still revolved around veteran All-Star center Patrick Ewing, narrowly qualified for the 1999 playoffs, making the field as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.
They navigated past the Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks and Indiana Pacers, becoming the first eighth seed in NBA history to reach the Finals, where they met the San Antonio Spurs, who beat them in five games.
He tallied 35 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the Knicks' 78-77 Game 5 loss, and was featured on the cover of the September 1999 issue of SLAM Magazine.
In the 2003–04 season, Sprewell became part of the league's highest-scoring trio alongside superstar power forward Kevin Garnett and point guard Sam Cassell.
On October 31, 2004, the Minnesota Timberwolves offered Sprewell a three-year, $21 million contract extension, a substantial pay cut.
Having once more drawn the ire of fans and sports media, Sprewell had the worst season of his career in the final year of his contract.
One month into the 2005–06 season and without a contract, Sprewell's agent, Bob Gist, said his client would rather retire than play for the NBA minimum salary, telling Sports Illustrated, "Latrell doesn't need the money that badly.
Several days later, Gist said that Sprewell planned to wait until "teams get desperate" around the trade deadline in February, and then sign with a contending team—an eventuality that never materialized.
In October 1994, Sprewell's four-year old daughter was mauled in the family backyard by one of two pet pit bulls, having an ear bitten off and suffering bites to her face.
[20][21] In July 2009, a Westchester County, New York mansion Sprewell owned went into foreclosure status,[22] but that action was dismissed on motion of another party's attorney.
[24] As of 2022, Sprewell's Instagram profile stated he was working in community relations with the Knicks and as a media personality for the Madison Square Garden.