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The new NBA player reflects a knowledge of his importance to his team as well as to-the-decimal point cognizance of how he contributes to the bottom line. Sprewell doesn't walk into Madison Square Garden as if he owns the joint. He walks in as if he knows very well who does, and as if he doesn't owe the landlord a single solitary thing--except the best game he can play.
Sprewell, 29, has just moved into a sprawling home in the suburban town of Purchase, N.Y., a sign--like his recent, five-year, $61 million deal with the Knicks--that he's there to stay. Until recently he lived at a Marriott Residence Inn, where his black Mercedes CLK 430 was parked out front with all the other vehicles. The car seemed a raven among sparrows, and it stated emphatically: Spree is home.
In social situations, Sprewell has always had a disposition to solitude. His parents divorced when he was young, and he moved around a lot. Back home in Milwaukee, in high school, he says, "I was to myself until I played basketball." He didn't actually play organized hoops until his senior year. For Sprewell the NBA was the goal of somewhat fanciful--or incredibly prescient--career planning. "My girlfriend [at the time] was pregnant with my oldest daughter, so I needed to go to college," he recalls. "The best way for me to get there was basketball or football. In my senior year good players left the hoop team--a perfect opportunity for me to go out."
Sprewell excelled, went to junior college and then to Alabama and ended up 24th pick in the 1992 NBA draft. He became the first rookie in Golden State's history to set down at least 1,000 points in a season. A workhorse, he led the team in minutes played. But he was suspended twice for missing a practice and for "conduct detrimental to the team."
He plays basketball, he says, for six reasons: his three girls and three boys. He's unmarried but active in their lives, and he often shows up (late, sometimes, even on game day) at the Garden with four or five of them in tow. "[Having kids so early] pushed me toward wanting to do something with my life. At 17 I was, like, 'O.K., you've got a kid--you've got to make a way.'"
That he has, and it allows him a second love, the open road. Near his home in Los Angeles is Sprewell Racing. It's a high-performance tire- and wheel-shop featuring lots of things that make you go zoom. "I drive all the time," he says. "I used to drive back and forth to school--to my junior college in Missouri, then from Alabama to Milwaukee. I've driven from California to Milwaukee by myself three times. I stop--sleep in the car for a couple of hours and then back on the road. I enjoy driving...not as much as basketball."
Then, with quiet weight, Sprewell says, "I'm a fighter, definitely. But I don't pick fights. I'm more the type that's defensive. If you're pushing me to the wall, I'm going to come out the corner swinging hard."