MILWAUKEE — Latrell Sprewell is making another homecoming tonight but don’t expect him to be cursing out the good people of Milwaukee when the Knicks face the Bucks.
Sprewell, fined $10,000 for cursing out Golden State fans Nov. 20 upon his return to Oakland, grew up in Milwaukee and lives here in the offseason. He spent yesterday visiting family and friends, but Washington High School athletic director Jim Hughes wasn’t holding his breath for a visit from the school’s most famous graduate.
Hughes said Sprewell hasn’t kept in touch with his alma-mater; he was last seen at one of the school’s basketball games his rookie year in the NBA, 1992-93.
Incredibly, Sprewell didn’t play his first year of organized ball until he was a Washington High senior. Sprewell spent a couple of years living in Michigan but returned to Milwaukee when he was a junior.
“The head coach (Clyde Rusk) saw him playing basketball in the gym and asked me to try to recruit him,” Hughes said yesterday. “I looked up his records and he had all failures. But his grades improved the next year and he played for us.”
The then-6-2 Sprewell led the conference in scoring (24 ppg.) in 1988 and led Washington to the state quarterfinals. However, there’s no trophy case commemorating Sprewell. Is it because Sprewell, who recently signed a $61.87 million contract extension, has never donated anything to the athletic department? Hughes says no.
“We’d make a bigger deal about him here if he played more than one season and had set all our records,” Hughes said.
Knicks held an optional practice yesterday in Milwaukee solely for Patrick Ewing’s benefit.
Chris Dudley was one of the participants to give Ewing a sparring mate. Knicks usually don’t practice after a back-to-back.
Allan Houston is fourth in the league in 3-point shooting (51.1 percent).