Imagine you are the star player of an NBA team, and one day you accidentally injure your hand while on your boat during some free time.

At the time of the injury you don’t find it to be that serious so you don’t report it to your team right away. Shortly after that, a newspaper prints that you broke your hand while attempting to hit a man whose girlfriend had vomited on your yacht.

Your team finds out and decides to fine you $250,000, suspends you for one game and doesn’t allow you to be with the team while rehabilitating your hand — all because you didn’t report the injury as soon as it happened.

On top of all of that, your shooting hand is broken. You have decided to sue the newspaper for $40 million. You are now engaged in a war of words with your team president, and you still can’t practice with your team to see how they are progressing.

All this because of a broken hand, and the season hasn’t even started yet.

This doesn’t sound like the best way to kick off a season, does it? But it is exactly what is happening with Latrell Sprewell and the New York Knicks.

I think it is absolutely ridiculous.

Let me go back even further and tell you that the Knicks struggled last year with a major void in the post game, so they acquired Antonio McDyess, a solid big man, from the Denver Nuggets.

McDyess was having a very good preseason until an unfortunate injury knocked him out for the season — meaning Sprewell is even more important to the Knicks right now.

Sprewell first entered the media as a troublemaker in 1997. As a member of the Golden State Warriors, he was suspended by the league for 68 games without pay for attacking and allegedly choking his coach.

From there, he signed with the Knicks, and since then has been nothing but a good investment. He has averaged nearly 20 points a game while helping lead them to the playoffs every year except last year, and he led them to the finals in 1999.

Now Sprewell, who hasn’t been in any trouble for five years, is being treated as some sort of a criminal by his own front office for failing to report an injury right away.

The fine I can agree with, but the amount of the fine and the other actions taken by the team are outrageous. First of all, the quarter-million dollar fine is the largest handed down by a NBA team to one of its own players.

Keep in mind this is a league that once housed Dennis Rodman.

The Knicks should have been done right there but decided to take their best player and banish him from the team indefinitely, only allowing him to work out at their facility when the team is on the road.

ESPN.com also reported that Sprewell’s nameplate wasn’t even above his locker of four years. Does this sound like a guy who failed to report an injury, or are the Knicks treating him as if he choked his coach all over again?

The way I see it — and the reason Sprewell is so upset — is that it seems as though the Knicks are punishing Sprewell for injuring his hand during a fight.

Sprewell claims all he did was slip and fall to hurt his hand, and the New York Post writer who reported the fight is citing two eyewitnesses that do not want to be identified.

I’m not going to take an official side on this, but if Sprewell really did punch a man, wouldn’t we have heard from the man in some sort of a lawsuit or public statement?

Either way you look at the injury, it was an accident and not reporting it seems more like a careless mistake then some pre-meditated act done just to piss everyone off.

What I like about Sprewell is that he has said publicly that he is most upset because he can’t be with his team. He said he still loves New York and being a Knick, but he is very upset with the Knicks front office.

The name that is being put with all the front office actions is team president Scott Layden, so he is the one I will declare a moron.

The Knicks are already struggling with the loss of McDyess and coming off its first playoff-free season in 15 years.

And now Layden decides to disrupt this team even more?

Perhaps just a fine isn’t that a big of a deal considering Sprewell makes $12.6 million a year, but the actions taken and the fine amount has resulted in a mess that could take a couple of months to resolve.

Sprewell is appealing the fine, saying it was unwarranted because he did not realize the seriousness of the injury. He is also suing the New York Post for $40 million for printing a false story.

The fine appeal and the lawsuit are expected and understood, but the fact that Sprewell has to do all this and is still not be able to practice with his team and rehab from an injury is too much to handle and will further tear apart the Knicks.

Layden has shown how not to run an NBA team and has decided to turn the New York Knicks franchise into a frickin’ soap opera. The sad thing is that it is much easier to get rid of a player than someone in the front office.

So what lesson can be learned from all this?

Apparently, you need to report an injury right away, or your whole world will crumble around you.

Kyle Moss

is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale.