Are NBA Stars Out of Bounds Off the Court?

July 2, 2004 -- NBA players are the highest paid and among the most talented athletes in the world, but the league is facing an image problem. Too often, the best players on the court are landing in criminal court.

Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant spent the playoffs shuttling between the basketball court and a Colorado courtroom, where he is contesting a rape charge. Retired New Jersey Nets star Jayson Williams recently made headlines as he faced manslaughter charges in the shooting death of his limousine driver. He was acquitted of manslaughter, but found guilty of attempting to cover up the shooting death. The jury deadlocked on a reckless manslaughter count; he faces another trial on that charge.

Few Cases Get Wide Media Coverage

But many cases involving NBA players are never widely reported. A sexual assault case against Portland Trailblazer Ruben Patterson — the NBA's first registered sex offender — is just one example.

Patterson's victim was a 23-year-old woman, who agreed to be identified as "Jenny." Jenny says Patterson assaulted her in 2000 when she was working as his children's nanny. She said Patterson followed her down the hall naked one night and grabbed her.

"The more I was resisting, the angrier he was getting," she said. Jenny told police Patterson forced her to perform oral sex.

"When you get into the documents and the transcript … you find out it's a brutal crime," said lawyer and journalist Jeff Benedict, who researched the case for his new book, Out of Bounds: Inside the NBA's Culture of Rape, Violence and Crime.

"He basically palms a girl's head like a basketball and has her perform a sex act on him that anybody who knew about that would say, 'This is outrageous,' " Benedict said.

The Bryant, Williams and Patterson cases are just a few of dozens of criminal cases involving current or former NBA players, according to Benedict. Of the 417 American-born players in the 2002 NBA register, he managed to obtain information on 177.

He found that 71 of them — or 40 percent — had been investigated, arrested or convicted of a serious crime.

How Widespread Is the Problem?

Billy Hunter, a former prosecutor who is now executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, the players union, says Benedict has wrongly lumped accusations in with convictions and has blown the problem out of proportion. He also says that there's a racial component to Benedict's claims.

"There is a market in dumping on blacks and black athletes in particular. I think it sells," Hunter said.

Benedict acknowledges that public access laws allowed him to investigate fewer than half of the players, but says he finds the numbers "still pretty outrageous."

Hunter says too much emphasis is placed on the alleged wrongdoings of a few players. "I think our biggest problem is that we have a few guys who engage in miscreant or aberrant behavior — and everybody gets painted with a broad brush," he said.

But Benedict says he has documented that more than just a few players have been accused of criminal behavior. He uncovered a laundry list of charges against dozens of players, charges that include rape, domestic violence, assault and illegal weapons possession.

Players' Defense Tough to Beat

Obtaining a conviction against an NBA player can be difficult, particularly in rape cases, Benedict says. When women accuse athletes of sex crimes, he says, they're taking on not only the player, but a network of support that surrounds him.

"There's an enormous set of nets that go up around this player, because he's more than a human to these guys, he is a commodity, he's a product, and he's got to be protected," he said.

Seattle attorney John Wolfe, who has represented many pro athletes, including Patterson, agreed that a player facing criminal charges has an extraordinary array of resources available.

Wolfe would not discuss Patterson or any other specific case, but he explained the strategy he uses when defending high-profile clients.

"You have options that you don't in other cases," he said. "We can engage experts to assist with jury selection issues. We can engage experts to assist us with the evaluation of forensic evidence or other physical evidence."

In the Patterson case, Jenny said she soon discovered that the focus was on her history and credibility, not the accused's. Investigators delved into her sexual history and her private life, but Patterson's defense team never found a way to discredit her.

"She had no history of having sexual affairs or even an interest in NBA players. You had essentially Snow White," Benedict said. "That's what you need if you're going to bring a successful case against an NBA player."

And for Patterson the stakes were high. In addition to any criminal penalties he might face, there was a $33 million contract with the Trailblazers on the line.

Jenny's case never went to trial. Patterson's team was able to resolve the case without widespread publicity. While he pleaded guilty to attempted rape, he used a legal mechanism to deny wrongdoing. He was required to register as a sex offender and was sentenced to 15 days in jail. Incredibly, Patterson was permitted to serve that two weeks at home — in the off-season.

Jenny said the lenient punishment Patterson received felt "like a slap in the face."

"My life has completely turned upside down as a result and he gets 15 days of vacation at home," she said.

The day after Patterson finished his sentence at home, the Trailblazers held a new conference to announce his new $33 million contract.

Four months later, Patterson's wife, Shannon, called 911, saying her husband was trying to choke her. She told police that she had been abused by her husband for six years but later dropped the charges.

Jenny said it makes her angry to see Patterson on national television making millions of dollars. "I don't want it to be OK with the general public," she said. "I don't want posters of these guys on kids' walls."

The Two Faces of the NBA

Increasingly, players, as well as the league, have conflicting images. Some players seen in commercial endorsements have also made appearances in criminal court.

So how does the NBA respond when its players have problems with the law? NBA Commissioner David Stern has said, "We are not going to tolerate uncivilized behavior."

Hunter, who negotiates which penalties the NBA can impose, says he feels the league has doled out appropriate punishments. In the case of Patterson, who pleaded to a misdemeanor, the NBA suspended him for five games without pay. That amounted to a loss of $500,000 for Patterson  a sum arguably dwarfed by his multimillion-dollar contract.

The league took much harsher action in the case of Latrell Sprewell, who, while playing for California's Golden State Warriors, attacked his coach, P.J. Carlesimo, during practice. Although Sprewell was never charged in the incident, the team terminated his contract, a move that cost him $6.4 million. He was suspended from the league for nearly a year.

Why the discrepancy in penalties? Hunter said Sprewell's case "was an active assault that was engaged in the presence of a group of players — and obviously if you don't address that, the whole team, the whole administration, becomes somewhat defunct."

Kathy Redmond, director of the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes, a nonprofit organization aimed at educating the public on issues regarding athletes and violent behavior, says the NBA doesn't care about misconduct that affects anyone off the court.

"Raping someone, beating up your spouse, cheating on your wife, does not affect the cohesion of the team — so that's OK, and we'll protect that," she said.

Hunter maintains that game suspensions and fines are substantial punishments. But Benedict says the punishments for off-court crimes amount to a slap on the wrist.

"I think it sends a message that this isn't very serious," he said.