Guys like these truly deserve each other

Rarely have two guys in sports deserved each other more than New York Knicks guard Latrell Sprewell and his boss, Scott Layden.

Separately, each has run through more second chances than Robert Downey Jr.

Together, they've run the NBA's flagship franchise into the ground.

At least there's this consolation: Whichever one winds up taking the fall for this latest adventure probably will be run out of town. Both might be.

Sprewell made his case Monday outside the Knicks' training facility. This was hours after he failed to show up at the appointed hour ordered by the Knicks, and not long after he didn't show up at all at a news conference called specifically to announce Sprewell was filing a $40 million lawsuit against The New York Post for its account of how he broke his hand.

"You've all dug up my past," Sprewell said. "Look at Scott's track record since he's been here."

We have, and it's not a flattering comparison -- for either side.

Even an abbreviated version of Sprewell's rap sheet includes coach choking, dangerous driving, insubordination and frivolous lawsuits. This is a guy who clearly picked up everything he knows about dispute resolution from "Dirty Harry" movies.

Not that Layden's skills are much better. Last month, he slapped Sprewell with a $250,000 fine for failing to report his broken hand in a timely fashion and told him to stay away from his teammates. Then, just hours after Sprewell ripped him and the organization, Layden tacked on another $137,500 in fines and suspended the player for a preseason game against the Jazz he could not have played, anyway, because of the injury.

And then, perhaps to prove he could be every bit as mercurial as Spree, Layden said he "absolutely" expected his star to play for the Knicks this season. Conveniently, Layden didn't say when that might be.

Sprewell, though, said it couldn't happen soon enough. He expects to have a return date set within a week or so.

"Stop keeping me away from my teammates," he said. "That's like saying to your kids, 'Go to your room, time out.' You already gave me a $250,000 fine. What is the deal with me not able to come around the team and work out?

"This is really dragging on too long," Sprewell added. "I think at this point, they either have to let me start coming back, or they have to tell me to really stay away."

By this point, Layden's options are limited. After shopping Sprewell around all summer and finding no takers, this latest fiasco only ensures the next offers will be for even less. Not that Layden hasn't made a mess of player moves before.

He wasn't running the franchise when the Knicks tossed Sprewell a career-saving lifeline and an airline ticket three years ago. But he took over soon afterward, following the lockout-shortened 1999 season, when the Knicks went to the NBA Finals, and they have been on the decline ever since.

Rather than rebuild, he hung on to Allan Houston and Sprewell at the maximum salary and paid way too much for Howard Eisley, Shandon Anderson and Clarence Weatherspoon. Overpaying virtually everybody on his roster has made them all nearly untradeable.

Last season, despite the league's highest payroll at $92 million, the Knicks missed the playoffs for the first time in 15 years. Worse still, Layden's desperate gambit to paper over all his other mistakes backfired when Antonio McDyess, who cost him the No. 7 pick in the draft, cracked his kneecap dunking a ball in the closing minutes of a preseason game against Phoenix.

Sprewell insists he wants to stay in New York, and Layden insists that he wants him there. But making up isn't likely to do either of them much good. Sprewell hasn't proved he can carry this team without more help -- even with him playing his best, the Knicks won only 30 games -- and Layden hasn't proved he can run an organization.

The only thing New York fans can hope for is a meltdown, another season so low that the Knicks get to pick in the lottery again, and the rebuilding effort that should have commenced at least two seasons ago gets under way in earnest. In that sense, these two have things off to a flying start.

Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press.