Game 23: Larry Spriggs - My Very Own Brownies
One of my biggest worries when I decided to do Goldstein and Gasol was having to write about someone for whom there’s nothing to write about. It’s not the ancillary people -- doctors, training staff, assistants -- I was worried about. There’s always something I can extract. Who I was concerned about were the players who were neither stars, role players, bit players, fan favorites, or even eccentric bench warmers. The players who were just there. The ones who had a brief spell on this iconic team and were quickly out of the NBA. The players who didn’t have any interesting tidbits in the mountains of books written about the Showtime Lakers. The guys whose un-Googable wives and moms were the person to contribute the recipe. The forgotten benchwarmers whose only photos online are Getty Images of them guarding a more famous superstar. Someone like small forward Larry Spriggs.
Lucky for me, Spriggs was shot three times in the back while playing basketball in Turkey.
Don’t worry, Spriggs is fine. But that’s the only thing we know for certain in this case of he-said, she-said, the-bouncer-who-shot-three-people-said that went down the night of April 4th, 1996 in Bursa, a city 150 miles southwest of Istanbul.
What’s known is that Spriggs, who played for the Lakers and Bulls from 1983-1986, was out clubbing in Bursa with fellow NBA washout Dallas Comegys. It was 1996, four years after the USA’s dominance in the 1992 Olympics sparked a Renaissance in European basketball.
Both men were highly touted high school and college prospects who flamed out in the NBA but found themselves playing in Europe for much of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Spriggs was with Oyak Renault and Comegys with Fenerbahçe, both of the Turkish Basketball League. But on that night, they found themselves in the target of a pistol-packing bouncer who shot them and a Turkish businessman named Umur Seckin. Their accounts differ, but the bouncer claimed that Spriggs and Comegys were harassing two women outside of the club. He then said that the players tossed a lit cigarette at the women, sparking a fight between their friends and the former NBA players. Then shots rang out.
Comegys was shot in the right lung and nearly lost his life. Spriggs was shot three times in the back and side, but the bullets missed his vital organs. The Turkish businessman died on the spot. The bouncer, who fully cooperated with authorities, was charged with murder and wounding with a firearm. Fenerbahçe backed Comegys’ account, saying in a statement that “our players were caught in the middle of a quarrel they had nothing do with.”
The prosecutors in Bursa saw otherwise. Eight months later, they charged both Spriggs and Comegys for their role in the nightclub brawl. The men faced up to five years in a Turkish prison. Then, the story abruptly ends. Comegys made a full recovery, played for Fenerbahçe another two years, and continued professionally balling overseas and in America into his early 40s. Spriggs on the other hand, retired after that shooting and quickly flew back to Los Angeles, where he told the Associated Press that no charges were ever filed against them.
“There are absolutely no charges pending myself or Dallas. I have no idea where that story came from. I’m sure I would’ve heard if I had been charged with anything… We were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
In other words, the complete opposite of how he ended up enshrined in basketball history as a member of the 1984-1985 champion Los Angeles Lakers.
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“My Very Own Brownies”
2 ⅓ cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
1 ½ cups butter (softened)
3 tablespoons vanilla
2 large eggs
12 ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
⅓ cup water
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, combine sugars and butter, beat until creamy. Add eggs; beat. Gradually add flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and water; beat. Add vanilla. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Spread onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes, then brown on top rack for 3 minutes. Cut into small squares and let cool on tack.
This recipe from Barbara Spriggs, Larry’s mom, purports to be a brownie. But it’s really just a rectangular cookie. This recipe had no cocoa, no fudge, and no chocolate besides the chips. I thought “maybe the chips will melt and give it the consistency of a classic brownie.”
Nope. This is just a chocolate chip recipe that you spread out on a cookie sheet in the shape of brownies. I wonder if Larry Spriggs spent his whole life thinking that this is what a brownie looked like. How many arguments did he get into from middle school cafeterias to the expensive catered meals at The Forum after taking a bite of a chocolate chip cookie and saying “This brownie can’t compare to my mom’s!”?
These “brownies” tasted great though. Shout out to Barbara, a woman who would not be corrected.
