Maybe Latrell Sprewell had it right, for once.

On March 28, ESPN.com ran a story from Insider columnist Chris Sheridan, who had attempted to track down the mercurial NBA star at his home. Sheridan was greeted by a belligerent Spree at the doorstep, and the athlete – who was obviously in the middle of attempting to feed his family and had no time for an interview – ordered the pesky reporter away, threatening him with sending "someone out there to take [Sheridan's] head off." A Bucks scout had warned Sheridan to look out for Spree's dogs.

Unfortunately, they were not deployed and Sheridan is still employed. At the time, I wrote that Spree was wrong and had overreacted.

Looking back, knowing he knew Sheridan, I don't blame him at all.

So why the disdain for Sheridan?

Well, it stems from his July 20 posting, where he rips into Mike Krzyzewski in stunningly pompous fashion.

It's an Insider article, so you have to be a paying member to read it (this is akin to dropping a five spot to have somebody run a fork along a chalkboard in front of you), but for those of you who aren't I'll give you a summary:

Krzyzewski, who is coaching the U.S. national team and has some decent credentials, gave his team a mission – dominate the competition. Sheridan, who is a blowhard and has lackluster coaching credentials, thinks it's just about the most absurd thing since Hair Club for Men.

"LAS VEGAS -- It didn't take long for Mike Krzyzewski to screw up royally in his new job as coach of Team USA. He did it before day one was even in the books.

Rather than tell the team its job is to win the World Championship on the night of Sept. 3, Coach K gave the players exactly the kind of misguided advice they didn't need to hear.

"We have to go out there and be dominant for 56 quarters -- every quarter of every game we play. That's our mission," Gilbert Arenas told me following Team USA's first practice Wednesday.

"Who on earth told you that?" I asked.

"Coach Mike," Arenas replied.

Well, Coach Mike or Coach K, or whatever you want to call him, is dead wrong, and Insider is not afraid to say so.

Firstly, any one guy who speaks of himself as a larger, inanimate entity needs a shoe to the head. Whether there's a foot and leg attached or if it's flung across the room is entirely up to you. But Chris Sheridan calling himself "Insider" reeks of a self-important, pretentious putz. And Getoffus isn't afraid to say so.

Yeah, it's an ESPN.com Insider article. You're an Insider columnist. We get it. But Insider isn't saying jack. You're the columnist, it's your name, your photo, your opinion. Say so. Say "And I am not afraid to say so." Or if you have to be ostentatious in one form or another, say "And Chris Sheridan is not afraid to say so." But saying that Insider isn't afraid to say so? It's both odd and pathetic.

I understand in a news story using the name of the publication so as to avoid a situation where the writer's name is used. Like "phone calls by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette were not returned" is fine. But this is a column, it's okay to say "me", "I", "this guy" or whatever.

Now, on to the actual gist of his rambling. He shreds Coach K for telling his guys they need to dominate. Sheridan says they just need to win, and it's ridiculous to raise expectations to that level and even goes on to say that losing is fine, as long as they bounce back and just win the whole thing.

"You know what would have been a better message, Coach K? How about this: "I don't care if you lose, and I don't want you losing your confidence if you do lose. I want you playing at your peak seven weeks from now. I want us at our best when this mission finally gets serious." -- Chris Sheridan

Hmm ... how many teams has Sheridan coached? I've never known a coach to walk into the locker room and tell his guys "Guess what fellas, we need to win. But if we don't, cool. We'll get 'em next time."

Even in lopsided matchups (and Team USA vs. any country isn't going to be terribly lopsided in favor of the latter), coaches may say they have a tough road ahead and it's going to be tough, but they try to instill some sense of hope and confidence in their team.

Here in July, well before competition begins, Sheridan wants to beat Coach K with a blunt object for trying to get his guys motivated.

Once the games begin, do you think Krzyzewski will totally berate his players if they aren't dominating? I don't. I do think, however, that he's trying to instill a sense of urgency in the guys at camp, letting them know that Team USA has struggled for far too long and now's the time to go back in, make a statement, and reclaim what's rightfully theirs. What's wrong with telling your players "We need to go out there and destroy everybody"?

And here's the thing ... Sheridan doesn't even know exactly how or what the coach said. He got it secondhand from Gil Arenas, who may or may not have been paraphrasing. So go ahead and settle on down, Chris.

If it's okay to roll out the hyperbole and say that a few guys assembled to play basketball are really playing for national pride, then it's fine for their coach to be somewhat hyperbolic and say "let's go dominate for 56 quarters." Leave no doubt. Have some swagger. I like it. I like it a lot.

I don't like Chris Sheridan.

Can you imagine Sheridan in a fight? You know he'd never say "I'm going to kick your ass." His fighting words are probably more along the lines of "I am going to fight you and hope to gain the upper hand. You may bludgeon my nose initially, but I will not lose confidence or teeth, and I just hope to throw my best punches at the end."

But I digress.

What kind of life must that guy lead? He got all kinds of bent out of shape over one thing a coach said to his team, one thing that Sheridan didn't even hear. I can see Sheridan hearing the news from Arenas, turning bright red, shaking his head with veins popping out of his neck, stomping his foot and exclaiming his disbelief and his intentions of seeing that this IS NOT over. He probably then stormed right to his laptop and showed Coach K who's the boss. If he has a wife, he probably griped to her about it half the night. If he has friends, he probably called both of them up right away and broke this very important story to them.

Guys like this give the media, particularly sports media, a bad name. It's sensationalism. If he disagrees with Krzyzewski's method, why not just say "I'd do it this way". Offer up an opinion. But to write an overly scathing criticism and brag about taking the guy to task? Over that? You can write that same piece 500 times and it's still not getting you your elementary school lunch money back. But hey, way to show 'em, tough guy.

To me, Coach K's stance is a non-issue. But even if I disagreed, I'd try to do so with some semblance of respect and tact. In the case of Sheridan, I'll just throw respect and tact out the window since those are foreign terms to him anyhow. He deserves neither.

He doesn't deserve his blog either, but he's got it. And today he followed up with boasting about having covered every Team USA game since 1996 and how he's seen more international basketball than Krzyzewski has. I guess the committee really screwed up in its coaching hire. They should've hired Chris Sheridan, lord of international hoops knowledge.

The Global God goes on to show us that even the players aren't worthy. He asked some of them how to call a timeout in international play. Well, those morons all missed it ... because players can't call timeout – only the coaches. And I'm sure that would take them all of 1.3 seconds to figure out. It's not as if they have only played with one set of rules their entire lives.

But hey, who am I to oppose Sheridan? He's seen it all and knows it all.

And Insider's not afraid to say so.