New York, NY (My Sportsbook) - New York Knicks swingman Latrell Sprewell is suing the New York Post for $40 million on libel charges, regarding a published story detailing how the basketball star broke a bone in his right hand.

Sprewell was fined $250,000 by the Knicks two weeks ago, six days after the four-time All Star had surgery on his right hand. The fine was levied in response to Sprewell's supposed failure to tell the team about the injury to his shooting hand, which happened two weeks before the Knicks began training camp. In the lawsuit, Sprewell also seeks to recover the $250,000 fined against him.

The New York Post previously reported that Sprewell may have broken his hand by throwing an errant punch at the boyfriend of a woman who vomited on his yacht.

At the core of the suit is a series of articles written by Marc Berman, the Knicks' beat writer for the Post. The lawsuit alleges that the articles were published with a "reckless disregard for the truth, as being libelous and causing damage to Mr. Sprewell's reputation." The articles in question were published and repeated by the New York Post on October 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th of this year.

"We believe we have a strong case against NYP Holdings and Mr. Berman," said Stephen G. Weizenecker of Weizenecker, Rose, Mottern & Fisher, PC, of Atlanta who is Mr. Sprewell's counsel. "We are confident that the facts presented by us in the courtroom will prove the reckless disregard for the truth demonstrated by Mr. Berman in his articles published by the New York Post. It is time to set the record straight and give the public the truth about these matters."

The 32-year-old swingman will be out at least six weeks and will need to wear a cast for a month. He will miss at least the first two weeks of the season.

Sprewell, who remains banished from the team, was suspended without pay by the Knicks on Monday for not adhering to the rehabilitation program developed by the medical staff. The suspension is effective for tomorrow's preseason contest against Utah.

"We are very disappointed that we have to take these steps with Latrell, but his actions with regard to his rehabilitation have left us no choice," Knicks general manager Scott Layden said. "It is essential that Latrell follow the rehabilitation program developed for him by our medical and training staffs so his injury heals and he gets back in playing shape as soon as possible, and to date, he has not done that.

"On several occasions during the past week, Latrell has defied team instructions, and the terms of his contract, with regard to his rehabilitation. He failed to begin supervised workouts last week as he was instructed to do, and more recently, removed the splint from his hand without consulting with team doctors. The team has no choice but to take this action at this time."

Sprewell suffered a displaced fracture of the fifth metacarpal on his right hand, although it has yet to be revealed how the injury occurred.

According to a timeline of events detailed in the lawsuit, Sprewell stated that he broke his hand when he slipped and fell on his yacht on September 8, sometime after his birthday party, during a typical boat outing. The injury involved his right pinkie.

The lawsuit contends Sprewell reported the injury on September 30 to Knicks team trainer Mike Saunders and head coach Don Chaney upon arriving at the club's facilities for training camp. That same day he got an x-ray that showed a hairline fracture of the pinkie and Sprewell chose to have surgery.

Sprewell averaged 19.4 points, 3.9 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game during the 2001-02 season -- his fourth with the Knicks. He was acquired by New York from Golden State after he sat out most of the 1997-98 campaign for choking then-Warriors' coach P.J Carlesimo.