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joec32033
Posts: 30640
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Joined: 2/3/2004
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Posted by Elite:
 That reminds me of a story about 4 months back...Eddie Johnson got arrested for rape: Fast Eddie's fall from grace
ex-hawk soars no morePrison looms as permanent home for former NBA all-star facing sex assault charges
Nov. 19, 2006. 01:00 AM
TRAVIS REED
ASSOCIATED PRESS
OCALA, Fla.
Fast Eddie Johnson used his lightning-quick first step and dead-on jumper to star for 10 years in the NBA. But cocaine stole his talent and his freedom, and the two-time all-star has spent much of his adult life as a drug-addled thief and prison inmate.
No longer No. 3 for the Atlanta Hawks, he's now inmate 0009158. As a habitual felon, he faces life in prison if convicted of charges he sexually assaulted an 8-year-old girl and a 25-year-old woman in separate incidents.
"I don't blame anybody for what happened to me but myself. I could make excuses, but there's no excuse," Johnson says from behind a jailhouse glass partition.
"It's not the money. People fail to understand, when you're involved with the drug culture, it's the hustle that goes along with it.''
This Eddie Johnson is not to be confused with another former NBA player by the same name. That Eddie Johnson starred with Phoenix and now works as a television analyst for the Suns.
The Eddie Johnson who now spends his days in a Florida jail without bond awaiting trial is the son of a labourer and custodian who engineered his own meteoric rise and fall. He grew up around Ocala, a central Florida town about 95 kilometres northwest of Orlando famous for its thoroughbred horses, in a religious family and a good neighbourhood.
"You could leave your doors open. When I did something at somebody's house, she'd whup me and my mom would whup me," the 51-year-old Johnson said.
He was a good student and never got into much trouble as a youngster, his high school coach Hugh Lindsley said. Johnson was creating a buzz even as an eighth grader, and started all four years for Lake Weir High School. He ran the junior varsity kids ragged the first couple of games as a freshman before Lindsley called him up.
"When he was a sophomore he could dribble between his legs and behind his back, and back then it was pretty much a hot-dog, except Pete Maravich was doing it," Lindsley said. "I said, `You can throw a pass behind your back, but it dang sure better go where it's supposed to go.' And it usually did.''
Atlanta made him a 1977 draft pick out of Auburn. Johnson averaged 15 points and five assists a game in nine seasons with the Hawks and one with Cleveland, including a best of 19.1 points per game in 1980-81.
He did a 1986 rehab stint for cocaine. After working his way back into the league from the Continental Basketball Association and catching on with the Seattle SuperSonics in 1986-87, the NBA suspended Johnson for failing to follow through with drug counselling.
Johnson is still at his playing size — 6-foot-2 and about 185 pounds — with a lean, muscular build and quick smile. His faded red-and-white jail jumpsuit hangs loosely, his brow furrowed by age and his mouth prominently missing a front tooth.
He readily acknowledges a long rap sheet and persistent drug problems, but denies ever stealing anything despite frequent accusations. He also vigorously denies doing anything inappropriate with the 8-year-old girl and the woman he's alleged to have sexually assaulted.
Johnson is accused of entering an apartment where an 8-year-old girl was home without a parent. He allegedly had her young brother lock the front door, took her into a bedroom, assaulted her and said not to tell anyone. That was three days after he allegedly broke into a hotel room and raped a 25-year-old woman.
"The worst thing about this is that because of my charges I'm being treated as a sexual predator," he says.
In August 1989, he was arrested for breaking into two houses and acknowledged stealing $9,130 (all figures U.S.) worth of goods for crack cocaine money, court records show. Later that year, he admitted unlawfully entering a woman's home and taking her $250 VCR to sell for $20 on the street.
In 2000, Johnson struck a deputy several times during a drug arrest. He said during booking that he tried to punch the man's nose, but couldn't.
Later that year, he was chased down after making off with $98.94 in clothing from a Target store.
"Small town guy makes it big, now everybody doesn't understand what all happened, except it went from the good old days to what it is now," Lindsley said.
Johnson spent much of the money he made in the NBA, but saved some and still receives deferred payments. He declines to provide details, but wrote in a court affidavit of indigent status that he made $300 weekly.
He has written his own court motions to dismiss or reduce his bond, and persistently tries to represent himself despite having no legal background. Johnson says he is a few dozen credits short of a college degree.
Johnson is proud of his three kids, saying they all have graduated from college.
"I'm not an unintelligent black man. I'm an intelligent black man. I paid my dues for what I've done previously," he says.
Johnson says drugs drove his previous misdeeds, and he's happy now to have gotten past addiction. But he also said that after the 1986 rehab stint.
"Eddie was a great talent, great competitor, very likable person," said Memphis Grizzlies coach Mike Fratello, who coached Johnson at Atlanta. "There were some concerns at the back end of his career there with what exactly was going on.''
Johnson says he doesn't keep up with anyone from the league, but he's still "Fast Eddie" around the Marion County Jail. There, he reads and writes and plays a lot of basketball.
Facing habitual felony offender laws that can double sentences, a conviction likely would make prison his permanent home court.http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&col=970081562040&c=Article&cid=1163890210112&call_pageid=969907729483Th papers reported it was this Eddie Johnson:  But he was out of the country at the time, and the real criminal was this guy:  Imagine coming home to that after a vacation! Full Story at the time. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14294738/
Aug. 11, 2006
Eddie Johnson is still getting over what he calls the worst day of his life.
He scratched his way out of the Cabrini-Green housing project in Chicago, fashioned a long and successful NBA career, turned that into an opportunity on TV and built a reputation as an all-around good guy who loves to work with kids.
His worst scrape with the law involved a couple of traffic tickets.
Now he’s dealing with a case of mistaken identity that shocked him and his friends and, he fears, may have permanently sullied his reputation.
“Devastating. Hard to explain,” Johnson said Thursday.
Eddie Johnson was mistaken in some media reports for another Eddie Johnson — a retired 10-year NBA player from Florida who was arrested Tuesday night and charged with sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl.
The Eddie Johnson who had nothing to do with that hideous accusation is a former Illinois star who went on to a 17-year career with the Kings, Suns, Rockets and other teams. But when some media reports about the alleged crime included his bio information and file photo linked on the Internet, his phone started ringing.
“The thing that disappointed me the most is some people were overzealous enough to think it was me and attack me with a ferocity I can’t comprehend,” Johnson said in a telephone interview from his home in Phoenix. “That’s the part that didn’t allow me to sleep last night. That’s the part that forced me to reach out to as many people as I could and say ‘Shame on you, that’s not me.”’
Edward Arnet Johnson is 6-foot-8, does color commentary on Suns telecasts during the season, gives motivational speeches and runs basketball clinics for youngsters. He has a DVD that teaches kids how to shoot the jumper. He retired from the NBA in 1999 and is 47.
Edward 'Fast Eddie' Johnson Jr., who retired from the NBA in 1987, was charged with sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl.
“He called me really upset about it,” said Charles Barkley, a former teammate of Johnson’s, who wanted to help him set the record straight. “It’s a tough situation. He was on vacation in Hawaii. He gets back and the first thing he knows, he’s dealing with this. And he’s such a good dude. It’s an unfortunate situation.”
Edward “Fast Eddie” Johnson, Jr. — the one being held in a Florida jail on sexual battery and burglary charges — is a 6-foot-2, two-time NBA All-Star who played most of his career in Atlanta. An Auburn alum, he retired in 1987 and is 51.
“I feel bad for Eddie Johnson of Phoenix and I feel really badly for Eddie Johnson of Auburn, because he never got his life together,” Barkley said.
When Eddie Johnson of Phoenix was still playing and Eddie Johnson of Auburn was retired and getting into frequent trouble with the law, there was little problem differentiating between the two.
“There’d be a news story about Eddie Johnson, but they knew it wasn’t me, because I was on the court and in the box score,” said Eddie Johnson of Phoenix.
Now that they’re both out of the game — and especially during the offseason, when Johnson isn’t on TV — the chances are better for a misunderstanding like the one that occurred this week.
Eddie Johnson of Phoenix said his goal Thursday and for the next several days was to get the word out about who he really is — and isn’t.
“My name is everything,” he said. “I don’t fault the other Eddie Johnson for having that name. I think it’s a great name. He just doesn’t happen to be a great guy.”[Edited by - joec32033 on 11-22-2006 12:56 PM]~You can't run from who you are.~
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11/22/2006 12:41 PM
