Crime in Sports - #414 - The Endless Summer - "Fast" Eddie Johnson - Part 1

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

This week, we find out about a man who had an all star career, and blew it all. In part one, we find out about his humble beginnings, people's predictions of greatness, and the start of his cocaine fast downfall. He loves his coke, flees off a 2nd story balcony, while being shot at, and has no idea how buying things works. He goes from golden child, to being used as an example for everything that's wrong with sports, in a 4 month period!!Shoot hoops on your rusty bucket, mounted on plywood, become a hero in your hometown, and do so much cocaine that doctors are pretty sure that you'r mentally ill with "Fast" Eddie Johnson!!Check us out, every Tuesday!We will continue to bring you the biggest idiots in sports history!! Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman Donate at... patreon.com/crimeinsports or with paypal.com using our email: [e-mail] Get all the CIS & STM merch at crimeinsports.threadless.com Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things CIS & STM!!  Contact us on... twitter.com/crimeinsports [e-mail] facebook.com/Crimeinsports instagram.com/smalltownmurderSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Distant Sports Bar, it's not about asymmetrical overlords. James, podcasting from his study and you have to say that's magnificent. James podcasting from his study and you have to say that's magnificent She was a romance mystery writer they glommed on the fact that she writes stories like this There are murders in all of the books from wonder II the makers of ghost story and that up This is a story about a murder that rocked my little community binge Binge all episodes of Happily Never After ad free right now on Wondery+. Hello everybody and welcome back to Crime in Sports! Yay! Oh yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed.

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you'll immediately get access to of bonus stuff and then new ones every other week. This week which you're going to get one crime in sports, one small town murder and you get access to all of it. You're going to want to hear it all this week for sure. For crime in sports we're going to talk about something that has nothing to do with sports but is wild. It's industrial disasters and it is just people like in a board room and then their steel factory explodes and they are melted with molten steel in 12 seconds. It's amazing. It's wild stuff. Crazy, crazy deaths and all sorts of insanity. Then for small town murder, we're going to talk about the cannibal cop from about 10 years back.

If you remember that this was a guy who didn't actually eat anybody but no no definitely said he wanted to and they were trying to figure out if that was a crime or not. And he also happened to be a member of the police force which made it a little more complicated. So we'll talk about all that patreon.com slash crime and sports is where you get all that and you'll get a shout out at the end of the show. Jimmy will fuck your name up and we promise that from the bottom of our hearts. That said let's get into this because we have a lot of asshole in front of us here. This is gonna be a multi-parter because we're gonna do a redo which we haven't

we haven't really done before. We are gonna do, we did this guy in the first ten episodes I believe and back then we were trying for some reason we thought that no one will listen to a show over an hour. Yeah we're like we can't have it be more than an hour. So the first time we did it it was an hour long this episode and this is a guy that I mean an hour doesn't even touch. You could talk about one of his crimes for an hour and a half because it's really horrible and it's awful. So we said, damn it, we need to give him the full treatment.

We did him too early. We didn't know what we were doing yet. We did it way too early. And that's back to in the day where we were recording in my living room on bad mics. The first 46 episodes, I think, the sound is not terrific. And by the way, I'm going to try to do something about that and see if I just did a bit I'm gonna see if I can mess with it a little bit and make it a little bit stronger and louder and all that sort

Of thing so those weren't great. So we said damn it. This man has done too much He's just been way too big of a piece of shit to let slide with one hour. It's fast Eddie Johnson everybody He's by the way probably Definitely top ten worst person that we've ever done in terms of ever live me that's possible That's I mean you can't get if you bad guy if you put people in front of him It would have to be only for one reason because they they killed the person that they were doing this too So otherwise he's was a complete menace his entire career. Serial criminal.

Serial criminal, just constantly arrested. Like he'd get out of jail and they'd be like, oh man, he got arrested again. And that night he'd get arrested again. It was like, what the fuck are you doing? Stop getting arrested, you lunatic. It's fascinating that Aaron Hernandez got away with what he did for so long. But this is just as bad minus murder Oh god, he's doing horrible horrible shit, and he got caught for everything That's the other thing Eddie is not a very he's either not a very good criminal or he's so prolific at crime that These these times getting caught aren't even that often. It's just he does that much crime. Those are the only options here

He's so busy criming, you're bound to get caught a couple of times. Or he's just the worst criminal who's ever lived and gets caught for everything he does. He gets arrested so often, it almost has to be that. It has to be just that he's such a lunatic. Yeah, and I mean, I've been around cops a lot. I've had a lot of police interaction.

I've been detained, I've been handcuffed. That's a great sentence. I've had a lot of police interaction. I've been detained. I've been handcuffed. That's a great sentence. I've had a lot of police interaction. That's an awesome sentence. I've been around cops a lot when they were asking me questions. Yeah.

And I've never, I've never, the amount of times that he must have been in police presence has to be crazy, because you don't get arrested every time. No, no, and when he does too, he's got to go down to the station. It's a lot. They must have been, Lance, Eddie again.

Hey, Eddie, how you doing? You want your normal cubicle? Yeah, please. And they sit him down. They have him do paperwork since they know he's going to be there for a while. He does some HR stuff, some house cleaning while he's there. So this is Edward Lee Johnson Jr. of course.

Yes, and this was one of the first times where we started noticing. Eddie Johnson episode has a lot of firsts in it. It's our first time we discovered mistaken identities because as we'll find out at the end of this episode, there's a couple that are really unfortunate. Like if you Google search fast Eddie Johnson, you'll still get the one guy's picture most places.

It's very terrible, and he never did a fucking thing. Now this poor bastard. The poor guy, and he was a great basketball player. Nice guy, big smile. And a terrific announcer. There he is, doing what Eddie did. And then we noticed the I'm good now fluff piece also came from Eddie Johnson.

So we were like, yeah, he's good now. Yeah, everything's fine. And then the next day he's arrested again. And then the junior thing we noticed, there's a lot of juniors, you're noticing a lot of these guys are either having juniors or are juniors. So this is a landmark episode. Let's start right out. He's born February 24th, 1955 in Ocala, Florida, and I remember that very clearly.

And he's only 6'2", by the way, NBA player, but he's fast Eddie Johnson. And back in his day, I mean, if you watch old footage of him, he was a fuckin' streak. I mean, he was really fast with the ball, too. Did he play point or shooting? Point guard, point guard. Yeah, he's too small to be a shooting guard.

Well, he played shooting guard, too, a lot, but I think he's, it's weird because, yeah, he's- In the fast lineup, they'll put him at number two. But I still think that a lot of times, depending on who they have at point guard, you get your point guard would switch because the shooting guard was too big to guard him. A lot of times, you get that sort of thing,

which is nice because he's a matchup. It's hard to match him up. So that's another thing you get here. so we'll talk a little bit about him and he was in his in his day even as fucked up as he was a fucking good player that's the sad part and then you know it all fell apart from there he's the oldest of five children so yeah five brothers and sisters he's the oldest one of his brothers as we found out last time yes Frank Johnson the other point guard who again never did anything wrong so you have a California raisin but yeah you

didn't do shit bad no he was he's fine and Frank well I think he fucked like the Phoenix Suns owner's wife or something, didn't he, allegedly? And that whole thing. There was a big controversy there. I don't make accusations anymore. Fuck that, I think he was fucking somebody's wife, allegedly, I believe that was him, and he got fired or reprimanded or some deal.

Wasn't he a coach though, up there? Yes, yes. After a while too? That's when it happened, when he was a coach. Oh. When he was the coach, something was going on there. He pulled an Isaiah Thomas and There were some issues apparently I think so. This is one of those things too where you go, okay All things the same these two are from the same family. Yeah, they also have

They're an inch apart in height. It's not like one is 610 and one's 511 They're both, you know similar. They're both have very good basketball skills One goes on to be a complete fuck-up disaster terrible human being and the other is just fine just does nothing wrong So you can't like there's no telling what kids are gonna turn out like. You can have the same upbringing exactly and one kid's a disaster and one kid's fine. It's just how it works. That's life. And people find that out when they're like, we raised them the same. Why does this one suck?

There's always, there's jails full of people with parents that say that. Oh, for sure. Yeah. So anyway, let's talk about him here. His father is Edward Senior, obviously. He was a laborer. He grew up in Wearsdale, Florida. Population about 250 back in the day.

This is a small place, small central Florida community, which sounds hot, very, very hot. Not even water to get a breeze off of. And it was built to serve orange grove workers. Right. Extremely hot, extremely hot. And he, I guess they had, do you know what a smudge pot is?

Yes, it's a heater, right? Yeah, they're lit to protect the crops from the chill. Yeah, oftentimes put those in the winter. Put diesel in them. Yeah. And diesel. And that would, those in, put diesel in them. Yeah. And burn diesel. And that would, I guess, really fuck Eddie up there. He'd be outside playing basketball

and all he could smell is his eyes would be burning. Yeah, they do get smoky. Oh yeah, it's awful. He said, my father was a common laborer. He picked oranges and worked in the watermelon fields. Oof, I thought I had the basics that you need to be happy. I didn't know we were poor until I considered, or until I started playing basketball. That is the thing about being poor.

Yeah. You don't recognize it, because everybody around you also poor. That's the problem. Yeah, especially in a place like this. It's not even, like in Phoenix, you know you're poor. If you're a kid. If you get out of your circle, you know you're

poor. Yeah. If you drive anywhere in Phoenix, you're going to pass through a nice neighborhood and go, holy people fucking live there. Holy shit. Yeah. Why are they in? Why don't we get out of our house? It's 110. Why doesn't this guy have his windows down in his car? Air conditioning? Wow. What's that? What an asshole. yeah. It's cold in there? Is that what you're saying? This is a place that nobody like, you know, everybody's poor around there. There's not anywhere to go that's not poor in a small town like this. So I guess everybody was religious and all that kind of thing. He said it was a good neighborhood back then because it was all, you know, a bunch of poor

people living in a, they're all like, you know, church people was all a bunch of poor people living in, they're all like church people and all that kind of shit here. He said, you could leave your doors open. When I did something at somebody's house, she'd whoop me and my mom would whoop me. So if you fucked up, yeah, the neighbors would kick your ass and then tell your parents about it

and then they'd beat you too. That's so wild, you could go to a friend's house and their parents would beat you up. Oh God, yeah, that was a, that's a big big deal back then you get the shit beaten out of you. I love that I love that scene in Mad Men when the kid knocks a drink over and the fucking guy smacks him who's not his father and his father comes over and the guy goes you want more what are you doing like the fun he's gonna smack him too and the guy goes I already gave him a good one don't worry about it and he's like oh okay. Thank you. Thank you. That's who he was like. Thank you

And then he tell and they told the kid to apologize to the man who slapped him. Yeah Yeah, he didn't he didn't want to have to have memories of slapping a straight child, but he had to you gave him no choice He scarred that you scarred him Because he had to abuse a child. Poor bastard, this is what happens. Stop making people abuse you. So I guess Eddie would often, and this is scary, often babysat for his sisters and brothers. Really?

Now you'll know by next week, if you haven't heard the first episode, why that's a terrifying thought, that he was babysitting anybody. The youngest brother was Frank of the group, and yeah, he'll be end up going to Wake Forest and all that. And Eddie said, ever since I've been small, people had great expectations for me. Really?

Yeah, apparently, and this comes from a lot from school here, the grade school he went to before he got there, he was one of the first integrated classes into the grade school. It was all white before that. So, and he graduated 17th in his class of roughly 300 students in high school later too. That's awesome.

So yeah, so that helped a lot. And he said, I didn't think the black grade school I started out in was giving me the education I needed to survive in our society. Who the fuck knows that to think that in grade school? Imagine being in the fourth grade going, I'm not sure this level of education around me right now is enough to sustain me to survive in our,

you know, our fast-paced modern world. I just don't know. I'm trying to graduate with a 4.0. Yeah, and when you're in fourth grade. Sights, have my sights set on fucking yay. In fourth grade? I don't know about that. I think you're just like, oh, homework?

No, homework sucks. That's fourth grade. We're getting homework now? What is this? Yeah, aw man, this blows. We have to take this home and do schoolwork? Hold on, I don't leave this shit here and then just go home and watch cartoons? Forget about this? Oh man, this blows. We have to take this home and do schoolwork? Hold on, I don't leave this shit here and then just go home and watch cartoons?

Forget about this? Eddie said, I wanted to become socially involved in the middle class because you have to start in the middle to make any advance. Okay, so that's what he wants. He wants to be in the middle class. So he is a smart guy, Eddie, too, that's the thing. But he also likes to drink, just like his dad does,

as we'll talk about, and he loves his cocaine, as we know. I mean, he is, he's a big fan. Like, you know, there's like TV shows where people like enthusiastically eat like meat, and they like see how much they can eat and stuff. That's him with Coke, he would have a show. Yeah, if you dedicate your life to like, if there's a mainstay staple brand of something in your life, you have some swag from it.

Oh, absolutely. He would have a cocaine shirt. So much. Whatever the slogan is. So I feel like he would, he'd be in like a wine club for cocaine though. You know what I mean? Where they'd be sniffing it going, oh, this is telling you exactly what village it came from.

I would say south side of the mountain, shady. This is a spring harvest is what this is. I've certainly owned a Pepsi shirt. I've got a Corona beach towel. We all have some swag from somewhere. If you like a specific thing, you'll get something. You'll get that Marlboro canoe. You will.

If you smoke hard enough, son, that's a lesson that- You too can have a backpack. That's what we were taught in the 90s is a lesson. It was like, listen, if you smoke hard enough, you can earn yourself that crazy Marlboro racing team jacket that you would never wear. If you're a loyal enough customer, you may get a trucker hat.

You will get the blow-up boat. I had a friend who got the fucking blow-up boat the raft thing really oh, yeah He smoked a lot and he used to he used to go to bars and just like go through their garbages and take all the Fuck deal the miles steal the miles off of him back in the day He was like 16 doing that was it two miles or five five five miles five miles yeah You do that yeah, I had an aunt that worked at a bar that used to steal them from me. Really?

Yeah, we'd pull them up. Just give you the packs. Yeah. I don't know whatever happened to the raft. I don't know if we ever went in it, but it had like a little like seat thing in it. It was, it's pretty cool. It was yellow, bright yellow.

So fucking embarrassing. Yeah, we were trash, what do you want? That's the other, like, sure you got this product, but now everybody on earth sees you with this product and goes, that motherfucker smokes a lot. He smokes a lot, you know how many packs of cigarettes? But that was considered impressive back then, they were like, wow, you must,

you really, you know, you go for the gusto when you want something, I'm impressed. I'm up to four packs a day. Good for you. Good for you. I can't stick to things like that. I'm just not, I don't know, that's impressive to me. Yeah, the shirt was, all of them were like a lot of miles too. Everything was a lot of miles.

It was like 20,000 miles for a t-shirt. It was a lot for that shit, yeah. And they had like cartons had different miles on them too. So Eddie's father likes to drink a lot. And this is what Eddie, how he describes his father, quote, I wouldn't call it a drinking problem. No, it's never a good time. A real fun way to start something out.

If you have to start it out that way, it's not great. He said he worked hard in the field for six days, then one day a week he would celebrate. Under the circumstances, I can't blame him for the way he was. Yeah, that's just middle class living, man. That's not middle class, though. No, if you're working six days a week, that's not middle class. If you're picking watermelons in the hot fucking Florida sun six days a week, and then you have to get drunk to heal your body on one day,

that's not middle class. One day's rest after that kind of abuse on it, you're never gonna catch up. Oh, you're gonna feel like shit when you go back on Monday too. And then you're just punishing yourself with more injuries via cheap booze probably. Oh, he's not drinking fucking.

No, he's not. This is like, that 24 year old single malt here, this is what I, I only drink this. It says whiskey on the bottom, that's all it is. It had like, just Xs, just like three Xs, like oh, wow, this is dangerous. So he said, under the circumstances, I can't blame him for the way he was,

so that's interesting. But he, every, since he was tiny, all he ever wanted to do was be a basketball player, Eddie. That's it. He was shooting hoops in the back of their cinder block house all the time. He made a court out of the, it's just a sandy yard back there. It's not paved or anything. But he tacked the rim of an old rusted bucket. Yep. So like, you know a jagged the bottom broken out

onto the backboard may that he made out of scrap lumber because he just you know made a big square out of wood and That was what he played on. That's how he learned every year at Christmas He asked for one thing a new basketball. That's it every year He got a new career just won a new ball he'd wear that motherfucker out all year. Yeah. He was a good student and this is the thing in school doesn't get in any trouble. No kidding. He's a nice kid, a good kid, great basketball player, gets good grades. They go that Eddie's a hell of a nice kid. Type of kid you'd like your daughter to bring home type of guy and guy, which later on he definitely

don't want her. No, nobody's daughter or God forbid granddaughter. So he didn't do anything. His coach said that he created a buzz even as an eighth grader. They knew he was coming the next year to high school. He was big shit. He was on the junior varsity squad when he first went to high school. And it was ridiculous though,

like he was well above anybody's talent level in that. He's racking 30 points a game in JV. And they're like, well, obviously, we're moving him up to varsity here. Yeah, my son played JV his freshman year, and then there were two kids on the team. I was just, do you see, you're not gonna make varsity. Do you see what these kids are on this team?

And what the fuck? There's a large chasm between JV and varsity sports in school. There's just this. It's nuts. It's called talent to just like to play the game. It's a different level. And schools have spent so much money on the gymnasium now. Oh god yeah. A real court that's like legit real they got somebody that painted the it's crazy that's

the design on the floor is wild and then the kids are doing like high-flying acrobatic shit and I'm just like this isn't this isn't us man yeah yeah you're in a Wissman you need like a ground sport is what you're looking for. You can love this all you want, but please don't. We're built close to the ground, so let's find something a low sport if you could. Have you heard of jacks? Yeah. Do I still do that?

If you get down low, I think you'd be good at it. So they said as a quote, this is from his coach, when he was a sophomore, he could dribble between his legs and behind his back, and back then it was pretty much hot dog Except maybe Pete Marovitch was doing it right so that's they were like he's like Pete Marovitch Which if you don't know who he is look up some videos of Pete Marovitch so great. He's like yeah He's a fucking magician. You know with his passes and crazy dribbles And was he was he the the granny shot free throw is that him no it's Barry

Barry yeah, that's Barry. Oh, yeah. That's Barry, yeah. All the Barrys did that shit. Oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he did all that. He said, I said you can throw a pass behind your back, but a dang sure better go where it's supposed to.

And he usually did. Right. Yeah, you can do it, but don't fuck up doing that. Yeah. Don't do it to somebody else. Yeah, if your fundamentals are sound and you fuck up, hey, that happens. But if you throw it behind your back into the fourth row, unnecessary. How about we master it forward first?

Yeah. Well, he's also a big playground player as well, too, because he's just, you know, every minute of the day he's playing basketball and everything like that. And he and his brother are kind of known as the best athletes ever to come from the Wearsdale area. Not a lot of pro athletes from a town of 250 here. So in 1989 here, when he's in high school, he is, or no, not 1989, this is.

69, so 69, right? No, he's in, this would be, yeah, like from 69 to like 74 I believe. He's in high school, 70 to 74. So he's at Lake Weir High, it was a class AA school, and it was between an orange grove and a lake. His football team had just gone 0 and 10. Oh, promising season.

So yeah, the school is ripe for some good things to happen. They need a hero. They got so much pent up enthusiasm. We need a hero. Jesus Christ. That's what they, they're like, please. They lost 91 to nothing in one game. A football game?

A football game. 91 to nothing. Those are mad numbers. That's a basketball score numbers on rookie level. You know what I mean? That's not fair. No, in basketball people score. Who the hell hasn't shut out in basketball?

But 91 is a basketball score. That's not a football score. 91 nothing is silly. What is that, 13 fucking touchdowns? That's crazy. Yeah, that's so many touchdowns, dude. That's bonkers. So it said it was just a nondescript school. It was a country school. Not a lot of people there. So not a lot of

Great athletes there and then all of a sudden fast Eddie comes in Yeah, it earns the nickname fast Eddie very quickly because he's fucking fast and he's skilled and he's all of a sudden now His team is something to be reckoned with right Because in high school one great player can dominate all changes. Yeah. It didn't matter me and you and like you know we could have picked three other people a couple of two other people and in high school if we had LeBron on our team like he was that we would have won everything. We are amazing. We're gonna just pass it to him every time they can't him. That's pretty easy to do. So he really became kind of hot shit. One of the coaches said that Eddie made us think better

about ourselves and our school. And kids knew that he was one of them, so they cheered and went for him. Local pride, babe. Local pride, and that was the other thing too. He helped bring the races together at the school, too That was a big thing everybody cheered for fast Eddie. So it was like activism Progressive shit. This is beautiful. He's like pre murderous. OJ. Yeah

60s OJ and shit. That's what he what's what he is. So he Didn't say he said he didn't want to go to He didn't want to go to, he didn't want to end up being an orange picker there. They said that they called being an orange picker citrus tech, that's the school you went to. What school are you going to? Citrus tech, they'd say. Not bad.

Yeah, so they'd say that. I guess he doesn't really know people that have gone to college for major athletics. There's not a lot of, like there's no alumni of the school to go, well he went to here. So he doesn't really know what he's doing here, but he does say he wants to be in the NBA someday. That's his main goal, but he doesn't really know how to exactly get there. Yeah, in the eighth grade he was only 511, but he's so fast and so skilled. His one coach said, I was impressed by him and saw his potential even then. When

he got to high school, he was very polite, a bashful person. Wow, that's not the fast Eddie we know. He said he played junior varsity football as well as basketball. That's very polite, a bashful person. Wow, that's not the Fast Eddie we know. He said he played junior varsity football as well as basketball. That's weird. That's strange. I don't know anybody that did that. He's not, well he's not like a fit guy or anything. He's not like a fire plug.

He's a, you know, he's not Glenn Robinson or anything. He's a little skinny guy. I don't know anybody, I don't know. In high school, I mean I'm sure it happens, but it's very uncommon for somebody to play those two sports. Different skill sets on those sports and different body types and all that kind of thing. Size wise, yeah.

He said, we could see he was a natural athlete during the football season. He could play any position, quarterback, halfback, wide receiver, equally well. Just when you're that athletic as you're a child, you just stand so far above the other kids play any position, quarterback, halfback, wide receiver, equally well. Really? Just, when you're that athletic as you're a child, you just stand so far above the other kids that it doesn't really matter. It is very impressive to see somebody that in control of their body.

Every movement is calculated, it's crazy. Just puberty got to him faster, you know what I mean? I'll break a fucking ankle. Oh yeah, the other kids he does. We've all been there, turning to the internet to self-diagnose our inexplicable pains, debilitating body aches, sudden fevers, and strange rashes. Though our minds tend to spiral to worst-case scenarios, it's usually nothing, but for an unlucky few, these unsuspecting symptoms can start the clock ticking on a terrifying

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he averaged 30 points a game. The coach said, I moved him up to the varsity the last eight or nine games of the season, and he earned a starting position in a week and a half. Wow. That's on the freshman when he's a freshman. He was absolutely determined not to be a substitute. We won the district championship that year and Eddie was a major factor in our victory. He said aware of Eddie's inexperience the opposing school was double teaming the other guard early in the game and Eddie took advantage and

made six of eight shots in the first couple minutes in the first quarter. You leave me open, I'm going to bury you. Why would they do that? They didn't know he was a freshman. They picked the wrong guy. They picked the wrong guy. They didn't have film on these people. They were just like, oh, fuck, is this tiny little freshman?

Fuck him. Right. He said we had 12 points before the other team realized what hit him. So they said that he got better every year and he was admired in the community. The coach said that quote he was a great attraction for getting the kids to come and practice at the gym and he excited people into attending summer basketball camps. We never won the state championship while Eddie was on the team although we were runner up in 1972 his junior year which in Florida that's a pretty... played in the state championship? That's crazy that's pretty impressive. I don't think your team's done anything close to that ever. No, God

no they said but because of his influence our basketball program picked up measurably and two years after he left for college we went undefeated and took the state championship. Wow. And he didn't have to be a part of it. Nope, at their double A, so that's a very small, these are small schools obviously, but they said basketball, he's recruited all over the place, Florida State, Notre Dame, everywhere. He chooses though, he wants to go to Auburn. Yeah.

Yeah, where Bob Davis was the coach and he was. War Eagle, yeah? Yeah, there you go. The coach was a close friend of the principal at Eddie's High School. Is that right? Which is how a lot of these things go, especially if with a naive kid,

they get kinda pushed by that coach. Yeah, you trust me, you'll trust him. Yeah, listen, I'm gonna show you the right guy. These guys, you can't trust them, but this guy, I'm a friend of him for years blah blah blah so Eddie here this was a different deal for him because it's obviously a bigger school and all that but still Auburn isn't a big place it's in a small area so this is not like you know he didn't go to school in a big city where he'd be ready for an MBA career

Yeah, the college is a big college, but it's it it's everything to this town. It's not exactly yeah It's one of those in it's not at last in college. No, it's not Atlanta or anything We'll end up being here, so he said that all he did still in college was basketball and He said that all he did still in college was basketball and everybody said that his self-confidence grew and he got stronger and he just physically started maturing and all that kind of thing. And even Coach Davis from Auburn said, "'Eddie put our basketball program back on the map.'"

Which Charles Barkley ended up going there later on, 1980. I think he went there. Yeah, he did go to Auburn, you're right. He went to Auburn. He said, he was responsible for the resurgence of basketball at Auburn. Nobody's better than Eddie and he was tough. You couldn't hurt him. Besides that, he was a good, sweet, terrific kid.

He was a very compassionate young man. How about this? What the fuck happened? What? Oh, fame, coke? Yeah. What the fuck happened? What? Oh, fame, coke? Yeah. The fuck happened though? I mean if that's what happens when you get famous, I hope to Christ we fail forever man. No shit. Good, sweet, terrific kid. Compassionate. Remember those quotes for later. Just remember them because it's really disturbing.

That is wow. The NBA will fuck you up back then. I guess cocaine Really is a hell of a drug. That's yeah Rick James was never more right about that. He's never been more right about anything never it really was so in 73 74 at Auburn he plays in 26 games and Averages 21.8 a game. Oh, yeah point wise which is pretty fucking impressive here 2.9 assists for rebounds even he's That's a lot for a freshman. I mean that's what you're expecting and probably is he playing point there too cuz that's a that's some point I don't know if he's got I mean, you must be more of a shooting guard. Yeah

Scoring like crazy. Yeah, also while he's here, he begins experimenting with cocaine. Is that where he did it? That's where he started. Now, this is in the early days of Coke, by the way. Which is weird because as we have done a Patreon about this, Coke has had several incarnations in this country. It's had several moments. In the late 1800s and early 1900s,

it was fucking enormous as just a, there was advertisements for it. Everybody loved it. It was just this great thing that everybody had. Then they made a lot of it. You could only get it for prescription and then they outlawed it completely and it went away. Absolute like there's still a little bit of it, but in society pretty much it went away. And then really didn't come back again until the early 70s. And then it was so expensive, it was rare, and then by the 80s it became everything.

But it's so weird because in the 80s and 70s people acted like it never happened before. But this is the time where people didn't think it was addictive. That was the draw of cocaine was it's not addictive, like heroin or other drugs. Yeah, not addictive like pills they'd say or all that kind of shit.

So people would take it. It probably isn't like that, but it's certainly addictive. It's addictive as fuck, but for some reason, we didn't know it was really addictive. I mean that was literally the sell of it. It was like, it's really great, you feel good, you can party more, you can do this, and it's not even addictive. Oh wow, this is a wonder thing, why not?

Why wouldn't you do it? I guess it's the people with the problem saying, I'm not addicted, so yeah, it's addictive. I don't know if too it was so expensive that it would be hard to get a real good addiction going because you can only afford it once in a while maybe. I can't even afford a Coke addiction. Yeah, I can't even afford that. No, but I'm sure there was some rich people who had a fine Coke addiction going,

you know what I mean? Yeah. For sure. If you could afford it. 74-75 season here. Eddie plays in 24 games. He has 20.9 games, or 20.9 points a game, and 5.8 assists now.

So he doubled his assist output, which is pretty goddamn good. And Eddie says about cocaine in college, quote, after I did it once, I really didn't think about it anymore. Oh. No, he's like, it was just in his blood at that point forevermore itching him from the inside. He said, but then I tried it again at another

social function. It wasn't something that just came to me in Atlanta. I'd been doing it for some time. So he's saying he did it once. Wasn't like, Oh, didn't turn into an immediate coke fiend till the next time he did it. Then he became a coke fiend all the way through. So he said he showed up in Atlanta already doing shitloads of coke. Excellent. This is going to work out great here, obviously. So 75 76 season. He plays in 26 games, 19.7 points, 5.77 assists 3.9 rebounds a game he's doing just fucking great scoring points crushing it 76-77 Auburn 26 games

15.6 points 5.2 rebounds 2.6 assists and his sophomore season they went 18 and 8 and they had a lot of good players but didn't quite go as far as they wanted to go here. Eddie when he was a freshman he won the Southeastern Conference scoring title. What? Yes and became a really good foul shooter as well. And was one of the better rebounding guards even. But they, there's an article in the newspaper back then that said, Eddie evidently struggled with the burden of his emotional intensity. Yeah. Like, you know, that's emotional intensity, meaning like cocaine

addiction, I think. They just didn't know that at the time so they called it emotional intensity By his senior year the coach and the press were talking shit about him Oh his numbers went down, but um yeah He said he the coach Bob Davis said he they credit he criticized Eddie Johnson publicly and He said that quote he this is Eddie He said I didn't want to play, that I had a bad attitude. When things weren't going right, I was the one who would speak out. I felt the things I was saying were to the point

and justified my speaking out, but I got ripped up pretty bad for it. Back then in college, the coaches didn't want to hear what the players' opinions were. It wasn't important to them. You're a kid. Shit the fuck up and do what I tell you to do. That was back in the day of coaches just saying,

do it, because I told you so. That's it. I drew the play perfectly. You fucked it up. You fucked it up and don't run it differently. So they said that, this is from Coach Davis, Eddie's only real problem was that he'd get upset emotionally.

That's interesting. Is it with trolls? Who knows? I think it just kind of made a lot of times Coke just makes your personality kind of flighty if you do it a lot. It exacerbates your brain to the point of like you can't control things. Yeah it's irritating in there. He said we had a lot of battles for that reason. I stayed on him pretty tight. I could only control him by publicly criticizing him in the papers and it made me look like the bad guy but Eddie could play and not let the fact that I bothered him show. He's the kind of guy who plays better when he's responding to a disciplinarian. Like I'll show you

yeah type of shit like oh yeah don't go out and like win and so I get a raise next year. Please don't anything but that that. I stink, watch me make your life much better. Watch me get you five figures, six figures for a radio show. Yeah, and a rent-free home. Oh, that's huge too. Big Victorian, right in the middle of everything. He said, still he had a tendency to go off the deep end.

He'd get bottled up inside and he had to let it out somehow, but he wouldn't talk to anyone and he wouldn't listen to advice. That's not great for a college player. He said he developed a tendency to pick up the guys who were off beat. He felt kind of sorry for them and I'd warn him about being a public figure, but he'd tell me, quote, nobody can pick my friends. Yeah, off beat, meaning he'd hang out with Coke dealers and other people who did Coke, and this guy was like,

why are you hanging out with campus dirtbags rather than our all-American fucking small forward who's a nice kid, you know, that kind of shit. Don't pick my friend's nose. No pick my friend's nose, you can pick your nose. Pick your friends. Some of my favorite things I ever heard as a kid that like, so dumb, and I just giggled

for years. Everybody's grandfather told them that. I'm convinced of that because that's who told me that. I'm still giggling about it at least 30 years later. It's so fun. 30 is probably 40 years later. I think I heard it in my teens though, where I was like, and everybody and everybody else. Yeah, because I didn't have a family and I had my mom.

I didn't have a dad or a grandfather in my life every day. So, I didn't get the opportunity to hear unbelievable lines like that. I wish he would have, Eddie would have said that too. Nobody can pick my friends and nobody can pick my nose and God damn damn it, don't you try to pick my friend's nose, okay? There's cocaine in there. And he snorts a line. Yeah. That's right.

He said he always reminded me of a country boy who wanted peace, but when he got caught up in things, he really changed his nature. The only thing keeping him from being the superstar of all time is his ability to deal with his emotions Yeah, the other thing too is we'll find out is he's got some mental illness that we really didn't touch on very much last time Yeah, no, no, it's diagnosed now. But back then back then it was undiagnosed No, so he's got some they diagnose him as bipolar at some point romantic depressant back then. Oh, yeah They're gonna give him like lithium later

and all this type of shit. Oh Jesus. So when you add a, just a fucking monstrous with like hair and teeth and nails cocaine addiction into a fucking bipolar and all that, you are asking for, it's amazing he could fucking get to the ball, get to the court every day. Like, I was gonna say the ballpark, but that's not what we're talking about.

He's self-diagnose, or he's self-medicating and he doesn't even know it. Yeah, no, he doesn't get it at all. He said, Eddie wasn't as good as he could have been in his senior year because he was so wound up inside. He was totally involved in basketball. I don't think he went to class after the season was over. Although he could have made straight A's, he knew he was going to play professional basketball. I don't think he went to class after the season was over. Although he could have made straight A's, he knew he was going to play professional basketball. Yeah, he didn't give a fuck about college, which I mean, honestly makes sense if that's you're

preparing for your profession. Yeah. I mean, if he was like a mathematician and somebody was trying to recruit him for a job, he wouldn't be like, Oh, but I got to go to my lit class. Like fuck literature. I got a job. And no matter who they are, you still look at it and go that's so short-sighted, because you could be, I mean, and this is before the enormous paydays that they get now. Yeah, yeah. If I'm fucking LeBron James,

I don't give a shit about college, I'm gonna make a billion dollars, I'm not gonna need anything to fall back. Let's hope I don't. If I piss away $150 million, college isn't gonna help me at that point. I got bigger fucking problems. I've been doing things way wrong.

Oh good, now I'll go get a job making 68 grand a year being a middle manager, terrific. Because I lost my 150 million. I got my fucking liberal arts bachelor degree for fucking four years. Even if you got a 13 year career where you make 78 million, you're not going, you don't need a day job.

You're gonna be all right. As long as you are not a fucking moron. Unfortunately on this show there's a lot of fucking morons. How many people have we talked about that had 100 million dollars and then had nothing? So many. So many. So yeah, a hundred million dollars and then had nothing. So many. So many. So yeah, he didn't do much in class and he didn't really he didn't get his degree either because

he was worried about school. I said he didn't go back to another class again after fucking after the season was over. Didn't give a shit. And also that's when it's party time as we'll find out every time the season's over Eddie just goes off the rails. It's a good time now. And I wonder how much of this too was possibly when he's diagnosed as a manic depressive this is in the midst of him being heavily involved in coke for years so who even knows if he actually is bipolar or if he's just his he's on coke all the time and his chemistry is all fucked up from it and that's made him you know have the symptoms of being bipolar or whatever the fuck we have no idea so 1977 he is eligible for the

draft oh yeah he goes to college for all four years June 10th 1977 this is in New York City and number one overall pick, 1977 Jimmy. Who is it? I'll give you a hint, Milwaukee has the pick. You'll still get no help at all. Oh, is it Milwaukee? Geez, I mean that's. Who did the Milwaukee Bucks pick in 1977?

Trey Rollins, I don't know. It is Kent Benson. Jesus, what? Kent Benson, who played 11 years in the league, went to Indiana. Yeah, he played shit, a lot of games. What did he make? 680 games, only 9.1 points, 5.7 rebounds. So a bench guy, a bench forward it looks like.

Number two overall, Otis Birdsong to the Knicks. Otis Birdsong was a good player, and he is, for some reason, I heard this from somebody, that somebody in Pearl Jam, whenever they were in a hotel, that was their alias, was Otis Birdsong, because he's a big basketball fan. Awesome. So I thought that was cool.

I'm gonna start going by Otis Thorpe. You should. I'll go by Dale Davis, and we'll fucking, we'll block a lot of shots. Otis Thorpe. You should. I'll go by Dale Davis and we'll fucking, we'll block a lot of shots. Otis Thorpe and Dale Davis checking in? Yeah, that'll be perfect. Wow, look at you guys. You're smaller and whiter than I imagined.

Have you ever heard of the Rockets? I've heard of them. Yeah, we know, we know, we know. Marques Johnson from UCLA, Greg Ballard, these are all guys who played over 10 years in the league. Walter Davis with the Suns, who I think they retired his number, didn't they? Isn't his number up?

Yeah, with Dick Van Arsdale, he might be in the rafters. Kenny Carr to the Lakers, and then number seven overall, a crime and sports alumni, and one of the most fun episodes I remember, Bernard King, number seven from Tennessee. Old Browns still bomber himself. That's right. He was fucking passed out at a Coke spot in his fucking brand new car.

I love that so much. Jack Sigma to Seattle. Tom Lagarde, Ray Williams, Ernie Grunfeld, Cedric Maxwell. You're going to love this, by the way. 14 overall, Tree Rollins. So he was taking that trip. Get the fuck out of here. You were only by 30. this by the way 14 overall tree Rollins so he was taking that dress you were only by 13 you were 14 or 13 picks off but tree I knew that was coming to and I

was like nope not tree Rollins I don't want to say it how amazing is that 13 spots so fucking close oh my god I'm like oh my god that is the right draft you were he by the Rockets? You were just thinking Atlanta. You were just thinking oldest guy you could think of. Yeah. I was thinking of guy in the 80s that probably was drafted a long time ago. Yeah, guy in the 90s who was super old.

Ernie Grunfeld, that draft too. Ricky Green, Rich Laure Laurel Glenn Mosley This is the first round norm Nixon by the Lakers number 22 there So that's the first round so no Eddie in the first round no kidding So yeah, and he's got to be slightly disappointed in that we go through the second round and there's some guys who? No, didn't even play in the league here. You got guys like Mike Glenn, who played 10 years. You got Ben Poquette, played 10 years. Couple guys like that.

All the way down to the third round, which doesn't even exist now, by the way. James Edwards from the Lakers ended up playing 19 years. So he's in there, not bad. Then finally, at number 49 overall. That's the other thing. There's only 22 teams. So 49 would still be in the second round now. That'd be late, mid to late second round. But back then that was the third round. Atlanta chooses Eddie Johnson here. Third round. Third round. So that doesn't get you a guaranteed contract. That means you got to hustle to make

the team. So that's, you know, that's a little bit of a tree Rollins for Christ's sake. Yeah. And nobody else really in the draft of any, he's the guy, nobody that's drafted after him plays as long as him. Wow. He's the last like, you know, 10 year guy in the draft, essentially here. So I'm going to say it right now. Grace. This is a big day. This is grace, Freddie. He made it through college. He learned how to do coke. You know, that's a big skill you got to learn. You know, you learn a couple of things. And you know, that's interesting too, because the two places that he's played now, high school and college, he stirs the tide enough to cause a wave big enough for other big players

to come here and win. Like, Barkley goes to Auburn after that. His high school team wins after he leaves. He's a big deal for, like, creating a culture of winning. And now he's going to Atlanta, which was just a graveyard of a team back then. They were garbage. You know, I think they had moved here from St. Louis a few years before. They were at St. Louis Hawks, I think, before that.

Not great at all, and this is, I think, when Ted Turner bought the team, too. When he had the Hawks and he bought the Braves just to have programming for TBS, basically. So the Hawks here, they're 41 and 41 this year. What year is this? This is 77, 78. That's a, wow, yeah, he turns the tide.

Everywhere he fuckin' goes. He does, and now, Hugh B. Brown is the coach, This is 77 78. That's a wow. Yeah, he turns the tide He does and now huby brown is the coach who is a very well-known coach Who we used to look like my great-grandmother? One of those my cousin Ian and I would call her big man would call him big man all the time There's big man. There's you there. He is one of the ugliest men that was representing the NBA effort. He's not a good looking man. Yeah, whereas she was an 85 year old woman at the time, so this wasn't a compliment for like a 53 year old head coach at all. Just the white hair.

The Hawks love that look because they also got Lenny, what was his name? Lenny Wilkins. Yeah, the black guy that looks just like him. Great basketball player and the white version of Hugh B. Brooks. That's exactly what he is. Both of them. Looks just like him.

Great coaching records. Lenny Wilkins was a hell of a fucking player too. Really great players from the ABA and shit, he was nasty. Now the Hawks this year lose in the first round of the playoffs, but 500 gets them into the playoffs and they get swept by the Bullets here. On this team, John Drew is on this team. I think he's one of the guys we're gonna do an episode about.

Lot of coke with that guy. So he's in there. Eddie Johnson, Tree Rollins of course on the team. What? He's in Atlanta, there he is. He didn't start right away, but they said they knew, Hubie Brown said they knew he was gonna be a star right away.

They knew they got a steal in the third round with this guy. He said, he was one of the few guys I've ever coached who could really turn you on. Hubie. Just a big, that really, I'm gonna watch old footage now for the fucking erection in Hubie's pants as Eddie dribbles up the court.

He's like, anybody else hard as a rock? Everybody has a bench hard, huh? Look, I just came. Radio guy, you hard? I'm hard, right? Yeah, this is making me hard. I got a white cloud on my head and in my pants. And in my pants. He said, I gotta take care of this at halftime. This is like, you know, bust one out real quick. He said he could do everything. From the first day you could see he possessed incredible athletic talent.

He was killing people in practice. He could not only make the big play, he could create it. So he could create plays for other people. He could make his own shot off the dribble. And you know, this is a, these are big skills especially in the 70s so hot shit here this year he plays in he plays shooting guard by the way he does play the two 79 games at the two twenty three and a half minutes a game so they're about you know he's a halftime player ten point five points a game three assists one

almost two rebounds. Not bad. Not bad. They're integrating him slowly here. Great guy coming off the bench, fuck yeah. Yeah, not bad. In the playoffs he had 15.5 points per game, but that's only in two games. They made the playoffs.

Yeah, they lost to the Bullets there. 78-79, Hubie Brown again. This year 46-36. Jesus, they're doing well. That's not bad. Yeah, they go to the playoffs and they win in the first round sweeping the Rockets here Which the Rockets and the Hawks were playing each other The same that's not right. That's not right. Yeah, we were bright white jersey, please

Well, this is also before East and West obviously, right? Yeah, and then they lose to Washington in seven games that year. The Bullets got him again. The Bullets got him again. So that is a pretty, this is like the West Unsell Bullets too, like the old school bullets. Was he playing for them? Who? West Unsell? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So he used to play for them. He coached him too, right? Yeah. I don't remember if he coached him or not. Coach Denver too. So I think he coached him. I know he's a coach but now they they said

that in the spring of 79 so this is you know end of the second his second pro season apparently Auburn set aside a day to honor him and invited him, Ubi Brown and his Hawks teammate Armand Hill for a day of ceremonies at Auburn. And there was a banquet in the evening and this is just Eddie Johnson day. Let's celebrate him. He's boosted the program.

At the end they have a big dinner and a banquet and it's like, you know, black tie and they're at the big dais up there like it's a fucking, like it's a Dean Martin roast or some shit. Yeah. They got some medium, medium rare meat with some grave on it. You wish was medium rare, medium well banquet meat held in the steam tray for a long time. Yeah. There's some soft peas by it.

If you're ever eating food for more than six people around you, it's going to be terrible no matter who prepares it because it's going to be done assembly line style. It looks nice in those chrome dishes, but it's fucking gross. Half of it was made an hour ago. It's a piece of shit. You don't want that. All weddings, it's all bad all the time. So apparently Eddie sat at the dais slumped forward in a seat. Stop it. Yeah, no, he's nodding off at the dinner, which is honor him for being such a great guy During a speech that was largely a tribute to him as well. This is big

This guy here and he's just passing out in his fucking mashed potatoes It's gonna say popping up with peas stuck in the mashed potatoes like a carrot circle over here like, huh? So Yeah, and they said that Hubie Brown said Eddie is going to have, after all this He said Eddie is going to have to decide between his social life and his occupation You can't be a huge party and coke guy and a top player For you could maybe do it for a little while But not for very long. Yeah, you get your pick you do one or the other not gonna work

He said he has the tools to be one of the greatest players in the league the only person standing in his way is Eddie Johnson That's it. No one else can so this year he plays thirty point nine minutes a game now So they up his minutes big 30.9 minutes a game now. So they upped his minutes big time. 16 points a game. Three point, or I'm sorry, 4.6 assists. 1.6 steals too.

So doing pretty well actually. Not too shabby at all. And he averages 16 and a half in the playoffs. So pretty much the same average. 79, 80 season. This is when it really, whew. It's ramped up. 80 is when the wheels are just start like greased up and we're going way too fast and they're coming off this

cart. So 79-80, all right. They finished 50 and 32. Hell yes. So that's a big improvement first in the NBA Central Division at the time. Wow. So not bad at all. Then they lose to the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the playoffs. Don't you, yeah. That hurts though. Win 50 games to get bounced in the first round? What the fuck? That's tough, yeah.

At least it was against a good team, but still, it doesn't matter. You wanted to go farther than that here. Sure. But either way, Eddie though, that year, he 18.5 points a game. So up even more now. They're giving him more time, 33.2 minutes per game, and he is giving the stats right back to minutes.

So March 25th, 1980, there's an article, it's a wonderful fluff piece in the Birmingham Post Herald. And it says, Fast Eddie Johnson finds stardom in Atlanta. So in this article here of him finding stardom in Atlanta, they're saying that in the third round people occasionally make it, but rarely do they make it big. That's the beginning of this article. Eddie Johnson of the Hawks is one of the exceptions. Eddie picked 49th and 77, not only made it the Atlanta Hawks in his first year out of

Auburn but was elected to the starting squad of the Eastern Conference All-Stars this season. He's a fucking All-Star. Wow. Yes, he's also second in the defensive player of the year voting as well. Is that right? He's a very good defender. Behind who does it say? I don't know who it was.

They said Eddie Johnson can be an all star in this league for 10 years. He'll be Brown said the only guy who can stop that is Eddie himself. There's a hint to tell him he's throwing out breadcrumbs. Don't fuck up. Just so everybody knows he's going to get in his own way. He's gonna fuck this up I'm telling you he doesn't have to but he will. That's the thing he's got everything he could want and he's gonna throw it in the garbage so be prepared for that. He knows oh he knows he saw when your dude is slumped over in his fucking peas at the dais of an

award thing a banquet honoring him. You'd think like ego wise, he'd want to hear these speeches just for his ego, but he's so fucked up. Just so people verbally blow him, yeah. Yeah, he's more of a drug addict than an egomaniac, which is a problem in the NBA. Much rather have an egomaniac. Wouldn't it be crazy to see Tom Brady at his roast

just slumped over with a bottle of fucking Nick? That would have been great. That would have been fucking hilarious. Although it would have been good for me if he had like a stroke or something and they just had to revive him. How amazing would that have been? Or any of those fuckers getting roasted

just sitting there slumped over drunk. That's what I mean. You never see it. And they used to be hammered back in the day. Watch like an old fucking, one of those old roasts, you know, like Kenny Young, you know, the Friars Club roasts from like the 60s and 70s. Those guys were fucking drinking booze

as it was going on. Yeah, just drinking and smoking. Nancy's love story could have been ripped right out of the pages of one of her own novels. She was a romance mystery writer who happens to be married to a chef. But this story didn't end with a happily ever after. When I stepped into the kitchen, I could see that Chef Brophy was on the ground, and I heard somebody say,

Call 911. As writers, we'd written our share of murder mysteries. So when suspicion turned to Dan's wife, Nancy, we weren't that surprised. The first person they'd look at would be the spouse. We understand that's usually the way they do it. But we began to wonder, had Nancy gotten so wrapped up in her own novels... There are murders in all of the books. ...that she was playing them out in real life?

Follow Happily Never After, Dan and Nancy on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Happily Never After, Dan and Nancy early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus. When the matriarch of a prominent Princeton family is found stabbed to death in her locked basement, investigators look from a serial attacker to her family, to Princeton University students. One hot-blooded investigator sees a conspiracy.

Is he way off base or does privilege let you get away with murder? You can listen to In the Shadow of Princeton exclusively and ad-free with Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or Apple podcasts. They said Eddie is a team leader now and a crowd favorite. They love him. He's entertaining to watch. So Eddie said, I attribute it all to a lot of hard work. Hubie has gotten the maximum out of the talent I have.

He told me I could be a good player in this league and also instilled a lot of confidence in me. He says, I know I have a long way to go, but there's no telling how far I can go. That's the thing. I can do it. He said, making the All-Star team made me realize I've got to play every night to get the recognition.

I'm really just trying to give my best effort to perform and produce every night. If I do that, I can feel satisfied. Imagine having that optimism about yourself. Man, I know I'm going to be so great. Imagine that. If I do that I can feel satisfied I'm just like I know I'm gonna be so great. Yeah, imagine that I'm gonna be so great. Isn't this awesome? Watch me blossom into greatness. Watch this watch. I'm gonna do it now. Tell him all the time Yeah, we get messages people tell us all the time about about whatever whatever but I I'll never believe it. He's believing it. He's eating it with a spoon and knife. Well, I mean, fuck, it's in the newspaper here. He finds stardom, but he's like,

I mean, Hubie's telling me I'm listening. Hubie said he's worked very hard, he's come a long way, he's truly an all-star player, and just having a heck of a season. He said Johnson had all the tools coming out of college, and he said on the negative side he was a little wild, but his pluses were that he was extremely coachable and has an excellent fun-loving approach to life.

Fun-loving with coke around his nostrils. That's fun-loving. Yeah. Very coachable. Real coachable. Now you're talking about a guy who averages in double figures and shoots 48 to 50% from the field and 80% or better at free throws because of his explosiveness and ability to make the pass he creates many situations."

And yeah, he said that he was one of the player of the week that week and everything like that. By the way, he lost out in one of the player of the weeks to rookie Billy Ray Bates. Oh no shit. Yes, another crime in sports. Black Superman. Yeah, Black Superman himself in the Philippines there.

So yeah, this year, Eddie has a great year, obviously. And he, problem is in June of this year, he's gonna have a little issue. And then in July, he's gonna have a little issue. And then in August, he's gonna have a little issue. And then in July, he's gonna have a little issue. And then in August, he's gonna have a little issue. What about September? Basically, I think he has a little issue. Going out on a limb here, just like Eddie went out on a limb

when in June, he's in College Park, Georgia, and he is fleeing gunmen. He does an Omar here, basically. Remember when Omar went into that apartment and had to jump off like the eighth story? Well, this isn't the eighth story, but this is what happened here to Fast Eddie. Fast Eddie has to jump out of the second story

of an apartment house off the balcony and then is chased across a parking lot, lucky he's fast, you know what I mean? Chased across the parking lot while two men are firing shots at him. They're trying to hit him trying to murder him Yeah, actually ag and across the parking lot he's fucking running cone drills because these guys are gonna blow his brains out otherwise and He is so fast. It helped out a lot. Otherwise, he'd be dead. He ended up hailing down a police car and saying, these guys trying to kill him, the police car made the guy stop trying to shoot him,

which helped a lot. He said, when asked about it, he was, quote, just in the wrong place at the wrong time. You know, I'm here and there's guns going off. He said, I was at these chicks' house, okay, well right there, and these guys busted in the door. I didn't know what was going on, I was at these chicks house, okay, well right there. And these guys busted in the door. I didn't know what was going on, I was just there.

Then they started shooting at me. I think he's leaving out a couple parts of the story. Who are they? Why are you there? Why are you there? Who are they? Are you there to buy drugs? Are you there to do drugs?

Are these guys dealers you stiff? Are these prostitutes and those are pimps and you didn't pay Yeah, I have a lot of questions over this but what's the commerce that you were purchasing? Really wrong place at the wrong time. Could you see it be said about anything? Yeah, I mean Ted Bundy was in the wrong place the wrong time when he was murdering people he was somewhere else He wouldn't have murdered that girl. That's how it works every time, right? Every time I've ever been in a car accident it was the wrong place, wrong time. Wrong time. There's got to be more to the story because both of us, we've both been

around drugs and people that do drugs and we've hung out with a lot of weird people and between us we have plenty of experience of being in weird situations. Have you ever had to flee from the second story balcony while people shot guns at you? Has that ever come up? Not yet, exactly. That's a new one. That's a new one.

And this guy is at like 24 at this point. It's already happening. I feel like you got it. That's part you at that point, right? It's kind of on you a little bit. So according to the detective sergeant who handled the case for the College Park Police Department, the two women had convictions for prostitution. Oh hey! And the man who'd been in the apartment at the time was a convicted pimp.

So I think Eddie tried to charm some prostitutes into some other... Doing something for free. Or he said, I'll get you high. And then the pimp said, I don't get a piece of that. We take cash around here. Yeah. The detective said, he, meaning the pimp. The detectives had an NBA player, two prostitutes, and a pimp. And they had them all in separate rooms.

And they were discussing the problems with each of them Which is hilarious as far as the scenario goes Yeah, you just want the bird's-eye view of that with no roof so you can look in each room as it happens And a speaker for each room I want to know it all this detective sergeant said the pimp told us that Eddie had ripped off some drug dealers and Apparently had beaten up the women who had delivered the drugs. Oh my. Edward.

Why would you do that? Jesus Christ, Eddie. Then these two guys came looking for Eddie as they would have wanted to do. Yeah, I would imagine so. That's pretty standard in a drug ripoff. You can't, Avon looked for Omar for years. You know what I'm saying? Like you can't just fucking expect that. Everybody had meetings about where's this motherfucker at?

Where is he? Yeah. How can we touch him? That's what it's all about. He's got to pop his head up somewhere and then next thing you know, his grandma's church crown gets shot off. This is what happens. This is the madness. On a Sunday. On a Sunday, we're ignoring the truce. So two men were arrested on allegations of aggravated assault, but Eddie wouldn't press charges on them. No, because he can't. He said, what? It's all in the game, baby, that's what he said.

There's nothing else you can say to it. That's part of this. Ripping off drug dealers, smacking around prostitutes. Something bad's gonna happen to you you man. Sometimes somebody gets slapped. The cop said that during this whole investigation Eddie offered no help and in fact quote lied to us repeatedly. I believe that. That I believe. Now Eddie denies all of these statements. None of that's true he says. That's all false. And they said, why didn't you press charges, is what the press said. If none of that's true, why didn't you press charges?

You know what Eddie's answer is? They got guns. He literally shrugged. He just shrugged? Shrugged like an eight year old. Can you do that? I don't know. I guess so, yeah.

Why'd you mess up the rug? I don't know, I don't know. He said, I just went to the basic rule of survival. Keep your nose out of it. You don't go swimming in deep water if you're already having trouble walking in the shallow water. You don't rip off coke dealers and beat up prostitutes. Consequences.

That's a weird simile. That's not the same, is it? That's very odd. No. Deep, if you're walking in the shower, can you swim at all? That's the thing. Is pressing charges swimming? Is that what it is?

I think he's talking about, yeah, if you're going to be mixed up with these people and you press charges, then they're really going to be mad at you. Not like if you beat up their women and steal their cocaine, they'll really be pissed off if you press charges. If you press charges, that water's choppy. Yeah. I think too, too if you don't press charges you might still be able to buy coke from him later Maybe we might be able to put this all behind us if I buy enough coke from you probably right or or They won't tell the other drug dealers so that I can get coke from them and he hates to lose a connection That's the thing he really does you got to have all the coke dealers you want at that time or else you're in trouble. So then July 15th, 1980, he's arrested again.

For what? I'm going to give you 10 guesses and one of them is going to be cocaine. Let's just say that. He's got 10 charges? Yeah, he is charged with possessing cocaine, driving under the influence, and driving without a valid driver's license, which I don't think he'll ever have again because he's constantly arrested. He was returned to jail on pending a bond of $25,000 on the cocaine charge. He was arrested on a Sunday night by Fulton County police, spent the night in jail after failing to post a preliminary bond of $3,000. And yeah, they said, the defense attorney said, quote, the only comment I would make now

is that we're very concerned about Eddie Johnson. He's a very troubled young man. This, he went, okay, that's July 15th. This is the first time he's been arrested. The same newspaper on March 25th. He's a star and everything's wonderful. Four months later, he's obviously a very troubled young man.

This is wild. A wild swing of emotions here. That was fast. That was so fucking fast, dude. How'd that happen so goddamn fast? He's arrested at 7.30 p.m., not even the middle of the night, while driving a rental car.

Early evening. How'd he get the rental? No driver. He rented it. He plays for the Hawks, they probably just gave it to him. Back then, it didn't matter. Gave him a jersey and walked out. Yeah, there you go. Tickets to the game, maybe, some shit like that here.

So that's pretty fucking funny. He was caught with 40 grams of Coke, by the way. That's a good amount. And they say it's diluted, so I think that means it's just stepped on a lot. Yeah, he's got some shitty stepped on coke, which is what he gets now. Not good coke.

Yeah. Good coke is from the other people that are mad at him. No shit. One of the team officials said, at the time we thought Eddie had a drug problem, we didn't realize he had a manic depressive problem. Oh! Because now they're gonna find this out. Is that what it is? Well they find that out because

when they get him to the police station with his 40 grams of coke he quote behaved erratically cursing at the lawyer and the judge. What'd you say to the judge? That's why he was held. Just cursed at him fuck you you, I don't need this shit. That's, you can't do that. No. You gotta know that that's not gonna work. This is his first arrest. Be apologetic, man.

Yeah, oh, I fucked up, my bad, especially because you know this is gonna be in the newspaper and everything else. The district attorney who's prosecuting the case said, quote, he was under the influence of something and he was sort of out of it. That's they held him because they were like yeah he's all fucked up in court he's got 40 grams but there's also a couple in him that's the issue now a couple days later on the on the arrest the general manager of the

Hawks said I don't want to minimize the problem however many of today's athletes would have would have them on some small However, many of today's athletes would have them on some small, many of today's athletes would have on them some small quantity of cocaine if they were picked up at any time. He's basically saying, look, everybody's doing a little bit of coke. That's how crazy 1980 was.

You get busted and your boss goes, I mean, if you'd searched everyone in the office, 90% of them would probably have cocaine on them. Let's be honest here. There's blow in the house is all I'm saying. He also said that also applies to leading businessmen and cuts throughout all of society. Yeah, there's a bunch of straws in here

made out of Washingtons, calm down. It's so fucking true though. Back then, it was very, people would do Coke at their tables in restaurants. They would, it was so fucking casual. It was accepted in business. It was accepted, like if you weren't doing Coke, you weren't trying.

That's what it was. It was like, you weren't, what are you doing? Yeah, get some energy to push these stocks and all that. How are you not doing Coke? This guy obviously doesn't want it that bad. That's how they look at it back then. Like baseball players with greenies back in the day. If you didn't pop greenies, they were like, what are you, lazy?

You don't want to do amphetamines? Miners. Yeah, what the fuck, man? So that's what the general manager says, which is the most silver statement you've ever heard. Who doesn't have Coke? imagine that being said today. Imagine it to me. What all of I get out of that is I also do Coke. That's what that says to me. I also do Coke and I don't know in my pocket,

I might get pulled over one of these days is all I'm saying. So I don't want to be too hypocritical and come down. I don't want to rail on them too hard because I'm probably going to get caught with a few rails on my pocket. Let's be realistic here. It could happen to anybody if you know what I mean. He said, it could happen to anybody. Just saying, keep that in mind later on.

There might be some residue on my dash. Jesus Christ. So he said, the GM said that he wasn't surprised that he received many critical calls from people who didn't believe the problem was that widespread after he said that. People were like, that's crazy. There were some people who just were totally naive

and ignorant to it and didn't know that everybody was on coke in 1980. Eddie denies that he's on drugs. I only had a bunch of drugs and was obviously under the influence of them in court. That's all. He hit several eight balls, man. Like, that's, he hit a lot.

That's all. Yeah, that's all it is, though. Just, I don't really, I don't do drugs, though. You know, it's crazy. He said he is, he's happy to undergo treatment, though, for his emotional problems, not for drug problems. I'm just, I need emotional help here. And he, they said, this is fucking from the newspaper,

quote, I want to commend Kastin, the general manager, and the Hawk organization for this manner in which they have handled the Johnson case. They want Johnson to resolve his problems and return to the team next season physically and mentally ready to play basketball and live a happy life. That is what his family and all of his friends want.

Professional sports operators are aware of the drug menace, but they frankly admit there's no way they can police an entire team. The league sends doctors and other experts to warn players of the dangers involved with drugs from pills to hard drugs, but it probably would make much more impact if some of the dangers involved with drugs, from pills to hard drugs, but it probably would make much more impact if some of the athletes who have been there and been rehabilitated toward the camps. Players understand players much clearer than they do doctors. Okay, this is before there was drug testing in the sports, number one. People are going, why don't they just test them?

Because you couldn't do that. That was a big fight with the union to get them to be able to do that. That was a big fight with the union to get him to be able to do that. And the other problem here is that back then the players that were doing drugs, if you sent another player in, they'd just be like, Oh, what the fuck is his problem? Everybody, I do drugs and I'm fine. Everybody I know does drugs and it's fine. You couldn't, there wasn't enough people who crashed and burned at that point in a spectacular fashion. You know what I mean? Like John Belushi dying got a lot of people in Hollywood to stop doing drugs. Scared the shit out of them.

It really did. Not all of them obviously, but a lot of people went, holy fuck, I can't be doing that anymore. And even his friends certainly stopped for a little bit. Yeah, they at least stopped like touting it as a cool thing to do. You know what I mean? They sobered up to go to a funeral. Yeah. And so that's kind of how that would work. But in basketball, nobody had really hit rock bottom to see that yet. There was now there's a million examples of guys, but back then there wasn't any. But it's hard to tell a 21 year old or 23 year old with 40-inch vertical leap and a shitload

of money in his bank account that this is going to ruin you when all it seems to do is get me pussy. You know what I mean? It's going to be a lot of smiling. Just seems to get my dick sucked a lot. This is crazy. I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah.

So, because Don Newcomb they talked about who was the former Dodgers star, he went to several major league teams to talk to them about alcoholism because he drank himself out of the league and he was a good player. But this article goes on to say whatever Eddie Johnson's problems are, I'm sure he could render some helpful advice to fellow players and youngsters once he's recovered. Oh. He's good now. Once he gets out of rehab, that was the other thing. Back then people thought rehab was magical. And if you went to rehab, that meant it was like going in. It was like going in to fix a physical ailment.

You went in to get your arm stitched up and now it's good. It's all healed up, no problems. So they said that athletes are big names and big news and publicity is a part of the price they pay for the fame, that's what they say. Now, three weeks later, um, there, this is only three weeks after the incident jumping off the balcony, getting shot at and all that kind of shit. So they said when he got arrested for that incident, they decided the Hawks and his defense attorney decided to keep him in jail overnight to protect him from himself.

That's why nobody paid his bail. Okay, teach him a lesson. He said, when he's like that, putting him out where he couldn't receive protection would have been the most inhumane thing I could have done to Eddie. Because he would have went right back on the street and got more shit. So, not good. While Eddie was in jail, that was when the doctor, he was seen by an Atlanta psychiatrist, and after that, Eddie will work with this person for the next year, this psychiatrist. And that was when the psychiatrist recommended

that Eddie be moved from his cell to a private psychiatric facility near Cobb County, Georgia, where he underwent therapy for a week. Really? So they pulled him out of there, put him in hardcore overnight fucking sleepover therapy. Yeah, inpatient therapy. The day after he checked himself out of this place,

which by the way was against the wishes of everybody he knew. Sure, of course. He is arrested again, as we'll talk about. He's arrested for trying to, well not trying to, he did. He stole a Porsche from a car dealer. That's the only way to put it. From the dealer.

You can't do that. They notice when a Porsche is gone usually. Yeah, they had a VIN number. Johnson said, the guy thought I was going to buy a car. He let me test drive it and I stayed a little longer than usual. How long? Yeah. He just took it and started doing the shit he normally does and like went and got coke and hung out and they were like where the fuck is this Porsche? Put some miles on it. You can't fucking do that. It was a 1980 Porsche 911E. By the way 34 grand is all it was. Yeah today they're

worth a lot more than that too. I would say so. Those have gone up in value. Those are good cars. It's a sweet ride right there. Those fucking 911s are hot shit, those early 80s Porsches. So the, and the 70s ones too, the warrant here was filed by Luxury Auto Rentals alleging he stole it.

So the car was recovered here and it was Eddie Johnson who took it. He was held by the Atlanta police that night because he was arrested nearby the car by the way. He didn't ditch it he was just like getting his fucking drink left it parked outside. Charged with felony motor vehicle theft rather than the lesser charge of automobile theft because of the value of the car. An employee of the agency, the rental agency said, Eddie told the workers he was interested in buying a new car and was directed to the Porsche, which was for sale. What about this one? So this guy says he got in it to look at it, started it up and just took off. He didn't do any

of the fucking anything. He was just like, yeah, this is nice. What's it sound like? Sweet. So first is here. Yeah, I like the clutch on this and he the fucking anything. He was just like, yeah, this is nice. What's it sound like? Sweet, so first is here. Yeah, I like the clutch on this. Vroom, and he's fucking gone. That's it. And they're like, well, he'll come right back, right? He's probably just going around the block. I mean, plausible deniability.

He could just tell them, yeah, I thought they were doing all the paperwork. I just expected to get a bill. I thought they'd bill me. Yeah, like, thought you'd just send me a bill. Thought it was like you ate first, and then they just put it down at the end. So yeah, he's arrested.

So this was I believe the 25th of July. On July 13th he'd been arrested for Coke and all that kind of thing like we said. And he was released and underwent the psychiatric shit and then got out and did this, which is fucking amazing. He had become earlier in the day he became embroiled in a dispute with a woman realtor over a thousand dollar cash down payment that he made on a house in Atlanta. Yeah, I mean I thought they were gonna bill me. He could just be saying that all the rest of his life.

He gave her $1,000. He thought that the payment gave him the right to occupy the premises even though that he hadn't closed on the property or anything. He went to a real estate agent, put $1,000 in her hand and just started moving shit in from the back of his stolen rental car. Parked his

Porsche in the driveway. That's exactly what he did. How crazy is that? That's awesome. That's awesome. That is, that's co-cubris right there. Think about that. You could just claim naivete. I don't know. I don't know how things work. I don't know. Yes, I did go to college for four years, but still I'm dumb. I didn't get a degree. It's fucking incredible that in the same day he's like, I gotta get a car and a place to live. That's very Coke. So I gotta have it right now, right now. Here's a thousand dollars. I can move my stuff in, right? I'm gonna move my stuff in. Okay, cool. I'm gonna get, you know,

I like those Porsches. I look really cool. I'm gonna go get a Porsche. Okay, cool. I'm gonna bring it to the house now. Arrested. I can't believe it was 34 grand. That's 30 That's yeah, I love it. It's pretty steep though, but that's man. That's a great price for that car fuck Yeah, if you could get a new 911 for 34 grand roll that'd be crazy 190 grand yeah, they're really fucking expanding looked at him, but I'm sure they're very expensive For that car now, but you know what now it's so ridiculous because I was talking to somebody And somebody I like very much by the way,

a relative here, I won't say who it is, but they were telling me about how, yeah, this truck they like, and it's $125,000. Yeah, yeah. And it's a fucking truck. It's a pickup truck, yeah. It's a truck. He's like, you got one like three years old though,

for like 90 grand or something. I'm like, are you fucking kidding me? You can get a fucking what the fuck? He used to buy a house for that or used to buy like an insane car was a hundred thousand dollar supercar Not a fucking pickup truck, and it's a fast You know nice truck and all that kind of shit, but are you joking? 100, fuck, what? The Dodge TRX, is that what you're talking about? It's a Dodge, yeah, so.

Yeah, the TRX. It's a sick truck. What the fuck are we talking about, though? $125,000, no. Everything is like that. Every vehicle now is that. The Escalade is almost $200,000 now. That's insane.

That's fucking insane. It doesn't make any sense. No, but you can still get a Porsche for 110 grand. So what's happening? What are we doing? What are we doing here? We're fucking up as a society wrong. Yeah So meanwhile while all this someone at the Omni a member of this building security staff They think called the police and told them that Eddie might have a gun This is all the same day by the way all the same day which he admits at

one time he had a nine millimeter and he says about having the gun, quote, I thought I was one of the untouchables. I think he means that both in the Elliott Ness sense and in the sense that no one will arrest him because he's on the Hawks. So the police stopped the car that day. This is an eventful day for my man here. This is wild. Only a coke will make you do this much in a day. Stole a house and a car. And get arrested.

Otherwise any one of these events would make you just go home and relax the rest of the night. I gotta go home now, this is crazy. Well then again, he tried to go home. The police stopped the car, made Eddie get out, and drew their guns as they arrested him. They took him to jail where he remained for three days. Johnson insisted that if there were drugs in the car, they are not mine.

Must belong to those crazy people at the rental agency. I'm sure they keep drugs in the car. They store it in there. Wow. The charges ended up being dropped because the search of the car had been illegal. Either the police didn't notice the gun or it wasn't in his possession.

So they couldn't find the gun. So his defense in the pending trial will rest heavily on his lawyer's contention that the cocaine found by police was uncovered in a search. That's an illegal search. That's his first arrest there. His lawyers say that Eddie didn't know any of the drugs were in the trunk.

None of them. No, and they said that his uncharacteristic belligerence during all of this were explained away by a diagnosis of him being a manic depressive, which is bipolar now. And, um. No, it's not even his car. That's, I don't know anything.

Plus, I'm all fucked up in the head. What do I know? Yeah? I got the trunk of the car come on. That's yours obviously people just come by they put stuff in your trunk And then you drive around with it like who doesn't do that? So yeah, he He's all the psychiatric shit here, so when he was released it was the next day that all this happened So he's checked himself out of the psychiatric place and the next day car rental got a gun fucking stealing a house in a car that therapy didn't work at all that didn't work and made him fucking just worse want more and made him pine for

this shit yeah Ted Turner the Hawks owner was quoted in the newspapers saying quote it's not Eddie. It's that stuff You know that stuff that white stuff. He said it's not Eddie. It's that stuff the last time I saw him He was fine old fast Eddie. He got on that hyped up cocaine that hyped up cocaine. I Want to see Ted Turner say that it's not Eddie it's that stuff last time I saw him he was he was fine old fast Eddie he got up but he got on that hyped up cocaine that shit from that Clapton song yeah he's on the cocaine you know what I'm talking about yeah that damn Grateful Dead shit that they talked about there

so you know Ted Turner likes the Grateful Dead I think too. You think so? Yeah, Ted Turner's a huge pothead. Always been a huge weed guy. Yes. Really? Everybody says like a lot of his business transactions, like if he knows the person, to seal the deal you got to go in his office and smoke a bowl out of his corn cob pipe with him. Seriously. Out bowl of meat out of an ill-villied pipe. I like it. Because that's who he is. So it's interesting.

He's an interesting guy, Ted Turner. So the Hawks discouraged some efforts to try to provide bail during the first time, was they said we wanted to solve Eddie's problem in the long run. We wanted to treat him as if he were our brother. We had to take him, keep him confined to help him, and that's when he was sent to the hospital like we said. Johnson's or I'm sorry the psychiatrist said quote it took a couple of days for

him to stop being so belligerent so hyper. It took days for him to get the coke. That's how much coke he was on. It cleaned up. Wow. Seven hours. Much longer than it would have if his problem had been drugs Why they would if it's mental illness exacerbated by drugs that could be worse here because we figured that out too that oh those things Don't go together. Yeah mental illness and recreational drugs are yeah difficult Man-made fun drugs not good. Yeah way different. They said we are treating mr. Johnson for a manic depressive disorder chemical in nature that produces elation expansive behavior instability marked impairment of judgment illogical speech lack of sleep

So the doctor said he gave Eddie lithium Yeah, very fucking strong medicine here. So now he's gonna be doing coke and lithium That is a wild combination So the doctor said he got some sort of relief with the lithium and he likes it and he likes it Yeah, and then he gets goes up and now he can go up and down You know now it's like when people drink booze probably so they said he had shown marked improvement But then obviously he was released and you know what happened So July 28th

1980 there's an article, mind you, what was it? Four months ago there was an article, Eddie Stardom he's the best. Now the article is quote Eddie Johnson's hell as the name of the book is the headline of the article. We have really changed up on Eddie Johnson at this point. He's gone from star to living in hell in four months. March to fucking July. Steve Carell's hell. What? I didn't even know he was troubled. Holy fucking shit. That's insane. They said Eddie Johnson, they're talking about this, is Wearsdale, Florida, a tiny community in the southern part of Marion County, in the central part of the state,

has not had many sports heroes. In fact, this summer residents of the area were happily making plans to honor perhaps the first genuine sports hero, Wearsdale, almost said Wheelsdale, has ever had their favorite son, Eddie Johnson Oh sorry Frank He wasn't in the NBA yet. Yeah, he's the youngest he's alive He hasn't done anything yet, though. Yeah, he's in like high school hurts

Why your brother's in the NBA? What are they good? Why would they mention you in the same breath as the guy who's in the NBA? What kind of fucking asshole would want to be mentioned is I would be embarrassed if you mentioned me in the same breath as my brother who plays in the NBA. But is he playing in Wearsville at this time? Yeah. Yeah. He's doing well? Yeah, I'm sure, because he went to Wake Forest, but he hasn't done anything out of it. He's

just a high school kid in there. This guy's in the NBA. He's an NBA all-star. I hope Frank won in high school. His brother didn't. I think he did. Did he? Yeah, I think later on, yeah, he did. Frank't he I think he did yeah, I think I think later on yeah He did he Frank was a great player, but yeah, I wouldn't be jealous if I was Frank yet I don't know jealous of my hurt though Like me even though I haven't done anything In high school right now yeah, he's in high school which cares about high school There's a lot of kids that are good in high school. What would you do

outside of Wearsdale I think is the point. But Wearsdale is that's where he didn't even do anything there. You know what I mean? Yeah. He didn't do anything until he got out of there. That's the point I think. He got out of here and did something. We're honoring him because all of us would love to get the fuck out of here and do something. Fuck this place. Yeah, there's plenty of people that do shit in town. Great. What can you do in the outside world? Maybe bring some attention to us and help us out and get some more fucking eyes on this

place so we can all get out. Go on, get out of here and tell people about it. Tell people we exist and we're struggling. Tell them we exist and we need help please. We're trying so hard. Bring medicine. We're also tired. Bring clean water and medicine. We're really having problems. That's fucking hilarious. So they said Eddie Johnson appreciation day was scheduled for the first week in September. Eddie was going to speak to the student body at Lake Weir High School. Oh my god, that's gonna be great. Great. Kids, let me tell you what's

wonderful, even better than basketball and doing well in school and being nice to your parents, cocaine, okay? Let me tell you. Oh, hold on. He said, then the whole town was going to be invited out to a big barbecue that evening at a nearby lakeside park. There Eddie would be wined and speeched and honored as they used to say. Why the mayor of if Wearsdale, the mayor if Wearsdale have has one would probably even present Eddie Johnson with a key to the city. Now some cynics in today's faster and faster and anything goes society probably think this sort of small town celebration is corny and old fashioned. They're probably the same ones who think the use of drugs is fun and exciting and the

in thing to do. Yeah, you know, like people who were getting laid and shit back then. Wow, those who think drugs are funny should go through the hell Eddie Johnson is now going through. Man, on the night of Sunday, July 13th, Eddie Johnson, as likable a fellow as you'll ever meet, that's how they describe him, was arrested in Atlanta for possession of cocaine. The fact that it didn't come as a shock to anyone, not even the gentle folk of Marion County, is said testimony to just how prevalent this drug disease has

become, especially among the athletes. Over the last five years, this writer has heard more and more talk, more and more openly, which is a sign of relaxed attitudes about the widespread of use of drugs among football and basketball players at Wake Forest and other ACC schools. I've never had proof that this talk is accurate, but the winks from the athletes themselves are convincing enough evidence for me." This is good. Smoking pot, even getting a hold of stronger stuff such as cocaine, is considered a lark, much as kids in my college days boasted of getting bombed on grape juice and vodka.

The difference, for us it was all over after the hangover until the next big fraternity party a month or so later. A contrast to the day to day way of life that seemingly innocent, small use of drugs so quickly leads to, yes, because nobody's an alcoholic, you fucking dummy rube. Are you joking? He doesn't know that it's bad for you. No, all those people, every fucking adult was an alcoholic back then.

They'd all fucking have nine drinks at night. What are you talking about? What do you think that was good for you? Anybody that I ever saw get socially drink in the 80s got socially fucking wasted. Wasted! Got socially carried out to their car where they socially backed it out and fucking drove away socially. That's what happened.

Socially crashed it somewhere. Yeah, then socially wrapped it around a telephone pole. That's my drunk white trash people that I was around, but I never saw anybody drink so like enjoyment and then leave a party. Everybody was fucking hammered. They get hammered. Hammered. Hammered.

That's how life was back then. Crazy drunk. We lived a different, and before that, when this guy was talking about when he was a kid, they lived it even harder with booze. We just added more things to it later on. So this guy says, just look at a few of the personal tragedies that have unfolded in the NBA this year. Bernard King's arrested on a charge of attempted rape after he allegedly attacked a female

companion while high on cocaine. Bernard. David Thompson, another alum of ours, Skywalker there literally Worshiped when he was at NC State by kids who dreamt of being someday being like him Becomes a virtual recluse in Denver and the rumors of drugs and although not proven are rampant Terry furlough is killed instantly when he crashes his Mercedes-Benz in a utility pole. Oh You know, but he did it 80s bends into a utility pole. Oh god. You know, but he did it. Good lord, so sober. So sober. At 3 a.m. the coroner's report showed that he had cocaine and Valium in his blood. Well yeah, that's a problem. Probably a bunch of alcohol too. Probably. The investigation

of the one car crash reveals that Furlough never touched his brakes. Yeah. And then he talks about Eddie Johnson and what we just discussed with him. A newspaper friend in Florida has told me that friends of Eddie's in South Marion, who talked with him the last few weeks, said the basketball player had a marked personality change since they'd seen him last, and it wasn't a change for the better. They said, Ed Johnson was involved in an incident in Lake County, Florida in mid-June. He was apparently innocent of any wrongdoing except driving without a valid license. But it still caused some raised eyebrows, including some of the members of the Eddie

Johnson Day Committee. Then there was another incident in Atlanta early June, but no charges were filed. The telltale signs of drug use are so obvious that they easily aroused the suspicions of the police. Johnson's friends noticed that as well. It said, isn't it time the league and league officials and coaches and teammates also pick up on the signs before the entire NBA, the NFL and major league baseball aren't far behind ends up on the police blotter? All of them. If there was all of them, we could do the show for 30 years, but that didn't happen, unfortunately. This is our dream that all that happened,

because then we have way more to choose from. They said, or worse, before hundreds of lives are ruined, and who knows how many thousands of others are influenced in the wrong direction. Let's hope the people of Wearsdale, who a few weeks ago were so ready to praise Eddie Johnson, don't forget him now when he needs friends the most sports heroes are fine, but human beings are more important Okay, Wow, what a fucking up on your bullshit soapbox

Holy now. Yeah, cunt face at least Live like me live like me and if you don't I don't understand you because you're weird and bad and a loser Live sober and hate yourself like there's also people and you know, this is obviously less But there's also people who can just do drugs sometimes and enjoy them and then not do them when they don't want to do them They're called casual users. They exist not everybody that ever did Coke was fucking hooked on Coke. That's not what happened. Some people just did it, you know, they go to a bar on a Saturday night

and their friend would have some, they have a couple lines and dance more and fucking, you know, whatever, wait a little while longer to get a heart on and they were fine. I know people that do it today that just do. Casually. It's very bizarre too when they're.

It's so strange. It's so strange. It's so strange. Just do coke all the time, be a weirdo. I'm not like that, yeah. I'm not, I don't, I never got into it because I know myself and if I liked it I wouldn't fucking do it. Plus I hate it, I did it once, it's horrible.

Oh, it's so horrible. It's, and as a guy that does it too, when people go, you wanna go do coke in the bathroom? I'm like, what? Yes. You talking to somebody when people go, you wanna go do coke in the bathroom? Like, what? Are you talking to somebody else? The less you wanna do coke, the more people wanna give you coke, which is the weirdest thing.

It's one restaurant I worked in, it was every fucking night, I don't do coke! It was the 50th time. We smoked a joint, we drank espresso, how much more do I need in my system to fucking give people spaghetti? What the fuck are we doing? I don't know how it's flattering I think it is flattering I like that I'll use that it's flattering with I guess yeah they

want to hang out that's nice hey you sound fun come come come be fun with us I like that you are inviting me to do this but please don't anymore no well we get it now too sometimes I'm. I'm certainly willing to try it, but I'm not now because everything's fucking crazy. It's all fucking crazy. Yeah, there's shit in it now that you don't know what the fuck's in it. I don't want anything, no.

I don't know where the fuck you, I didn't see when it was made. No, I don't want that. No, no, no, no. How many people are dropping from shit like that? I'm not touching it, no thank you. Especially not the Southwest. In the Southwest, all of it's garbage.

Yeah. All trash. So, August 1st, 1980, there's a warrant for Eddie, and no warrant has been served on him yet. They said, Atlanta police are investigating why no arrest warrant has been served on Eddie Johnson, the player accused of stealing the Porsche. So, they're saying he was taken to a hospital,

he did all this and blah blah blah, but they're like, why haven't we done that? They said if the hospital had released him, we would have no way of knowing of his walking out. So they're like, we don't know why they haven't served this warrant. So the police are asking why we haven't, why haven't we served this warrant?

I don't know, go serve it. Who the fuck are you asking the paper for? Did you guys, I got this list. Did you guys do this one? Right, him, right? He has got that one, right? You know that guy, right? No, where the fuck is he then?

So August 7th, 1980, the auto theft charges are dropped. Oh. Yes, they are fucking dropped, which is interesting. The owner of Luxury Auto Import Limited explained the reversal in his position, because he swore out the warrant against Johnson here. He said first, the automobile was recovered without damage. I've got the car and it's fine.

No harm, no foul. Secondly, under the circumstances, it appears to me that the medical treatment would be the best course of action for Eddie Johnson at this time. Accordingly, I do to me that the medical treatment would be the best course of action for Eddie Johnson at this time. Accordingly, I do not feel that the pursuit of criminal prosecution would be appropriate. Do you think Ted Turner gave him a call? Yeah, maybe so, yeah.

That car is now sitting in Ted Turner's fucking 26 car garage somewhere at the end. I'll give you 35 for it. Shut up. Yeah. That's what I think. Or a giant Hawks fan came in and said, can I get the car that was stolen? Is it damaged?

No, I want that. Yeah, I think that's, it's definitely something about that. He says, thirdly, contrary to a report in the Atlanta Journal Constitution of Saturday, August 2nd, 1980, I have not instigated any investigation of any sort of Sergeant Jimmy Stroud in connection with this matter. Our full and complete cooperation has been given to all departments of the Atlanta police, and we shall continue to fully and completely cooperate with all departments when requested to

do so." So they stopped helping the cops because somebody got this guy to fucking... Atlanta, back then, Atlanta was a big city, but it was still a small town big city. Important people all knew each other. And Ted Turner was the guy with the fucking local TV station. He owned all the sports teams. If he said, hey, do me a solid big guy, you'd fucking do it because then Ted Turner owes you a favor, which is what you wanted back then it, because then Ted Turner owes you a favor, which is what you wanted back then.

So. Not a lot of statues of people around that town. He's got one. Yeah, that's what I mean, he's got one. So yeah, they said, the general manager said, I can't comment on Eddie's medical condition, that's up to the doctor. However, we are extremely encouraged.

So yeah, he ends up, like we said, the charges are dropped. So now they're saying August 26th, 1980, five months past, emerging blossoming superstar, everything's great. Five months later, NBA may ban Johnson as an example to others, as an example to the others. He might be done. Done forever, kick him out for good.

The greatest thing since sliced bread five months ago. Wow, so they said that has the Atlanta Hawks' Eddie Johnson been squeezed into a judicial corner from which the chances of escape are slim? That question became pertinent last week when the National Basketball Association Commissioner, Lowry O'Brien'Brien Larry O'Brien. Who the fuck is that? I was this is like two years before David Stern took over That's why yeah Any player proven to have engaged in such activity relating to cocaine will forfeit his right to play in the NBA

Seems excessive seems a bit excessive NBA. Seems excessive. Seems a bit excessive. They said Johnson was arrested, obviously, for this and they said the timing of his arrangement is interesting because the Hawks will begin their training camp a day later and until O'Brien's announcement, the way was clear for Johnson if he so chose and the judge so ruled to plead guilty to be put on probation and then continue uninterrupted his basketball career. Now if Johnson pleads guilty, does this mean he falls under O'Brien's edict of last week and thereby forfeits his right to play in the NBA? You can't, that's ex post facto shit, you can't do that.

You can't make a rule after someone did something and then say everybody who did it before it now that counts, that doesn't work. So they said even when they do even when they Tighten up laws about fucking death penalties up the ones before it don't it's not applied to that shit Only the loosened up goes retroactive the tightening can't go retroactive No, the general manager of the hawks says he doesn't think so Castan the silverest man in town here. He said, I would imagine any ban would apply to Eddie irrespective of how his case turns

out. Bans can only be prospective and not retroactive. Yeah, he can't apply that. No such assurance came from the league office, however. For weeks prior to O'Brien's announcement, there had been rumors that the commissioner was going to make an example of the first player convicted of a drug charge more serious than marijuana. The first guy to get busted with coke,

I'm gonna fucking crucify him so everybody knows. And that's a fascinating rule. How do you parse between what's more serious? Because guys have been smoking weed in the league for years and they don't fucking jump out of balconies and steal Porsches the same week. They chill out. Yeah, but what's more serious?

Just powders? Do you know what I mean? I think that he's talking about anything. Let's be honest. Coke and heroin, right? It's coke and heroin. Invert the, yeah, and pills. Invert the drug pyramid.

There's booze, there's weed, and then there's everything else. You know what I mean? Well, there's probably booze, weed, mushrooms, everything else, right? Yeah, mushrooms are hallucinogens, that's fine, but in the normal realm of what's always available. Hard narcotic is not anything weed or hallucinogen, right? I told my daughter when she was 15, no pills, no powders.

Yeah, that's about it. Done, no pills, no fucking powders. It's generated somewhere in a lab or slash trailer. Don't touch it. Don't touch it. You don't know what's in it and it could be terrible for you and you'll probably want to do it more the next day. So stop fucking doing it. That's what it is. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so the confronted with the same question as cast in the league the league publicist, said a different answer. He said after conferring with his superiors, he said the commissioner has broad powers,

as specified, I think so, by both league, the standard player contract, and the league's constitution to handle charges for violations or bad conduct. But that's one that you take to arbitration and they'd fucking end up giving any money for that. They said as unequivocating as O'Brien's edict seemed, it really isn't. The commissioner's decision will be made on a case by case basis, which leaves him considerable latitude on the severity of punishment. Again, you can't really do that either because them guys why'd he get less and I got this and you know, all that kind of shit.

Parsing experience in a vent it's... Yeah they said O'Brien's edict merely added to the confusion that surrounds the drug question as related to the NBA. The commissioner also stated the NBA Players Association supports our view by taking the position that it will disassociate itself from any player who is convicted of using illegal drugs. Thanks Union for backing me. Jesus Christ, that's fucking wild.

But the executive director of the Players Association says that O'Brien is out of his fucking mind, and no. This guy said, I think a lot of things are said in the heat of the moment. One article came out in Los Angeles, and it became a national story. I think the idea of those figures on drug use in the NBA is ridiculous. This is an NBA story in the LA Times that estimated between 40 and 75% of the players

in the NBA use cocaine. Number one, that's a huge swing, 40 to 75. A giant window. Is that a four and 10 or three and four? Yeah, that's very different, man. Yeah. And at the same time too, is that players who are addicted to cocaine or guys who, you know, do a fucking line at the bar at night or something to, you know, fuck a chick or like, you know what I mean? Like we don't know the severity or, or,

or they do a line because they had too many shots of Jack. Do that also. That could be a thing too. That's a good thing. Or they do a line because they had too many shots of Jack. That also, that could be a thing too. And they gotta get home. To chill out, yeah. They gotta get home, they gotta be able to get their shit together. The Hawks president says that he, this article quotes the Hawks president

as saying an estimated 50% used cocaine and 10% free-based. Now we're getting serious. One in 10 is free-basing? Free-basing, yeah. Oh my God. Wow. Now the GM of the Hawks said, I didn't say that shit. He said, I never gave a 75% figure.

I wouldn't know any figure to give, and I consider that figure preposterous. I would also like to add that right at this moment I feel very positive. Our entire team is clean of drugs. Okay, 75% is too high and nobody on our team is way too low. You gotta just go more normal. It's somebody else's team. That's a...

Wow. Boy, is that an ostrich head in the sand father who's got a junkie for a child. I think he's totally good now. He's totally clean. Yes, our TV is missing. That's a thing. That's true.

But we don't know what happened to it. We cannot put it on him yet. It's been missing knobs for months anyway. Yes, his great grandmother's jewelry is gone from my wife's spot. That's gone. Yes, that's true. But.

It's just somebody in this neighborhood is a crackhead. They must be a crackhead. Has to be. So 1980 also, this is, you know we have a rule in crime and sports and I believe this rule came from Eddie Johnson originally, it was when we got the ball in motion. And that rule is when things are going bad for you.

And I would say going from Golden Boy to Pariah in five short fucking months. Causing the whole league to look at just you. Just you, you're the scourge, you've done dumb shit, people are shooting at you, all this. What's the one thing you shouldn't do? What's the one large decision you probably shouldn't make right now? He should certainly sign a father to his resume. He should certainly not get married.

That's the problem, yeah. Because your judgment is not going well. But he does. He marries Diana Rasiz of Pittsburgh. This goes against the advice of everyone that he knows. Everyone that knows him said, for the love of Christ, don't marry this fucking broad And he marries her anyway. Yeah, so All of this. Okay. This is how quickly shit can go in in the press back then when they were just and now too shit It's faster now. All right. Okay. He went from golden boy in March piece of shit in August. Yeah

Need to get him out of the league, everybody like him. By September 11th, the Atlanta Journal has an article says, quote, Johnson says trouble's behind him. He's good now. Wipe my hands of that. All good. He just lived four lifetimes in five months. That's the craziest fucking thing I've ever seen.

And he turned it around on September 11th. Good for you. That's good for you. He knew in the future what was coming 21 years from now. This is going to mean something right now. It's going to be a happy day for me no matter what. Yeah. He was celebrating. Oh no. So this article says that Eddie Johnson Eddie Johnson troubled this summer with drug related problems says he's ready to report for training camp and take things as he did before his problems, despite all the pressures. At a press conference in the Hawks boardroom at the Omni, Johnson answered questions. Jesus, they put him up there to answer press questions. Wow, he had his attorney there too.

There were also statements from a psychiatrist, Dr. Lloyd Backus, concerning the nature of the medical. They just had, here's his lawyer, here's his shrink. It's a press conference with a big banner that says, he's good now, over it. This is fucking crazy. No questions directed to the charges Eddie faces in Fulton County Court here were answered.

The Johnson was arrested, obviously, we'll talk about that. Now, since late July, he's been under the treatment of Dr. Backus, and Backus characterized his problems as a manic depressive disorder there. He says that this order, this mood disorder, characterized by elation and dejection, and can be marked by problems with financial and personal relations.

Oh my. Yeah. Backus said that it's a genetic thing and chemical in its background. He said he's been treating a player with lithium for, Jesus, Backus said, lithium in a natural state is present in a person's system in varying amounts and that imbalance is Johnson,

what causes it for him, this whole thing. Questions were asked concerning the possibility present in a person's system in varying amounts, and that imbalance is Johnson, what causes it for him, this whole thing. Questions were asked concerning the possibility of exposure to other drugs being involved in the disorder, and Backus said, quote, Eddie is clearly in a condition independent of any other consideration. In my opinion, no other factor or expression

of any other factor participated or precipitated the disorder. So he was born this way. He's born this way and he can't fucking help it. Lithium is an aggressive treatment. It's a very aggressive. It's a lot. To be on lithium, it's very rare.

Nowadays, they don't just hand that to you first. That's not the first fucking thing they hand out. It's a wild approach. Well, here you go. Here's incredibly strong drugs. So go ahead and fucking, go ahead and chill out and wait for Nirvana to write a song about it. So, you know. It's a really aggressive treatment.

It's a lot. So they said, you know, that's what they had to give him. They said Johnson was asked if he had any opinions on recent stories estimating that a huge high percentage of everybody uses Coke, and he said, quote, this is amazing, Eddie, what do you think of the number of guys who do drugs in the NBA? We've heard it could be this number or this number.

Well, my problem is not drug related, so I can't say. That's what he said. He acted like I don't know anything about drugs, so I can't say. That's what he said. He acted like I don't know anything about drugs, so. Don't ask me. They told me I have a mental issue, it's not drug related. I've got lithium. Wow. He was asked if he was optimistic about his chances of returning to the playing status

he had last season, and he said, I feel optimistic. It's a good feeling to know I had a problem and can deal with it now. A lot of people tried to tell me I had a problem, but I didn't listen then. Since the doctors diagnosed it, I can understand and I feel more like my old self. He said that he is wary of what may happen

when he returns to playing, but quote, I'm at a point where I think I can deal with that. He's good now is what he's saying I think he said you know I'm scared about it because this will determine my livelihood it would be ridiculous to say I'm not scared the doctor said they asked the doctor what were the chances of problems from the disorder recurring about 96 probably right about now this is his first time in treatment. So 150 I don't know 300 taking lithium. He'll be back. Let's just say that yeah your first time in treatment

I don't know if that's gonna stick if you're if everything hasn't fallen apart It's like again on the wire Remember when Steve Earl is down there and they're throwing out the testers and he goes to Bubbles, he goes, he hasn't hit his bottom yet. He hasn't hit his bottom yet, he's not gonna fucking stop. The thing is, I'd love to see the statistic of percentage of people that go to rehab and it sticks the first time.

The first time. I wanna see that. Yeah, number one. That's what I mean, number one, and especially, okay, it might stick if you're a regular person and you make $71,000 a year for your whole family and you're supporting your whole family on that. That's the 70,000 is the average household income

here in America. So you're doing that and you get caught doing it. Holy shit, your wife's gonna kick you out of the fucking house and you can't afford to get another place and you'll be fucked by alimony. I can't pay two households, I can't do that on this money. That would make you stop. That might make, that might, if you didn't have a huge problem, if you just started fucking

around with it and you were like, oh God, yeah, this is. If you're dabbling, but if you're rich, famous. If you've got a rig and a zipper and a zip plaque, you're fucked. No, you're fucked, yeah. If you have a special bag you carry around if you've got a John Travolta Pulp fiction rig in the glove box you're fucked you're a deep fucking shit And if you're rich famous and still getting your dick sucked every night by hot one there's why would you stop why stop? There's no reason to stop. Everything's still great.

It's working. If I had $13,000, I wouldn't have a fucking cocaine problem in the words of Sam Kenison. I've got $13,000. I'm doing great. Oh my god. So the doctor, though, said the rapid improvement he's made is characteristic of the disorder in treatment.

It depends on the individual as to how long the treatment is needed. It's somewhat analogous to diabetes and insulin. Adjusting the right levels of everything so you're at your right levels. Precarious balance. Yeah, exactly. His attorney Robert Fierer allowed no questions about the criminal charges at the news conference. He said, there will be no questions dealing with the charges or circumstances leading to these charges. At some time, we and Eddie will be completely open and answering questions like that. At some time. At some time when it's out of

the news and you've forgotten about it and it's no longer interesting to your readers. That's when we'll talk about it. When you guys don't give a shit, that's when we'll be thrilled to talk about it. Oh my fucking God here. So here we go. We'll close out with this here. September 15th, 1980, less than six months after he's a golden boy. He's been kicked and propped back up again. This is an article set called One Battled Success, The Other Failure.

And they said Eddie Johnson almost died this summer. Whoa. What is that snooze? He took his chances trying to barge into a couple houses as he drove off with an auto dealer's $31,000 Porsche. But his closest escape was the day his all-star agility allowed him to dodge bullets in a parking lot. Yeah.

It'd be great if he took out a basketball while he was doing it, he's doing drills. A psychiatrist has since said that the Hawks star is suffering from manic depressive disorder and that he's doing fine. Then they talk about Terry Furlough. He did not survive the short time between basketball season. A friend of Johnson's, once a teammate and rival for a starting role, Furlough died May 23rd when his automobile crashed into a pole on a highway in Ohio at 3 a.m.

So they said that he had cocaine and Valium in his bloodstream, but that's it. They said the problems, no booze. The problems, he might have fell asleep. That's why there's no shot on the brakes. The Valium might have overtaken the coke. Yeah, depends on how much Valium he had. That's the thing, yeah, you gotta know what you're leveling out.

That's a clutch and a gas pedal. Fuck yeah. If you wanna go up the hill, you can't be fucking depressing to one or the other. Yeah. You have to do that. So the problems that have consumed these two gifted athletes have added to the concern that drug use is becoming a more common problem among professional athletes. But that's, yeah, big deal.

They talk about how these two are so different because one is dead and Eddie, on the other hand, is now all better. Superman. So yeah, he's doing great. They said the intense pressure of professional sports is also a factor in the problems of furlough and Eddie Johnson. Like athletes everywhere, they were competing to hold jobs

worth hundreds of thousands of dollars while being courted by so-called friends who will apply them with empty encouragement and perhaps even the latest mega drug. What's that? Mega drug? Where the fuck is that? Someone point me in that direction. Jesus Christ. That's empty. You don't want it. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I don't want that at all here. They said charisma. That's the Mega drug where the fuck is that someone point me in that direction Jesus Christ? Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I don't want that at all here. They said charisma That's the word people used to describe the late Terry furlough He could be the life of the party get up and sing or do as mr. Magoo imitations Oh, he sounds hilarious. He did another one when he hit that ball. Yeah, he sounds high hilarious Why the fuck are they gonna, wow, okay.

Mr. Magoo, what is that? Holy fucking shit. They go on talking about what a great guy furlough is and Dr. J says he's fucking wonderful and everything like that. They're talking about what free base is, which is hilarious. Hilarious.

That furlough was kind of new then, yeah? Yeah, they said the comedian Richard Pryor nearly died in a home fire in Northridge that has been blamed by police on a free-basing accident. Also in his stand-up he said it. Yeah, also he said it. He did about 15 minutes on free-basing and that shit. Really admits he tried to murder himself. No shit or you know at least.

Accidentally tried to murder himself. Yeah, when Furlough died, Eddie Johnson told the paper in Atlanta, quote, there's no way I'm going to abuse my body like Terry Furlough, my best friend did. There were times when I loved him and times I hated him, but he was a real man. Wow. Holy shit, man. After the season, by the way, here, that's when he said,

they think that he probably had more money in time than he could handle and Tree Rollins Here who by the way is Eddie's cousin What that tree Rollins and Eddie Johnson Frank Johnson are all out of here. Yes, they're cousins So not only was he drafted that year Not only is he at the fucking team or at on his team, but he's also his cousin, and his real name is Wayne. Wayne Tree Rollins.

Tree, I've never seen his name put anything but Tree. He's always been Tree. On cards, it's always Tree. On cards, they wrote Tree Rollins. Always Tree, yeah. They didn't put Wayne Tree, it was just Tree. But Wayne is his fucking real name, which is funny. I'd go by Tree also.

Yeah, that's the most surprising thing since you told me we found out together that C-Murder's name is Corey. Corey murder which is hilarious. Yeah. Good to meet you sir. Corey murder here to take your daughter to the homecoming dance. Hi. It's a pleasure sir. Corey, Corey murder. Now Tree Rawlins said said quote I couldn't believe the way Eddie was acting Eddie was always a quiet guy never hung out in discos or stuff like that this goes it is 1980 there was this go actual discos all of a sudden Eddie was like a different guy he blew up and doing all the disco shit outside just

disco disco in and looking like fucking looking like Travolta in a different movie now He goes from Saturday Night Fever to Pulp Fiction Travolta. This is not good. Oh My god characters of Travolta one. I don't know Greece. No no I think there's two best actually Yeah, I think Pulp Fiction and yeah, and fucking Tony Manero are his two best roles. I think who bubble boy That was funny. That's funny But definitely are Tony Manero. Yeah, you're nice girl. You can't I mean that's a bike. You got that line That's you win right there. Did he I think in bubble boy? I think he got a hand job from that girl inside the bubble

I think that she definitely rubbed him with a, yeah, she was, that was bubble boy. She reached her hand in and gave him a hand. There's a Rift Trax of Bubble Boy, so I've seen it in like the last year and a half. It's fucking hilarious. Really? Yeah, it's on, I think it's on 2B or YouTube, one of the two, so it's free.

You can watch it. It's very funny. It's fucking hilarious. So, his team says that, you know, Terry, that would happen to Furlough, won't happen to him because at the time, we thought Eddie had a drug problem. We didn't realize he had a manic-depressive problem. Yeah.

Like they're all completely mutually exclusive. You can't have both. Yeah. You can't be a bipolar guy who likes Coke. That's impossible, right? That's amazing. Holy shit. The next year, 80- 80 81 this team is in turmoil because the Hawks go from 50 and 32 to

31 and 51. Oh wow flipped it and they suck bad. Jesus. Lost 50 not doing great Eddie in September is going to, late September, is going to plead not guilty in a drug case. So not guilty here. So he's pleading, that's that, not guilty. And he's saying he's certain he'll be ready for the regular season no matter what happens. And we'll pick up that regular season

on the next episode of Crime and Sports. Slow down, Eddie, you're too fast. He's fast. He had a fast 1980. Most of this show was about six months of one year. Yeah. And he's not even close to fucking done yet. This is just everything's fine and then he's just going to keep getting arrested from now on through the rest of the time. Wow, I'm about to be born for Christ's sake. Yeah, I'm about to be born into cocaine. And Eddie Johnson, so check that out. Check out next week, so that'll be Eddie Johnson part two.

Right away we've talked about, this is twice as long as the episode we did at first that covered his entire life. I mean, you have to get into the depth of it. I don't even know if we talked about his bipolar stuff very much or anything in the first episode. I think a little bit we touched on it, but not that like, oh, he doesn't have a drug problem

because he's bipolar and all that kind of shit. So definitely do that. Also, if you like this show, give a review on whatever app you're listening on. I'm telling you right now, it helps out a lot. So thanks for doing it. It takes 20 seconds. Please do that.

Give us five stars. We also found out that TNT and TBS founder Ted Turner is a weed guy. Nope, we didn't talk about that in the first one. Oh no, we definitely didn't talk about that. Ted Turner didn't come up at all, I don't think. I don't think I knew he was a weed guy in 2016. Oh, all right, well, now we know.

There was a book about it, about his whole deal. I read a book about him, because it's just interesting shit, and yeah, that was part of it. So he likes to close a deal. He got kicked out of college and shit. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's a fucking shut up. He's a shitster, I like it. He's a shitster, then he was a fucking captain of the whatever, what are those teams with the big fucking sailboat things? Sailing? I don't know what the fuck they are. Is it sailing?

What do they call it though? I don't fucking know. What's the fucking, there's a big race. Oh, yeah. That he does, and he won it and shit. Sailing what do they call it though? What's the fucking there's a Yeah, he does and he like won it and shit like he's a yeah, he's a captain of bullshit It's a catamaran. I don't know. I don't fucking know what it is. It doesn't matter He does rich guy shit that we don't know anything about that's what I Don't even know what it's called because that's how not in our world that is. Not rich I am. No.

So yeah, check out plenty more information. We definitely didn't tell you on the first time, so we'll do that. You certainly want to go to shutupandgivemurder.com, get all your merchandise, get all your stuff. You certainly want to listen to our other two shows too. Small Town Murder, obviously, because it's been around for almost as long

as Grime and Sports, you should check that out. And also Your also your stupid opinions, if you've been going, I don't want to hear that. You fucking want to hear that. Give us 10 minutes, you will laugh, I promise. There you go. You'll love it. So check that out and keep doing that as well. You can follow us on social media, crime and sports, on all the stuff there. You can subscribe to Patreon if you still can't get enough and Patreon tons of episodes on there anybody five dollars a month or above you're getting hundreds immediately That you never had before and then you're getting new ones every other week one Crime and Sports one small-town murder You get to listen to all that shit. Yeah, and this week is no different for Crime and Sports

We're gonna talk about something that has nothing to do with sports, everything that has to do with huge amounts of wild death. We're going to talk about industrial accidents, which is fucking insane. And there's a lot of crazy ones and people just getting incinerated, melted by molten steel in a second. It's fucking crazy. Then for small town murders bonus, we're going to talk about the Cannibal Cop, who was a New York City cop from, I believe 10 years ago who wanted to eat people allegedly and is that okay? Are you allowed to fantasize about eating people if you're a cop? I don't know, the legal system had a little run through with it. Certainly going to come up if you fuck up otherwise.

Hopefully it'll come up in your job review at least, are we we hear you like to eat people that seems counter Counter to what we're trying to do here. So There you go. Do that hang out with us and keep hanging out with us and patreon.com slash crime and sports that is and You'll get a shout out at the end of the show, which is when all right now right motherfucking now Jimmy hit me with the names and the most wonderful people in the world who would not jump out of a window if we were trying to shoot them. They'd say, hey, please, don't shoot me.

And we'd say, okay, you gave us Patreon money, we won't shoot you. That said, hit me with them right fucking now. This is executive producer Hailey Walls, Raya B, congrats on cancer surgery. Oh no. That's wonderful. Oh, did well? I mean, the surgery's bad obviously.

Oh good, good. But getting it done and surviving it, good for you, Raya. Yeah, fuck yeah. Good for you. Welcome to the team. Other, also Gary Howard, Jen Mink. Jen Mink subscribed twice, I think. She's terrific.

Wow, maybe she gifted someone. Thank you. Maybe, yeah. Jill King and Beverly Morrill. Thank you all. Maybe Meryl, I don't know. Thank you for my present, Gary, as well. I appreciate that. Oh yeah, what a guy. Nice you. Maybe, yeah. Jill King and Beverly Morrill. Thank you all. Maybe from Merrill. Thank you for my present, Gary, as well. I appreciate that.

Oh yeah, what a guy. Nice, thank you, Gary. I really appreciate you, brother. He's being very kind. Yeah, you're a good dude, Gary. You really are, thank you. Stay out of trouble and don't cause problems at the fucking showers at the L'Oreal.

Don't cause problems at the showers. That's amazing. That could be anything. You really left it open vaguely. Is he peeking? What's he doing in there? Gar, what are you doing? Don't do that.

Stay out of trouble, brother. Other producers this week are Scarlet Horror Beast. Happy birthday. Peyton Meadows. Abigail Gathered donated twice. Thank you, Abigail. That's very nice. Janice Hill, Evan Pease, or Pease maybe.

Alana Zemmell, Maddie Sturm, Micah Tyler, Nick Weissman, Luke G, Hayden Feran I think, Dark Windows Pod, Deb would know last name, Astana, Astana? Astana, Kalash, Kalash. Oh, sounds like a dish. David Allen, Leonie Nailen, Tiffany Herbert, Hey Bear, maybe? Hair Bear.

Hair Bear. Yeah, we have lots of, Shredded, Shred. Hair bear. Yeah, we have lots of. Shredded, shredded cabbage. Yeah, something shredded. Mersha Hollock and Stroke Malone. All right, I don't know what that is. C and J, CJ, the letter C and J. Thank you CJ.

Talk to you bye, see you. John Blake Kearney or Kearney. Krista Keller, Amy Weinrich. Wenrich, Michelle Mick and Izzy, Garrity, oh, Michelle Mick and Izzy, Garrity Bates. Hey, there you go. If your last name is Garrity, I hope you are, wasn't it Pat, oh, Pat Garrett, not Garrity.

All right, moving on. Rosa Eiten, Quentin McCrudden, Bradley Powers, Tina Fogg, Samantha Ron, Angela Shimate, Ashley Roschetsky, Lee Heath, Christopher Ebeling, Lisa Liesel, Liesel Minone, Ben Dover, there he is, the guy exists. Everybody's been writing your name. Finally found him. For years, Ben!

Yeah, and is Dick Cazinia with him too? Who they found on the same desert island together? Hot Toddy, Matt Gordon, Brooke Whitfield, Robert McNitt, Brittany A, Corey Kavanaugh, Hadley Oberg, Jeremy Randolph, Larissa with no last name, Lucy Roots, Matt Spurgeon, Nick Grillot, Michelle O'Brien, Nikki with no last name, Amber Dreyer, Missy Dedlow, Sarah Baker, Petty Killer,

Jen with no last name, Mara Catherine, Just Randy, Lauren with no last name, John Ratz, Andrea Bacon, Elizabeth Price, Allison Delotinville, Delotin, Pam Castro, Haley Phillips, Edith McGiannay, McGallan, McGallan, Maggiannay's, McGallan McGallanes, Maggie Yanay's, Maggie, our sarcasm defender, Holly Garner, Bangee Banghart, Ivan, oh there he is, Ivana Foucar.

Oh, see, that's who's with, gosh. It's Ivana with Ben. I knew he had a bud there, yeah. Yeah, Ivana Foucar, that's what it is. Andrea Mack, Holden Gonzaga, there's also them too. Oh, nice. From the Gonzaga family, the whole family, yeah, I know them. Yuri Volnov, Jeff Doris, Abby Evans, Janet Lin,

Lunn maybe, David Inskeep, Myra with no last name, Dale Roberts, Justin Hedgedorn, Ellie Johnson, Robert Wessel, Tanner Murphrey, Terhan Jordan, Jordan Hill, Justin Taft, Stephen Darnell, Jeremy Haas, Sequoia Salazar, Andrea Belz, Andrew Belz,, Janice. Oh boy. Sagness, Sagness, Sagness, Andrew James, John Giles, maybe Gill's, uh, Ryan McKinney, auto, auto, Belista, Elise Allison, Simon, a bitch, Simon, a bitch, uh, Allison M Tyke, uh, Tyco, I think tyk ho that's Tyco Jacob deck green Brienne Sullivan Tina Davila Davila Peter Carini officer Big Mac Suzanne Kelly Jeff Jones Roy Watson

WLH Kaden Kendrick's skip Wiley Nicky would know last name Zack would know last name Sue bull AMD 420 Jen Mank that's Jen there, she is again. Mandy with no last name, Patty with no last name, Jeff Scott, Tara Atkins, Troy Fletcher, Stephanie with no last name, Nicholas St. James, Josh Moore, Rhonda Kirkham, Evan McKeern, Chantel Conley, Mariel Van Tune, Amy Cartwright, Matthew Bennett, Casey Bowman, Tara with no last name,

Kimberly with no last name, Kimberley with no last name, Daryl Schoohler, Wynona Koshal, Samantha Richard, Denise Parnau, Hayden Bosleve, Nicole, no, that's Noel. Noel Costallo, Cricket on Tour, Jesse, oh, Iberi, Ashley, fucking shit, damn it, Olivia Otto. That That's all right man, you just got a 30 game heading streak there, that was awesome. We're getting real close. Mosai with no last name, Kevin Chitwood, Cindy Daughter.

Kevin Chitwood? Yeah, Chitwood with a C. Thought you legit said Chitwood, I was like, somebody called them. Poor bastard, hurt it his whole life, the bastard. Yeah, I thought that's what you said, dammit. Philip Peryear, Mariah Plotkin, Beth Van Allen, Melissa Abel, John Jeldin, Chris Kay,

Julie Puestos, David Coyle, Adam Trout, John Warren, Jeremy Sopko, Rebecca Holra, Diana Thomas, Tina Buccionio, Bocioni. You're lucky there was no Italians in your good run there. That's what saved you. Latin Phillips, maybe it's Leighton, Brad Hinderleiter, Spidey Mama IV, preceded by the other three, Sarah King, Tara Vanderpool, Kristen Anderson, Mary Beth Southwell, Byron Day, Jessica Villareal, Claire Wood, no last name, Josephine Burgandy, Abel Martinez, Luis Navarrete, and all of

our patrons, you guys are fucking incredible. Thank you so much everybody for all that you do for us. We can't thank you enough, honestly. We try, but I don't think it's ever. We can never hit, we can never tell exactly how we feel, because it's that deep, the love and admiration that we have for you for hanging out with us and doing that and spending all that time with us and money on Patreon.

Thank you so much for hanging out with us. If you wanna follow either of us on social media, super easy to do that. You just head over to shutupandgivemurder.com. There's drop down menus. You'll find all that shit keep coming back again because we're gonna have more fast Eddie for you next week listen to all the other shows and live from the Crime and Sports studios we'll see you next week

If you like crime and sports, you can listen early and ad free now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen early and ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.