Crime in Sports - #415 - No One Saw Me Do It - "Fast" Eddie Johnson - Part 2

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

This week, we continue this saga as Eddie tries to show everyone that his troubles are behind him. His legal, drug, and mental problems. But, the next thing you know, he's being hauled off the Atlanta Hawks practice court by police, and dragged off to a mental institution. He insists his drug problems are a thing of the past, but his own mother seems to disagree. Will he snort his way out of the NBA???Have your best season, be dragged out of work by police, and be as important to Ted Turner as a transponder on one of his satellites 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.

Hey Prime members, you can listen to Crime and Sports early and ad free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Hello everybody and welcome back to Crime in Sports. Yay! Oh yay indeed Jimmy, yay indeed. My name is James Petragallo, I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you folks so much for joining us today on more crime and sports and more of the guy we did last week a part two Of a guy who my goodness we did we got to what are we like in the second third year of playing even?

Yeah, we just barely in the 90s. We're 80s. We're in 1980 still. Oh my god. Yeah Never nowhere near the 90s shit So but he's already been arrested a whole bunch of times and he's been chased off of balconies and he's been shot at and Just a six-month period his life went from fantastic to really really bad like ten times It went from fantastic to terrible back to he's great. No worries. Yeah, next fucking week. He's the worst person alive then it's all good again He's fine. He's been in rehab like six times already Very stints are rehab in six months. There's a lot. Yeah, there's a lot. And every time it's like, we're happy he's cured now.

And then like shockingly enough, he's doing more coke. They just, he gets out of rehab, they just put him right back in the lineup. Like nothing ever happened. That'll do. Yeah, there you go. Three weeks there will do it. So before we get into him though, definitely head over to shutupandgivemurder.com, get your merch, get your tickets for Small Town Murder Live shows, because we got those coming up. September 20th is Minneapolis, not Milwaukee.

The next night's Milwaukee. So get your tickets there. Minneapolis State Theater, beautiful big theater. We can't wait to see everybody. Can't wait to do that. Also, you should check out Patreon, patreon.com slash crime and sports. Bonus episodes, out your ass.

Anybody five dollars a month or above, you're gonna get it all, baby. You're gonna get hundreds of back episodes, new ones every other week. Crime and sports, small town murder, you get all the bonuses. All for you. This week, what we're gonna do here for crime and sports,

I can't wait to talk about this, we're gonna do fireworks disasters, because sports I can't wait to talk about this we're gonna do fireworks disasters because it's gonna be 4th of July thing so Jimmy will tell a fireworks disaster also Jimmy is missing part of a finger due to a fireworks accident so we're gonna mangled left hand yeah so we're definitely gonna talk about that and have him tell a story and we and we damage. And we all have like, maybe not deaths or loss of appendix, but we all have stories of, you know, with burns and this guy and we used to shoot fireworks

at each other. Somebody's been maimed. We all know somebody. So we'll tell all sorts of fun stories and we'll also have a small town murder one. We'll talk about that one. At this point, I think we're gonna do the real Tombstone Doc Holliday story. Oh, great.

Because in the movie, the movie's actually way more accurate than you'd imagine. It's one of the most accurate blockbuster Hollywood-style movies. It's one of the most accurate. Except for the before and the after are inaccurate, but the middle is pretty damn accurate, yeah. Pretty close, and there's a bunch of herbs missing, but it's pretty good.

We'll tell you what really happened to Johnny Ringo, because it's not what they, in the movie at all. That didn't happen, the whole Doc Holliday thing. That would have been great, but didn't happen. Anyway, we'll talk all about that, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, all that good stuff there. That'll be a lot of fun. Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get

all of that, that said, let's get into this asshole here. My goodness, what a jackass. So we're in September of 1980. He has just pled not guilty on his drug charge because he was charged with cocaine, possession of cocaine with 40 grams and all that kind of stuff. That's a lot.

That's a lot, that's a lot. But it was like, I think it wasn't raw. It was like diluted, like somebody sold him, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stepped on shit, but still. It's still 10 eight balls, that's a lot. That's a lot of fucking coke to have on you at any rate. So still though, that's in September.

He's pleading not guilty. Then like two weeks later, October 1980, they say they're certain he'll be ready to play now for the season. Ready to go. He's fine, don't worry about it. Yeah, just doing. All fixed up. Doing well, yeah, they said once his case is solved,

Eddie will return to his old personality, which is a fun type personality. Depends, luck or not. He will, huh? That's amazing, holy shit. They say right now, Eddie is right at the top of his game. I see no evidence of his game disintegrating. He's worked extremely hard. Of course he's done that ever since he became a Hawk. This is Coach Brown here

saying this of the Hawks. So he's going to be the same guy. And Eddie said, quote, I think I'll be ready for the opening game. I think I can improve over last year and I think the Atlanta Hawks are capable of another 50 win season. Oh, is that right? So not he, this is October 8th, 1980 mind you, because pretty soon it'll be all fucked up again. So keep this in mind. October 8th, 1980. Everything's fine. We're good. Everybody's happy one teammate Tom McMillan said I don't see any perceptible difference all right another teammate said his timing may be a shade off so is everybody else's but

Eddie will be ready he's making those same moves it's new it's it he's all all ready to go coach Brown said stamina is something to be graded at the end of the season. Right now with the anxieties and the newness of the season, everybody's all pepped up. Don't say that about the guy who's, once he gets out of coke rehab, he's fine, but we're all pepped up. I wonder why that is. There've been no slumps, no tough road trips, and you have to go through those to determine stamina.

They're saying the Hawks really need more scoring and Eddie Johnson can provide it and Eddie said I'll do whatever is asked I think I'm capable of playing point guard and Larry Brown or not Larry Hubey Brown said yeah he said such a lineup would give us more offensive firepower but we would be a weaker defensive team. All right yeah because Eddie's kind of small to play the, well, Eddie's, for the two, he's a small guy. Like, if you look at guys coming in like, Michael Jordan's a two, Mike's like fucking four or five inches taller than him.

Six, yeah. You know, he's gonna dominate a guy like this when it comes to having to guard him. So, November 16th, 1980, here, and they're talking to his college coach. His college coach said, quote, I think Eddie was well suited for playing with the Hawks because he's always been self-motivated

to perform at maximum capacity. That's what he says. Except for the past few months. Well, he does perform at maximum capacity, whether it's on the court dribbling and shooting or acquiring cocaine and Porsches that he doesn't own. And zigging and zagging across open fields so he doesn't get shot. If you're trying to shoot at him because he beat up the prostitute that you say you own and then took her and did bad things to her and then you've kicked in the door and found him in some sort of

crazy next literal Mexican pimp style thing. Yeah, that's the same exact thing that happened to Willie Mays Aikens that the Mexican pimp character came from an actual Mexican pimp came to the door with the guns out and said you have my woman here. That was what happened. Real. the door with the guns out and said you have my woman here that was what happened for real and he's noticed who he was sat him down poured a drink and said you know how is it you've come to arrive here in Spanish you're famous what the fuck are you why am I kicking in

your door stupid why why are we why are we here you owe like seven dollars this is Mexico like just pay me so this is he's had a similar experience though he gives it a hundred percent he'll jump off the balcony he'll avoid gunfire yeah and he's got it all so yeah they're talking about how you know Eddie they said Eddie wants to be a regular guy he wants to be accepted but it's almost impossible to do that if you want to be a successful pro athlete and he's a happy-go-lucky guy and I think what he's been through has been a real trauma. What he's been through?

Being a jackass? He did it to himself. It's not like he's a victim of circumstance. No. It's not Kelsey Grammer. As we talked about. Again, this is an off-air thing. We were talking about Kelsey Grammer.

I go, isn't it crazy? Did you know that Kelsey Grammer's brother was eaten by a shark, which happened? And then we found out- Literally eaten, gone. That's just the tip of the fucking shark's tooth of him. You go, wow, Kelsey Grammer's been through a lot. He's had multiple family members murdered

by different people, one of which, one of the murderers last names was Niles. How fucking crazy is that? That's bonkers. That is the most unbelievable thing I've ever heard. That's before the show. Kelsey could have said, let's change his name, and he didn't. That's crazy. And with all of that, Kelsey murdered and it's fucking horrible. With all of that, Kelsey did have a Coke and booze problem. Oh, massive, he wrapped so many, he made Billy Joel look like a pussy.

He made Billy Joel look like a teetotaler. He was really out there, Kelsey, man. But he didn't bring this upon himself until the Coke and booze. Yeah, everybody had already been eaten and murdered by then. This was later on. Unreal. I don't even know where, how the fuck that came out

of what we're talking about. So it's a lot. Not because Eddie's not a victim of circumstances. No, no, he's not. He's not, Kelsey Grammer. And yes, he had a tough upbringing, but his brother seems fine. Yeah.

Oh, that's the other thing we have to talk about. When we brought up Frank Johnson last week, his brother, we, I don't remember, did we, were you talking about that on the show or off the show? I said, I think he got fired from the sons as a coach because he after I think on the show, though, I said, I think he fucked a son's wife. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to clarify that. That's not true. That didn't happen. He did fuck somebody's wife. That I had right. And executives. But worse than a club executive. Because if he fucked like the vice president for operations wife, and that was a big beef, he's the coach. They just fire the vice president in operations. Who cares?

Get him out of the, give him a severance package. He fucked the main sponsor's wife. Which that guy gives actual money to them. A estranged wife. So she did this on purpose. Yes. Not good for the whole team. Frank's a victim of circumstance. That's a victim of circumstance in that particular case. But we're saying as Frank went on to have just a fine life and they had the exact same family so

it's possible and he just likes Coke a lot. Much like Kelsey Grammer. Two guys who the world just shat on them, Frank Johnson and Kelsey Grammer. Frank knew who he was fucking though too. He knew he was doing that. Frank could have said, you know what, maybe a bad idea. And Frank at that moment should have probably zipped it up because he had overachieved like a motherfucker at that point. Yeah, his fucking, he's got the tiny weirdest head

I've ever seen in my life. Oh God. So for him to achieve anything, he should have been excited and happy with what he had. He capitalized on one really successful season for himself, and then became what he became, which happened to be a cheating pain in the ass. Fucking unbelievable. Oh, man. So in this article here, they talk about the pimp shooting at him incident. And they said when police arrived, his pursuers had escaped,

and Eddie told the police he had no idea why the two guys were out to get him. That's what he told the cops. No clue, you guys. I don't know what, those guys are just nuts, man. They're out of their minds, they got guns. Did you see that? Guns and stuff, this is crazy.

Yeah, he told them that, and they didn't buy that obviously. Sure. You know, chasing him off the balcony. Then two days later, the cops caught the guys who fired at him. Yeah. But Eddie... They had a different story?

Eddie didn't show up to give a statement of press charges, so the men were released from custody because they had no, you know, anything that would be actually that they could use in court. Right, right, right. They needed a witness. Yeah. The detective who handled the case doesn't understand why Eddie failed to show, which I do because he doesn't want it on public record that

yeah yeah I beat up and robbed a prostitute and then fucking dragged her to an apartment so much so that the pimps shot at me. That's not a good publicity move. There's probably cocaine involved too so they've got oh tons literally has hookers and blow that he doesn't want to deal with the hookers and blow and angry pimps. Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah, Eddie said or they said, uh, the detective said, quote, the people in the apartment were frightened after the shooting incident.

And they told me that Eddie had been hiding from someone when their door was broken down. According to these people, Eddie had bought some cocaine from one of the guys who was chasing him that day. Eddie hadn't paid for the cocaine, and he may have slapped around the woman who delivered it. Not only am I not gonna pay it, I'm gonna slap her around too. This whole situation's illegal.

I can do whatever I want. Yeah, this detective said, anyway, he knew her boyfriend. The word is pimp. By the way, we found out before not boyfriend. This was a pimp fucking, you know, arrangement. The dealer would be looking for him so he didn't stay at his own house. So then he went to somebody else's house. That's where he was. And that's where the pimp found him. So yeah, Eddie's house was, oh, I'm sorry. Within a week of the shooting incident, Eddie's house was broken into and his stereo and television were stolen as well.

It's like they got their money back. Yeah, that's amazing. Then two weeks after that, he was arrested for possession of cocaine as we did, as we talked about. So he's had quite, and then right after that was the Porsche incident. It's been fun. What a month! Yeah.

So there's a funny article where they say, quote, they say they talk to a psychiatrist, and because he's under the care of a psychiatrist, they want to know what they might be talking about. So they ask a psychiatrist. And they say, well, trying to understand how Eddie got involved in this series of bizarre incidents, these are all Coke, by the way.

Everything that said here was everything was Coke related. That's how he got involved in it. Too much Coke. Bizarre. Weird, bizarre. I couldn't help but recall what happened to a good friend of mine who, though highly intelligent and a model gentleman, once became obsessed

with snorting cocaine. That don't happen, it happens. One would say addicted. One would say, yeah, obsessed with snorting it. He just likes to snort it. It's not the high. It has nothing to do with the chemical. Nothing.

It's just the act of snorting it is just really fun for him. He likes it a lot. It's like an oral fixation with cigarettes. It has nothing to do with the nicotine. No, no, no. You just like lighting it. That's what it is. It's the flame igniting the leaf and you're just like, wow, that's amazing.

I can put it out right afterwards. I just need to do that. It's already lit, so I just might as well smoke it you know what I mean That's a lot of people. That's the problem They said one week last year my friend got hold of more than he could handle for four or five straight days He snorted the drug constantly until he became overwhelmed by overwhelmed by paranoid fears and delusions. Yeah, that's called Getting high getting high for five days, you haven't slept. You're also gonna have hallucinations. If you don't sleep and do coke for four days,

you will definitely see and hear and do some weird shit. Your brain is not working right. Hilarious. No good. Boiling it down to the obsession with snorting it is the reason for all of this. Wow. On the last day of his rampageage he came to believe that the woman he lived with was having a homosexual Love affair with a mutual friend

Wow, because he's paranoid. He's on all his coke and he thinks his girlfriend is a lesbian whose finger in her friend now So he took all the things in his house that his girlfriend loved, antique furniture from her grandmother, her piano, her guitar, dragged them outside into the front lawn and hatcheted them into splinters. That's some coke behavior. Then he went inside, laid down on the couch and began to cry for help. Yeah, that's five days of coke. You just destroyed thousands of dollars in antiques.

And she is not going to fuck you ever again. She's leaving. She is definitely leaving. So this guy author goes on to say, I cannot say if the same kind of breakdown happened to Eddie. The first, the few people I could locate who talked to him last summer noticed that there was something wrong with him But we're unable to find what it could be Hugh Lindsay who now lives near Tampa but drives to Wearsdale when Eddie makes his annual offseason visit to his parents was puzzled by Eddie's behavior

Coke coke coke coke. What are we puzzled by? I've known people that are on a coke. They all They all act the same way, not puzzling at all. You go, oh, coke. He's on coke. That's the problem. That's a lot of straight edge friends that Eddie has. Yeah. I wonder what's wrong with him.

Fucking coke. He's got white powder all over his nose and upper lip. What the fuck are you talking about? You don't just get ashy right in the center of your face, man. Just there. Just around the nostril. Real weird. And you say, hey hey got that 20 bucks

yo me and it's always rolled up that's the other thing never just folded it's always rolled up in the fifth pocket there you go and there he goes he goes wait hold on a second then turns around goes okay wait here you go there's a little left in there sorry why why'd you just lick that twine? My gums are numb. Oh, I don't get his behavior. So strange. So fucked up. So this guy said, I really love Eddie.

We've been friends since I coached him in high school. He's come to my summer camps and helped me with the kids. But his personality is such that he doesn't open up. And I've had to ask questions to find out what bothers him. This past summer, we were talking in my car when I'd come to see him but when the conversation got heavy he quit talking and went back in the house. He needed more coke at that point.

Wasn't that it got heavy, it's just been a half hour. That's all. Or this is a conversation I'd rather not have sober. Wow, you know what, man, this is deep. I'm gonna get high and then we'll talk about it. Then I'll talk about it till the end of time with you. I won't shut up. We'll sit here till six in the morning and fucking talk about it if I can do lines off

your dashboard. We're good. This author goes on to say, Eddie's mother also noticed his uneasiness. Quote, he seemed nervous. Yeah, coke. It's all coke. He seemed nervous. I had never seen him so thin.

Ah, coke. Nervous and thin. Hmm, I wonder what's going on here. Gee, this is weird. Maybe she's got more. Maybe we can figure the mystery out. Here. He talked a lot more than he ever has. Weird! Wait a second. He's nervous, thin, and won't shut the fuck up, huh?

Motor mouth, is that right? Weird. Okay, well, you know what? Let's see if there's more clues. We don't know yet Hey, we're not detectives here. We need more clues. Who knows he wouldn't sit still Jittery weird jitter. He always wanted to get up and go somewhere, huh? Really weird I don't I can't I just can't put a finger on what that could possibly be it's so weird you would really have to had seen him before to understand the change that came over him no anyone could see him and go wow he got what do you got man you got something you hold it I'll take what let's go in the bathroom

like how many people would notice that oh my god so they said he emerged from his struggles at this press conference we talked about that last time where he was like listen I'm totally good I got married I'm taking lithium every day problem solved going from one strong fucking chemical to another here. And he said he's going to be there for opening day and you know, all that kind of shit there. So wow. That's when when Eddie was in the hospital, that's when Larry O'Brien, the pre David Stern NBA commissioner said that any player proved to have engaged in such activity of

using drugs will forfeit his right to play in the NBA. But Eddie, this had happened beforehand. So yeah, they said that. Now Eddie's attorney points out arbitrarily singling out those involved with drugs makes no sense when there are professional players in every sport who've been convicted of much more serious crimes, crimes involving victims and have never been punished by their commissioners. Oh, this is a victimless crime. Which is true.

Well, he's just doing coke. I mean, the thing with the pimps and all that, he did beat up a woman there, that was wrong. But for the most part. The trade tends to have some victims in it, but it's not necessarily directly at this guy. At this point in his life, I wouldn't say Eddie's like a dangerous, violent lunatic. Yeah, he's not hurting anybody.

I'd say, yeah, he's definitely more of a problem for himself. So they said that though the official concern of the professional leagues is that the young people who supposedly hang on every deed and word of their athletic heroes will be drawn to drugs by their idols. And so special precautions are necessary. Yeah, you know, it's the coolest thing ever to kids when they watch a guy totally get made fun of in the papers all the time and fuck up constantly. Kids are like, yeah, that looks cool. Yeah, I don't know anybody that was like

LT sacks like a motherfucker, but you know how he does it. It's the coke. I gotta go It was not like that. Everyone's like I wish he'd crack in coke. Yeah Rockstars different that sort of things different because you go. Oh, maybe that's part of the creativity as a kid Yeah, yeah, you'd hear Jimmy Hendrix with the LSD and his headband and all that shit and you'd go, well I mean, I'm gonna play guitar, that must help. Or listen to every bit of music from the 50s and 60s that was good and you'd go, every one of these people's on heroin,

there must be a connection. I heard Steven Tyler had it in that little ribbon that was on his mic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever it was he was taking, pills or acid or whatever. But either way, I could see somebody seeing a rock star and doing it because of them, but I've never ever tried anything because an athlete does it. No, no, absolutely not.

Because I can't do anything else he does, so why the fuck would I think that would help? Why would I think I'm capable of his coke consumption? Or anything. I can't dunk from the foul line. So I mean... I can barely make a shot from that foul line. Yeah, I'm not going to go, well, my vertical leap will immediately spring to 45 inches if I do some coke. I don't think anybody's going to believe that.

The shoes is more believable. At least those are on your feet. So they said that, of course, athletes are allowed to drink, but the widespread abuse of alcohol doesn't get the attention that attends an occasional drug bust. Absolutely true. I've seen, I worked at a bar that was between an arena

and a ballpark where three different sports played all the time and those athletes came in, they drink like monsters. Like fucking, they stumble out of that place. And that's just a Wednesday night. I mean, it wasn't the playoffs in win a World Series. That was just no, that's just we lost for two on Thursday. Yeah. Astros Diamondbacks on a Thursday night and they're like, woo, fucking Craig Bishio stumbling out of the joint. I saw Tom Chambers do it. That would be a weird stumble

because he's so big and lanky. He's so big. Tom Chambers. And I didn't even, when I saw him, I didn't even know what to say. I just pointed right in his face, well, from the ground up at his face. In his sternum?

Pointed into his sternum. I was just like, what? And it just happened. Off to the sternum. That's the only time I've ever been like awestruck. And it was because I didn't expect to see Tom Chapar. No. And he's big.

So it's fucking weird. His head's bigger than you expected, too. Yeah. Oh, god. Jesus, your head's enormous. Everything about him is giant. He's just a giant person. Yeah, he's like 6'10".

He's huge. He's a big fucking guy. But his head is abnormally large because it's on the top of a giant thing. And it's still big. It's like, how the fuck is it that big? Biggio and Bagwell, the two of them, they're both like, oh, look at your little guys, aren't you?

They're both tiny little people. I can see that. Biggio was a tiny little skinny guy, too. He looked so tiny, had little glasses on. He just looked like he got out of work and came down to there. And Bagwell is just a tiny little skinny guy too. He looked so tiny, had little glasses on. He just looked like he got out of work and came down to there. And Bagwell is just this tiny squat guy. I think he lists himself at like 5'11".

That is highly ambitious, I think. I was like, no, come on, Jeff. Five, eight, top. I don't know how big James is, but he might be 6'10". He's 6'10". He is 6'10". Is he? Yeah.

James is 6'10". He's a legit 6'10". He's a fucking power forward in the NBA for years. And a successful. He drinks so heavy, you can still see from that distance how bright red his fucking eyes get. He's so blonde too, he's like Nordic. That's a problem.

His eyes bloodshot are fantastic. Holy shit. So this guy goes on to say, one day while I was waiting after practice for an interview with Eddie Johnson that never materialized, sounds kooky, the team gathered in their locker room to listen to a presentation from the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency. Oh, that sounds fun. We were warned, one player told me, that the DEA has really tightened up. They told us they have paid informants all over this town and that we were high profile people

and that we could expect to be caught if we had anything to do with drugs. Jesus Christ, you have nothing better to do than that. Stern warning from the federal government. Fuck with rich young people who just wanna do coke off of hot girls' asses. They're still in the party phase. They're not selling it.

Leave them alone. Jesus. Whether or not Eddie Johnson actually abused cocaine or any other drug is for the courts to say. Get the fuck out of here. His mom said it. He said it. He said it.

His mom said it. The psychiatrist said it. Doctors have said it. I think. The rehab has said it, his mom said it, the psychiatrist said it, doctors have said it. I think the rehab has said it. I don't think we need a jury at this point to tell us this. We need 12 of his peers. Wow, that's wild. In any case, he has left the traumas of the past few months

behind him and returned to basketball to play in the powerfully beautiful form that has become his trademark. At the at the several practices I attended, Coach Brown seemed pleased with Eddie's play and unwilling to raise his voice directly at any of his veterans. Eddie's sculpted physique shows that his beloved sport has revived his spirits. And he's going to talk about this penis in the next paragraph. His magnificent penis. Glistening.

Tight ass. Glistening and veiny. Tight butthole. 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. Hey, I'm Michelle Beatle. And I'm Peter Rosenberg.

Hey, Peter, tell the people about our new podcast. Right. It's called Over the Top, and we cover the biggest topics in sports and pop culture using Royal Rumble rules. That means we'll start with two stories, toss one out on its ass and dive into the other stories with ruthless aggression. Oh, but it never stops because every 90 seconds after that... Oh God, whose music is that? Another story comes down to the ring.

Rinse and repeat until we arrive at the one most important thing on planet Earth that week. Follow Over The Top on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Over The Top ad free right now by joining Wondry Plus. For the record, this is not a wrestling podcast. No, no, but it is inspired by wrestling. Isn't everything inspired by wrestling, Beatle? Fair point.

Yeah! Shows, blah, blah, blah. Okay. It remains a young man with breathtaking speed, strength, and agility who loves to take opposing players on the inside. Oh, really? Wow. young man with breathtaking speed, strength and agility who loves to take opposing players on the inside." Oh really? Wow, that sounds like a description for a porn, for a gay porn.

How much coke does he get for that? Jesus, he needs a lot to be able to do that. In trying to understand... I'm sorry, I'm too fun laughing too much. In trying to understand how he could have let anything threaten his participation in basketball, perhaps it's useful to remember that the game affects every player differently. Each man must find his own way to maturity. And for some it can be very difficult.

According to those who saw him last summer, Eddie Johnson paid a heavy price for any errors in judgment he may have made. Not every athlete is as well prepared for professional life as he might be. Huh? Fuck are you talking about? Eddie's mother asked me not to forget something about her oldest son. Quote, you have to remember, he's just a country boy in a fast town is that what it is i don't think that's what it is i think eddie's he's literally fast eddie johnson he's the fast one right like

sorry that's uh and he loves coke he loves country boy or not something look there there's a makeup of us and some people that shit is fantastic. Some people's chemistry, it really drives with, that's what it is. He, country boy or not. Is he the country boy? He could have a sprig of straw shooting out of one side of his lip and a crack pipe hanging out of the other. He likes it.

Is it because he's country? Yeah, that's what it is. He's country boy, that's why he loves Coke. It affects him different. I guess so, yeah. It gets from the water he drank as a kid. It was pure. The coke just...

So December 16th, 1980, there's a five-hour hearing with Eddie Johnson that results in a no decision. Oh. Yeah. He had a five-hour hearing in the Fulton County Superior Court, oh, presided over by a judge, and it was hearing a motion from the defense on whether it was an illegal search when he was arrested and charged with all that coke.

A ruling by the judge to suppress the evidence would obviously make the case be probably dismissed after that, because possession of cocaine, the only evidence you're gonna have is he had cocaine. He had cocaine, yeah. Without that, he's just a guy in a car at that point. We don't get to talk about the coke, then we don't get to talk about anything. Yeah, they said, but for Eddie Johnson's presence in the car, there would have been no search,

as his lawyer said. Basically, you searched him because he's Eddie Johnson. Okay. Which isn't really profiling, it's just knowing a guy is a fuckup and probably has coke on him, because he always has coke on him. Let's have a look see. Let's check him out. Yeah Yeah, the proper time for Johnson's arrest was when he was outside the car I suggest that by letting him get back in the car. They created circumstances by which we are here today. Oh And the judge said I wouldn't try to tell a policeman how to arrest a man The prosecutor said a defendant doesn't have the

constitutional right to be arrested at a certain place. The method the officers chose has nothing to do with the case. You could argue that Johnson would have run if they tried to arrest him at the driving range. So they're saying that if they pulled him over to do this in the car, and they're saying that if they would have arrested tried to get him before that The cops thought maybe he was gonna run so they waited till he was in a car Okay, you know where you can't go 80 miles an hour away from them Doesn't make any fucking sense they said there were two reasons for the search one to protect the vehicle and the property in it Yes, that's what the cops are concerned about when they're searching your car, protecting your belongings.

Yeah, that's what the main search is. And two, it's a safeguard for the police. Okay, weapons, I see that. This thing is a two-edged sword, and there's no law I know of where police have to ask the defendant if you want somebody to come get his car. But the cops can't just search things for their safety because if you just pulled somebody

over for speeding and then searched the car to make sure. That's what there's a probable cause. Yeah, you have to have a reason to say I need to make sure I'm safe. Otherwise, you're just a guy sitting there. So they said if the arresting officers didn't lie, they were severely mistaken, the defense lawyer said. I think we have proved the crime scene was not secure and that there was not a proper inventory search and that they were still going through the arrest stage when they were searching for evidence. So in arguing for suppression, they say that

the evidence was found in the trunk of his car and they say they introduced witnesses who contradicted statements by the arresting officers on Johnson's condition at the time of the arrest, introduced witnesses who contradicted statements by the officers and a passenger in Eddie Johnson's car was not kneeling on the ground with his arms behind his back when the trunk was opened. They contended that if the officers were really responsible or really responding to an informants information that Johnson was armed and dangerous, they should have taken him at the Gulf range where he was under surveillance for 30 minutes instead of letting him get into a car, which is considered

another dangerous weapon. It doesn't make sense to go, we were worried he'd try to run on foot. He's so fast. You know, he is fast. So we waited for him to get in a car. You know, you wait for someone to get out of a fucking car. But I think the thing is, searches in a car are easier to come by.

I think it's easier to affect a stop and search because you see that like on the wire, they're like, well, we want to pull Bodio, we want to search Bodio, let's pull him over. Okay, good. They got in the car. So we tell him he's in the car because then he's got all of his things in that car. Yeah, yeah. So and they can just say they smell something or they see something. And so it doesn't make sense though at all to say that they were afraid he was going

to run. So they let him get in the car. That's ridiculous. They contended the officers had no right to search the car without a warrant and that they failed to ask Eddie what should be done with his valuables in the car. Now the cops said they were responding to an informant who stated that Johnson was known to be armed with a 45 caliber pistol and was possibly a robbery suspect in Florida and had a suspended driver's license. So you can't bust him on that till he gets in the car. Now he's

got a suspended license, now you got a reason to get him out of the car. There you go. Now you pat him down, just make sure he's got no weapons, and there you go. The officers found no weapon. They said 38 caliber bullets were found in the trunk, and 32 caliber, one of the cops said 38 caliber bullets were found, the other one said in their report,

32 caliber bullets were found. Uh oh. They said a flight bag in the trunk contained a set of scales, powder in a glass or plastic bottle, and a common plastic bag. Both contained white powder and the plastic bag also contained two square cubes about an inch and a quarter square, or an inch and a half square. Cubes. Yeah, they would a lot of times like cube them up like that so it'd be easier to transport and then you just break it down to powder it. So they said the bag consisted

of a small set of scales, a small bottle of white powder, glass pistol, a glass pistol, several strainers, 32-ounce or 32 caliber ammunition, and an envelope addressed to Eddie Johnson. Just to let you know what it it says He put his stuff in there with it When they describe in pits one of the officers describing Johnson at the time of the arrest said we advised him that he was under arrest He appeared under the influence of alcohol or drugs. He was abusive unsteady on his feet Pupils were extremely dilated his speech was slurred. he was extremely drowsy, he had a hard time keeping up with the conversation. Is that drunk?

Coming down, yeah, I think he was probably drinking too. They said, they asked him twice if he had any valuables that needed removing, and he said both, he answered both times with obscenities. Fuck you. Fuck your mother is what he said. Oh, all right, so no, I guess. They said that Howard and Betty Harlow,

that was where the person that the people he was visiting before going to the golf range, they said no, that's not true. So he couldn't have gotten drunk after he left their house. A key defense point seemed to be that the officers forcing Robertson to kneel on the ground with his hands behind his back while the trunk was searched. The one officer denied this saying, not to the best of my memory, this was the passenger

in the car, the other person. When asked if Robertson was kneeling on the ground while the search was going on, Brown said first, possibly, it's procedure where I got a suspect who might run off. And then later on, they said he was in the back of the police car not on his knees so that's a minor inconsistency so also two other witnesses who passed by at the time of the arrest and they both refuted whether he was on the ground or whatever the fuck that is I mean he probably was on the ground for a minute and then put in a car yeah that's probably that could have been probably both One guy who passed by here. He was a special agent of the IRS

He just passed by he said he didn't know Yeah, you fucking asshole surprise in veer over and hit everybody on the side of the road take that Yeah, take that now. Oh good rob him So fucking the inside out pockets there take his shoes to take him he's got Jordan's Swearing some Jordan 5s. I like those He said One black man was kneeling with an officer behind him with a shotgun in the air The trunk of the car was raised and the other officer was getting a bag out of the trunk So they also go on to talk about his lithium

and all that kind of shit. But they come to no decision, the judge does, so it's still lingering over him. A man had a shotgun out. Still, fine, listen, no decision. So the 80-81 season with all this crap going on, he's gonna end up being an All-Star this year, actually. He's gonna average 19.1 points a game which is a career high.

5.4 assists, 1.7 steals which is almost two steals a game. It's pretty goddamn good. Not bad at all. Doing really good. Playing the most minutes too. Almost 36 minutes a game which is the career high. It's an All-Star. Great season Freddie amongst all that bullshit. So 81 82 season comes along the Hawks are gonna finish 42 and 40 Which you know kind of average here they do go to the playoffs and they lose in the first round to Philadelphia So this is dr. J and Moses Malone and those guys. That's a pretty solid team there. They have in Philadelphia Was Gervin there no was Gervin there. No, he was the Spurs there? No. Was Gerv in there? No, he was at the Spurs, right? No, yeah, he was in the Spurs before that.

Dr. J and Malone were on the Sixers. Yeah, Moses Malone. Yeah, as I said, yeah, Moses and him. So yeah, this team though, again, Tree Rollins, which was a guy that always makes us laugh for some reason. I can't believe I got it. We got it, we got it. That was amazing. Best guess't believe I got it. We got it, we got it, that was amazing.

Best guess ever. Missed that 13. That's amazing. 13 spots, how could you have ever pulled that out of your ass? Never. Never. I gotta give you credit like you got it right

because it's so close. May as well have been. So May 30th, 1981, he's good now, everybody. Everybody, everything's fine. It's been six months since he's had any problems, he's doing terrific. There's an article in the Atlanta Constitution here saying that, it's so fucking funny, quote,

Eddie Johnson scared us last summer. Oh yeah? As the headlines grew bigger and bolder, the Atlanta community became genuinely concerned for this brilliant 26-year-old athlete. After all, Eddie Johnson had stolen our hearts with his radiant smile, those dark, darting eyes, his bashful innocence. Is this a personal ad for Eddie Johnson?

Who wants to fuck Eddie Johnson? The little boy charm and enthusiasm, not to mention his extraordinary talents with the basketball. That's why it hurt to hear how something was terribly wrong with Eddie Johnson, the Ferrari fleet guard who made the Atlanta Hawks fast break his personal Grand Prix. Holy shit. Ken picking this guy's name is. I'm going to write that down. We'll find out if he ever got to fuck Eddie Johnson because I feel like he really wants to. You at least get his number christ

Jesus christ, so they talk about you know what he did and all those things again Um, they said though after the porsche incident. Johnson was legally hospitalized and the doctors diagnosed his bizarre behavior as manic depression Johnson was not the burnt out coke head the cruel The cruel media had portrayed him out to be. They said after the depressing diagnosis, Johnson never denied his psychological problems and eagerly cooperated. Yeah, people think cokehead, that's your fault. Mental problem, not your fault.

Which one's not the, that's the one I have. And it might be both too, which is the other problem. Whichever one makes me a victim of circumstance. I love that one. I like that, yeah. It's just, man, talk to Kelsey Grammer. I don't know, man, fuck it. So Johnson said, I can't be completely happy

with my best individual year because the team did so poorly, but I can't tell you how much it meant to me for the team to vote me MVP. It's been a trying 10 months, but I feel like I'm back. So he was the team MVP that year. Wow. So I mean, you figure if he overcame the adversity,

did all this coke, got arrested, got publicly embarrassed all these times, he's on medication for his mental illness, and he's stopped doing coke and if he's doing all this and everything's going great and he has a great basketball season it's like wow he's really good now certainly yeah and you also expect the 8182 season he could be it's gonna be lights out score 25 a game you know what I mean yeah that's what I mean he could be. Yeah, that's what I mean. He could be, he's going to be another all-star.

So right before the season starts here, October 7th, 1981, he's committed not to victory or you know, to having a great season. He's committed to a mental institution, which is a different kind of committed here. That was fast. That was fast. Yeah, that's what I mean. He's taken into police custody and admitted to Grady Memorial Hospital. This isn't voluntary.

No kidding. They went and got him and took him there. Butterfly next time. 50-150'd him. Yeah, they, wow, yeah, people came over and got him. Yeah, people knocked on the door and said, Addy? Addy, we have to take you somewhere. There's some nice men and women who want to talk to you in a nice room.

We're going to take you to them, okay? The stuff is scopes and white jackets. Come with us. The Cobb County Sheriff's deputies appeared at the Cobb County Civic Center where the NBA team practices. They showed up at practice. Shortly after a scheduled morning practice was canceled and took him into custody. They're executing a commitment order signed by Dr. Lloyd Backus, a psychiatrist

who'd been working with Johnson for more than a year. This is his shrink. Yeah. Wow. And those, I think, I don't think you can do that anymore in this way. I think there's more. Yeah, that feels shifty. I think there's more hoops to jump through before you can just have a man taken from his job and put in a padded room. Just thrown into a van out in front of his job. That seems right. I think you need to do a little more. Like a judge at least has to look at it. I don't think a guy could just write it down,

hand it to a cop and they go grab them anymore. Why not? Someone's got to look at that. Maybe. I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying I don't think you can. Sometimes, I mean, just based on people's things they post on the internet. I can think of hundreds of people that could use that, like right now, hundreds. If I was a shrink, my whole day would be just writing these fucking, go get him. Please get him.

Couples that use Facebook to fight. Oh God. That's my favorite. I like exes that do it. Those are fun. Get them. I love that. Yeah, grab those people.

Pick them up at their job at Wild Power Brake Bakery. I thought you were going to say Buffalo Wild Wings, which would probably be more accurate. Yeah, there's a lot of people people I could definitely throw that at you could just go through your social media feed and knock off eight nine of them in a four-minute span. Clearly not right this person. You should be able to flag those. This is way off. You're fucked up. You're out of your mind. Look at this guy. Oh my god. That vague shit, vague, vague cries for help. Say what you want. I'll help you.

Just tell me. Or I'll just roast you with everybody watching. Now I'm afraid you're going to do something. I'm starting to write. That's it. I'm writing. Knock on the door. I'm afraid you're going to hurt yourself.

Sorry. There's going to be a van out front. Yup. I'm worried about you because I don't know what else to do. I'm a person. I don't know. I can't help you. So they got him though. They got him. Yeah. They said the newspaper said that the decision was made earlier in the day by his doctors and team officials. They got the Hawks involved too. This is multiple people witnessing behavior.

We're going to come snag him off the court. Like wait till a shot goes up. When he looks up for a rebound, grab him on the waist and pick him up and carry him away. He won't know what's coming. A doctor on each hand. When he looks up, boom, his arms are up and everything. You just grab him and get him in a full Nelson and we'll drag him off the court. Otherwise he's quick. You're never him and get him in a full Nelson and we'll track off the court Otherwise he's quick you're never gonna get him Really quick you're gonna need one of those dog catcher rings Definitely in rebound time there so the Spock the Spock's the Hawks team spokesman is what I meant to say. Bill Needle, he said in a prepared statement, quote, it was apparent to both management and a number of Eddie's teammates that there remained some lingering personal problems

that needed to be cleared up before Eddie rejoins the Hawks. We didn't ask Eddie anything. Some lingering problems that need to be cleared up. That's okay. Being yanked off the court by cops and taken to a padded room is beyond some lingering personal problems quote unquote. I have many lingering personal problems. I hope no one's going to kick in our studio door here and drag me off while you leave you at the microphone going, James?

Anybody else know the story? Shit. here and drag me off while you leave you at the microphone going James? Anybody else know the story? Shit that was years ago let me see what I can remember from the first episode we did about this guy in 2016. Okay. 100 and something arrests you guys. He's got arrested a lot. Here let me get his Wikipedia up here. Hold on a minute. Ah shit they're not here. Ah shit. And then you'd have to read. Fuck. Oh shit. They're not here. Oh shit, and then you'd have to read fuck

That sucks James bring him back, please Sounding this out is gonna be a bad podcast So they said it's an open question whether Johnson will return to the team open question whether Johnson will return to the team. The Hawks general manager said, I can tell you, it's our fervent hope that he'll be back active and contributing as soon as possible. Although at the moment, it doesn't look like that'll be too quick. No kidding. What the fuck was he doing? How? It's not a 24 hour visit though. If they come get you, it's not to run some tests. No, no, no no just to have a little chit chat with you You've been committed already. Yeah a team of doctors have sat around discussed it then talked to your boss, and they agreed

And even need you to diagnose you and a power forward for some reason he also said it for whatever that's worth We asked tree Rollins what he thought also. And we got this. So October 30th, 1981, he's suspended. He's been suspended indefinitely from the Hawks and officials from the Hawks, and officials from the NBA say that his team says that his return is quote, totally up to Eddie Johnson. Oh really? Yeah, apparently the Hawks have made a bunch of roster moves at the beginning of the season. They placed a bunch of guys on the DL and did all that kind of shit, the injured list, and waved some guys.

Hawks, Johnson was their leading scorer, so that kinda sucks. Jesus. The Hawks general manager said, "'We gave notice to Eddie, his agent and the league, "'and that is all confidential, "'but we're hopeful that he won't be gone very long. "'We set up the guidelines for him to return to the team. "'The ball's in Eddie's court now. "'It's totally up to Eddie Johnson.'"

Now, Eddie was doing coke on the bench and shit, by the way, back then. Right, right. This was his coke on the bench and shit, by the way, back then. This was his coke on the bench era, where he was doing that. There's also a hilarious fucking highlight, one of the funniest highlights in basketball history that I've seen, and Eddie Johnson is right smack in the middle of it, causing it really. There's this highlight, if you watch, I like watching the people's, they have compilation

videos of different players, you know what I mean? Where it's, they have compilation videos of different players, you know what I mean? Where it's like 20 minutes of their best shit of players. Oh yeah, like a super cut of some, yeah. Super cut of fuckin', yeah, Jordan or this guy, or you know, fuckin' Kawhi Leonard, if you pick somebody, really, yeah, they got him. So the one of Larry Bird is particularly funny,

because they have a lot of like, Bird's funny for reaction videos, because Bird, when you look at him, is like, you know, look at him, he looks like a fucking dork, so young people don't think he was good, they're like, Larry Bird couldn't have played now, look at this old stiff white guy, and then they watch his fucking supercut,

and they're like, holy fuck, Jesus Christ, what the fuck is going on, who the fuck is this guy, Jesus fuck, so, and I hated Larry Bird when he was a player, because I was a Knicks fan. So no, but when you watch him, you gotta respect his game. Yeah, the ball went where he wanted it to go regardless of how it looked getting there. When you talk to players from his era,

because I didn't like him until later on when I heard players from his era be like, fucking yo, this guy would tell you what he was gonna do to you and then do it to you. It was disheartening. It was like it would make you sad and you'd walk away like, fuck man. He'd go, left two dribbles, spin, one pump, shot, net. That's what he'd say and he'd fucking do exactly that and you couldn't stop him from doing it. You're like, what the fuck? Fuck this guy. So there was this game where he was killing the Hawks just fucking crushing them killing them it was I think it was

Dominique's rookie year because they were talking about he was fucking shitting all over Dominique just scoring scoring all over and demoralizing him and after a few shots he's walking up the court he turned to the bench and he goes you gotta get this guy the fuck out of here man I'm gonna I'm gonna keep doing this all day on this guy Like you need to sit his ass down and he said, you know, they did they pulled him out and Dominique's all sad Sitting there and all his shit. Well the end of the game He hit all these shots down the stretch and he hit one that was this fadeaway fucking three That is ridiculous this shot. It's just sick over somebody and the way it

goes you see the end of the Hawks bench there's like three guys like leaning off as it goes toward the hoop like they're you know and trying to will it away from it like away from it and he hits it and Eddie Johnson jumps up in the air like the fucking and one video like oh shit like you see that shit And there's got him and another guy high five each other because it was such a show that they just watched Like they were at the playground like and no matter what you 360 dunk you're like oh shit Did you see I fucking shit you high five a motherfucker? That's what they did, but the opposing team did some shit That's what they did, but the opposing team did some shit

There's this one reaction video this dude watching it and he's like what the fuck is going on there and he's rewind he goes These motherfuckers are celebrating like it's a playground. What the fuck is going on? That's against your team man. What the fuck are you doing? That's Eddie Johnson Like somebody's scoring a goal and the opposite team taking their shirts off That's Eddie Johnson. Like somebody scoring a goal and then the opposite team taking their shirts off and sliding. Yeah, spiking it, the opposite fans throwing their hats down. Like, what the fuck is happening? What is going on?

Really, really weird stuff here. So anyway, Johnson was released from the psychiatric ward two weeks ago before this article came out, which said he was there about two weeks. And they said that they hope he'll be back, but who knows? He underwent- The man had to sleep there. He underwent eight days of treatment, which began when he was brought involuntarily into the hospital.

Now November 21st, 1981, so this is a couple weeks later, he's gonna try to get right back in and play basketball. Which, it seems like that's really fast, right, for that? Counterintuitive, it doesn't seem like you're gonna fix or help anybody when you take them away from the ability to make the money to contribute and continue the habit and continue the debauchery. You take them away for eight days

and they'll be like, all right, now get back at it. All you did was pause me for eight days. That's what I mean. And I think it's the lifestyle that affects both the drug thing, his drug habit. Yeah, they feed each other. And's what I mean. And I think it's the lifestyle that affects both the drug thing, you know, his drug habit. Yeah, they feed each other. And his fucking mental illness. I think this lifestyle is feeding all of this shit.

Psychical, yeah. And it's just, it's a beast that just will not stop. Seems like he needs like a year off and like treatment the whole time and then try to like be a different person and, you know, like when McNulty tried to rejoin the homicide unit in season five where he was like no things are different for me now I think I can do it without all the bad stuff.

Not true obviously. Not true and it doesn't work. It has to create. Exactly. Same type of thing. So they said that when he was arrested he resisted he kicked and fought. This is I'm sure to be taken away. He got taken from where he got taken from,

he had a practice jersey on for Christ's sake. He was in uniform. He was probably shooting free throws and shit. So, that's wild. So he resisted, he did all that. The officers had the commitment orders, so they took him anyway. And so they said that he was in there for a week

and just treating his mental illness. He was released from the hospital by the same psychiatrist that put him in. So that's good, I guess. He thinks he's okay. Johnson says, Eddie himself says that he characterizes himself as a bit arrogant, tough, cocky, and more than a bit vulnerable, but still only human. Sure. Only human. Yeah. He said that he couldn't cope with the pressures around him. That's what happened lately but he says he's quote fine now. Not good now. He's fine now. I'm fine. Fine. He said quote I'm not nervous about anything. My friends and people involved

are the ones who are nervous. I know I'm gonna be okay. I am okay Wow I'm okay now is what he said Doing fine Toast now the team said that they're pleased with the results of him lately, but they're gonna be monitoring him very closely Don't you worry about that? they said that he's as good a guard as any in the league and a friend Or this is the GM said Eddie's situation isn't a common problem at all There are a lot of complex things here and he's a terrific kid extremely intelligent very articulate. He's just had some problems

Yeah, we feel it's worth it to stick with him and see him through all of this if at all possible. I You know, I agree. A lot of times with these guys, these teams all say they're a family. We're a family, we're a family, we're a family, but they're a business and they're not a family. Yeah. If you were a family, if every team was a family, Aaron Hernandez would not be dead right now. No, yeah. You would have seen that fixed. You don't throw anybody out if you're a family.

No. Right, right. Jesus, unless he comes in and steals all the equipment or something, then you say he can't come over anymore. More wire stuff. He has to sleep in the basement like bubbles at his sister's house because one time he sold her stove. He's selling the goal posts.

That's not a family anymore. He's selling the goal posts. That's not a family anymore. He's selling the fucking sideline chalk. What? Comes a thing with the wheels? It's great. You're gonna love it. Divorced beheaded died. Divorced beheaded survived.

We know the six wives of Henry VIII as pawns in his hunt for a son, but their lives were so much more than just being the king's wives. I'm Arisha Skidmore Williams. And I'm Brooke Ziffrin. And we're the hosts of Wondry's podcast, Even the Royals. In each episode, we'll pull back the curtain on royal families, past and present, from all over the world, to show you the darker side of what it means to be royalty.

We rarely see Henry VIII's wives in their own light, as women who use the tools available to them to hold on to power. Some women won the game, others lost. in their own light as women who used the tools available to them to hold on to power. Some women won the game, others lost, but they were all unexpected agents in their own stories. Being a part of a royal family might seem enticing, but more often than not, it comes at the expense of everything else,

like your freedom, your privacy, and sometimes even your head. Follow even the royals on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Go deeper and get more of the story with Wondery's top history podcasts, including American Scandal, Legacy, and Black History for Real. So they said that Eddie said, quote, I'm concerned about myself as a person and they're concerned about me only because of how I reflect on the team, which is probably true.

I think that's a good... Yeah, if it was just affecting you, they wouldn't care near as much, but yeah, you are making everybody here look like shit. And I think any psychiatrist worth their salt would tell him that and say, like, hey, listen, I know that they're telling you they care about you and all that,

but you gotta think about yourself as a person, and they're thinking about you as a commodity and how you reflect on them, so. And the image of your face on the news next to the news reporter right next to your face is a fucking Hawks logo. Yeah, it's right there. So then he says this, and this is great,

I think I need an in their own words here. I think it's the only thing that's gonna be appropriate here, yeah, because it's short, but fucking a is it good here? Let's do it In their own words quote. I'm a country boy And all of a sudden I was in the big city making it in the big time I'm just country man He's Bible over here and I ran into a lot of leeches and snakes I went around with the wrong people it caught up with me. Yeah. Yeah, that's

Wow, Jesus Christ man. He's a he's just a little little country mouse that got caught in the wrong hay truck Country mouse went to the big ended up in Manhattan So country mouse is all coked out coked out country mouse, yeah. He sniffed around the wrong garbage pail and... What is he saying? He's an idiot. So anyway, they're saying that his driving and drug charges have been dropped now. Oh, really?

Yes. So they talk about how under medication, he should be fine. There's a golfer named Burt Yancey that spent time in 11 different hospitals before being diagnosed as a manic depressive. What were those hospitals doing if it took 12 of them to fucking diagnose him? What were they thinking? A dozen hospitals before you got a diagnosis? First 11 couldn't figure it out, but that 12th guy nailed it.

What? Where'd you go? 11 chiropractors? What are you doing? Yeah. I went to a dentist, a podiatrist, a proctologist. Turns out I got bunions and hemorrhoids, but nobody said anything was wrong with my fucking brain.

I don't know what's going on here. Until this one guy. My urologist said everything's great. Yeah, he said I'm fine. I don't know. He said my stream is good and strong for whatever that's worth. So they said that this guy has been, you know, now he's fine. He's rejoined the PGA tour and, you know, he got his life back and all that kind of

thing. Right. Which is good. Yeah. And they said though, Johnson stopped taking his medication in the off season. That's why he was acting crazy there. Oh. And the general manager said that he could see a gradual change in his behavior over the summer

after he stopped taking it. So I'm sure there was some residual built up and then it all wore off here. And they said at the team's first practice, he exhibited disruptive behavior. And after a meeting, Johnson and the team president, after a meeting with Johnson, the team president and his psychiatrist and everybody all drew up the papers and put them away. That's how that happened. Sometime in December of 81, because this is the thing you need to do right now.

Sure. He has a baby girl. Well, he doesn't, but his wife does, so yeah. He left one in there for sure. Perfect. You know sure. Perfect. You know what? Perfect. Is this his first child?

Yeah, I think so. Well, maybe. He doesn't even know probably. So here, Sports Illustrated does a pretty good article here from December 7, 1981. And they say, even when Eddie Johnson was confined to hospitals, his pro basketball career and private life on hold, his mind was racing at full speed. Fast Eddie. Thoughts came to him as if shot from a cannon. So fast. One of the quickest players and best guards in the NBA. Eddie had in effect run and run until he could run no more. President of the Hawks said, quite

often you can see by the way a guy plays that that's also the way he lives. That's Eddie. That was Eddie. Yeah. They said speed was one constant in his life. Eddie said, when I was young, I wanted to do everything fast. Too fast.

Too fast. Too furious. Wrap your Porsche around a telephone pole. Hubie Brown said, there were very few days during the four years that I coached him that he couldn't turn on the burners. In the games, no matter what his mental situation was, he could always produce to his potential. They said, but gradually his mental situation overtook him. They said the exact cause of Johnston's mental distress

is still a mystery, although he's been diagnosed as a clinical manic depressive, a person who suffers pathologic and recurring mood changes that usually develop for no clear external reason. Johnston said he's not so sure that's the problem. Oh no? Yeah, he said not so positive about that. But he does admit that he can't explain

His has been why it's been disrupting him and he doesn't know what's going on He says so he says quote when you've been idolized and built up all your life It's hard for you to believe that you need to do The things that other human beings need to do to cry and sometimes to have people put their arms around you and hold on I do know this the problems that affect me personally are a lot more do to cry and sometimes to have people put their arms around you and hold on. I do know this the problems that affect me personally are a lot more excruciating than taking a last second shot in a basketball game. Oh yeah.

He said that his personal life was just falling apart before and he said I feel I began to feel that I could dictate the game from my position. I like that feeling but I only got it when I was playing basketball. I can control a lot out on that court that I can't control in the real world. We've heard many, many great comedians say the exact same thing,

why they were horrible drug addicts or wanted to kill themselves 50 times. Controlling a room is entirely different than controlling the world. Yeah, second you get off stage, that's it. You're not in control anymore and it's all over. Yep, so they said that, and also it's a huge adrenaline come down that hour later.

And then there's no reward for it. And there's nothing uglier than an empty comedy club, so once everybody clears out too, you're like, ugh. And it takes five minutes. It's crazy how fast it is Yeah, you go in the back you go. You drink a bunch of water splash water on your face. Look back out. It's fucking empty Not a soul. There's chairs tipped over Three bottom rung servers that aren't the that aren't the heads and they're dragging large garbage cans behind them

But aren't the heads any... Dragging large garbage cans behind them. Throwing shit away. Full of half-drank beers. Yup, yup, that garbage bag's mostly liquid. It smells so terrible. So terrible, yeah, and then you go to a hotel room and you wonder why they die in there. All alone, yeah.

All alone here. So they said Johnson's always tended to attract an assortment of oddball friends and hangers-on, and in Atlanta, gradually, he encircled himself with what would later be described as leeches and snakes, as we found. On his own, for the first time in his life, Fast Eddie seemed to make all the wrong decisions. And he said, I'm a country boy, used to all the simple things in life. Right.

Yeah. He said, all of a sudden, he said, I'm in the city. I'm making it in the big time. You come into contact with a lot of people and pretty soon you don't know who are your friends or why they want to get next to you. You do if you're doing coke. That's why, because you're all doing coke. So, you know, he said a lot of things are thrown at you. And when you're young, it's hard to say no, especially when everybody's

catering to your ego, you become a superficial person caught up in a rat race that's hard to get out of. Phew. That is a, that is a, hmm, I don't know. I've seen a lot of, I've met a lot of famous people, but you don't get to, I mean, who allows that kind of access unless you're looking for a specific thing?

You know what I mean? You're looking for coke or pussy, yeah. Right, those people allow access if you give those key words of the things that they want. Otherwise, what are they gonna say? Otherwise, they don't give a fuck about you. They don't care, oh you like that TV show too?

Yeah, I love Mad Men. Like that's not, no. It cares. Now you're gonna bond with these people. Right, did you say blow? Let's do that. They're looking to meet their needs and they look over your head and around you

if you don't meet those needs That's they're looking for the person that does yes, if you know if you ever met famous people They're really fucking weird. They're weird fucking people. Yeah flighty Just so yeah, it's a real talk eyes are darting around. Yeah, strange Yes, they said but because I he said I he wasn't influenced by anybody by the way This can't blame this on anybody. He said, I did this because I wanted to do this.

I was just curious. I went around with the wrong people and it caught up to me. Man, that's fucking funny. He's looking for the keywords. Looking for those, you blow, pussy, OK. Bobby Pritchett, who's an assistant coach at Auburn when he was there, Eddie, they said, it's hard to make $100,000 a year and run around with people who are unemployed.

That's true too. He said you have to go your own way and let them go theirs. Eddie wants to be a regular guy and be accepted. He wants to show everybody that he hasn't, you know, I'm not above you. Yeah, but then he ends up having to buy coke for everybody. Right. So in August of 1980, the LA Times published a story indicating that the use of cocaine, even free basing, has become widespread among NBA players. We heard about that article last time. The article dealt in very few specifics.

But one notable exception was the publication of estimates of the percentages, as they said. Remember, the one guy said 75 percent of people are doing fucking coke and yeah so they said that cocaine's been a problem on the Hawks although Johnson insists the estimate of 75% is a gross distortion. He concedes that he had become a frequent user of cocaine himself. He said quote, when I started making money I felt I could afford some. Like I could do this. I partied a little extensively but I wasn't abusing it. The whole idea of me abusing drugs is outlandish. Oh, is it?

Your mom described a cokehead, period. Outlandish. Here's when you know that you might have a problem with drugs. When you go to your mom's house at one in the afternoon and you need to be completely fucked up on them to do it That's when you know It's a good reason. So fucked up that your mom's description of you is

Everything you describe a coke head. It sounds like an experimental coke rat in a fucking little cage He's exhibiting behaviors of A B and C. Jittery, a little paranoid. Yeah Talk fast, shit like that. He then says, this is a great line, the problems I've had have had nothing to do with drugs. I don't think that's true. Think I disagree there. I wasn't free-basing.

Nobody ever saw me free-base. That means you're free-basing. Why would he say that? I'm sorry, that's, I didn't murder that girl. Nobody saw me murder that girl. I didn't murder that girl. Nobody saw me murder that girl. Why'd you murder that girl, bro? What the fuck? Replace that with something.

I wasn't free-basing. You can't prove it. Anybody out there have kids? You have a nine-year-old says, I didn't break that. Nobody saw me break that. That kid's in his fucking room immediately. Because now you broke

it any alive Wow that's a crazy thing to say that's wild I didn't kill Nicole nobody saw me kill Nicole if OJ said that you'd even be even guiltier than everyone thought he was nobody ever saw me freebase you can't prove it holy shit that's amazing I was scared to freebase. You can't prove it. Holy shit that's amazing. I was scared to freebase because I understood the seriousness of it. Until I did it and I could do it a lot. Fuck this is great.

Until I saw that Richard Pryor special then I said oh don't set yourself on fire. That's part of it. Okay as long as you avoid that it should be excellent. They said if Johnson understood it was because he'd seen what it had done to former teammate Terry Furlough, who we've talked about, who had been traded to the Utah Jazz. Furlough then 25 died in a car accident in the spring of 80 and later traces of several different drugs were found in his body. Eddie says quote, my best friend freebased. He you free base probably that's why your

best friends you're the free base brothers that would be your tag team name the flying free base brothers hey how did Ohtani have his meet his interpreter again yeah exactly hanging out gambling together weird on a gambling bender that's how they became best friends. That's how they became friends. He said, he did a lot of things I didn't want him to do. I tried to get him to change, but Terry felt like he could conquer anything.

When he died, it was a blow to me. Somebody say blow? Hey, you got any blow? I'm sorry. Of course he said blow. I said blow, you said blow? He was like the big brother I never had. I was glad he didn't call him a little brother brother He never had then Frank would have a reason to be upset. Hey, what the fuck dude? I'm alive What about me? Yeah, I'm not an all-star but Christ

So they said he was discharged from Grady Hospital this year and almost immediately got married That was the first time he was in the hospital that we talked about from the lady from Pittsburgh, Diana, and once again was going against the advice of practically everyone close to him. His friend said, my personal reaction was that he was rushing into something on the rebound. We'll use basketball terminology, that's nice. But Johnson insists the marriage was the one thing he could always count on, and this week Diana is expected to give birth to Johnson's first child. This is the same time period. During his stay in jail, Johnson has been diagnosed by Dr. Backus as suffering from manic depression. The cause of this disorder

is unknown, but he gave him lithium they talk about. Johnson says, I was up all the time. I was always thinking about things, but I never got anything accomplished. The lithium slowed me down so I could concentrate on one thing at a time. Yeah that's mental health. That's a mental illness for sure. He's in a manic phase. He can't sleep or do shit. It would be one thing if in a manic phase you were like super productive.

Yeah. I got my taxes done. I got all sorts. I painted the house. I got next year's taxes done. Yeah, I got that done. I estimated it's done. I got all sorts. I painted the house. Yeah, I got that done. You know, I estimated it's fine. You're doing that. You're writing like fucking writing an opera. Like that would be one thing with the problem.

I would people would hope for it. But the fuck that you can't do shit. You feel like anything done. Yeah, it's like trying to stuff like a softball through a funnel. Like it fits in the funnel part, so it must fit in the whole part, but it doesn't. It fucking doesn't push through. Shit.

Trying to hold a parachute into your own backpack. Yeah, and then stuff it into your underwear. Not gonna work. And then fit it in that fifth pocket. Yeah, with your Coke fucking 20. So he said that he's not completely convinced though about the manic depression, even though the lithium has made him feel much better. He said that the psychiatrists say that the high of a manic depressive is strikingly similar

to feelings of exaggerated confidence that a regular cocaine user will develop. He's looking for that feeling. He said, Johnson said, I still don't know what manic depression is. I don't know. Maybe when you're been in mental institutions repeatedly, you should have asked somebody. Can you explain that? He said, that's their diagnosis. I just take the medicines the doctors prescribe. Well, at least he takes the medicine. He takes three tablets of lithium carbonate daily, but he does it grudgingly. He said it's become a pride thing with him, one of his doctors said. He doesn't want to think that he's not as normal as other men.

A teammate of Eddie's here, Tom McMillan, said, I think they've dealt with him with as much compassion as possible, more so than most teams in the league. But if you look at it in business terms, Eddie is as valuable to Ted Turner as a transponder on one of his satellites." Oh. He said, Eddie's just a little piece of mechanical equipment to him. He's just a piece of a cog. That's it.

So, which is a very kind of a smart thing for that guy to say. So they said, sometime last season when things appeared to be going smoothly for him on and off the court, Eddie, of his own accord, stopped taking the lithium tablets and soon began to experience the wild mood swings characteristic of manic depression. It seemed like a reckless decision, but Johnson believed he no longer needed the medication. He's taking the medication, feels better, and then he's like, well, I must be better

rather than the fact that I'm better because I'm taking this medication, which is- Perhaps this is the effects of what I'm taking. That's tough, yeah, that's something that your brain does to you, you know? He said, I didn't know what I'm taking. That's tough, yeah. That's something that your brain does to you. He said, I didn't know why I was taking it. Besides, I was feeling kind of tired during these games. I was ready to try anything.

So he wanted it, that's what it was. He felt more, you know, it took down his general energy level. It's lithium for fuck's sake. So yeah, it's gonna do that. Yeah, it brings you down to reality and to an even keel. Yeah. Yeah I mean, he's not used to running on that though. He's been running on this higher, you know, higher rev higher RPM for a long time Right, he said God they say here in the article going off lithium cold turkey proved to be a disaster by mid-july

The Hawks were aware of that Eddie's erratic behavior had resumed and though they tried to keep the situation quiet It became apparent to the media that something was wrong when Eddie called the Atlanta Constitution one night to announce that he was going to be traded to Los Angeles. Oh, he announced it. He just called and said, I'm getting traded to the Lakers, everybody. Okay.

They were like, all righty. Where are you? He was persuaded to submit to treatment at a local hospital. They're like, the Lakers don't want you, Eddie. Come on. It's okay. What happened? That's the first time.

Uh huh. Yeah, that was what happened over the summer. Then he got out and got married. Okay. Because that was normal. Um, they said when the Hawks training camp opened in October, Eddie went directly from the hospital to the Hawks first team meeting. That seems good for him.

There he became disruptive and was hustled away by the general manager. The Atlanta Tree Rollins says, here he is, everybody thought it was just the drugs, nobody looked beyond that. By the way, Tree is a distant cousin of Eddie Johnson's also. Yeah, we said that earlier.

Yeah, fucking hysterical. That was in part one, I don't know if everybody knew that. So in case you missed part one Johnson's condition came as a shock to Kevin Loffrey the Laurie the what the fuck do you say Loffrey? He's been a coach a hundred times He's a good player in the ABA to the Hawks new coach. He's always played so well It was hard for me to believe that he had as many problems as he had yeah He said I had anticipated he would be ready to

go from day one. At that meeting that first day he was really up to start practicing. Three days later Johnson took part in his first practice and he was indeed up. As the Hawks walked through the raw fence, Johnson fought his way through picks as if in a game and rebuked his teammates for mistakes. Once he unaccountably left the floor to sit in the stands and play with a child in the middle of the thing, we're running a drill and Eddie's like, Hey, Patty cake, Patty cake, Eddie, what the fuck you doing in his defense? That child was there to deliver Coke to him. So it makes sense.

That's why they were Patty cake. Patty's That's why they were, yeah, patty cake patties. Like moved it like, there you go. Another time he stood on the sidelines jumping rope, oblivious to what was going on out on the court. Alrighty, before leaving the gym that night, he explained his behavior by saying that his mother had been sick and that he'd been looking after her.

Even now, Johnson refuses to accept that he did anything wrong. He says quote, I don't know what I did. Well, I think they just explained what you did. This is like with his mom. He's just acting weird. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what I did. I don't know what I did. I'm just a demanding person. That's not what they described though. They described you're playing with a child in the middle of a fucking learning a new job Yeah, a couple of guys weren't doing their jobs

So I said something which is the job of the coaches his coach said it's the toughest situation I've ever had with a player So they said that he became The general manager became so alarmed by his behavior that he called a psychiatrist and said, you might wanna come check dude out here. The next day a commitment order was placed. One of the policemen began baiting Johnson apparently here. It was done, because this would happen in front of his teammates, they went and got him.

And that's when he resisted. And Johnson said, I thought they were crazy or something. One of them said he was going to make me go somewhere. And I said, you ain't making me go nowhere. Yeah, I'm on the fucking court, bro. Get out of here. Security, what the fuck? Get this cop out of this court.

When Johnson started to scuffle with the policeman, the center, Steve Hawes, came to Eddie's aid. He came over to fucking take the cop off him. He didn't go, Eddie, don't fight with the cop. He said, get the fuck off my car like it's on the court. That's my man right there. He almost got arrested for- Wow, for assault of an officer or hindering, yeah.

With seven feet fucking tall, he came over to throw a cop off him. I mean, that's probably shouldn't have done it in front of the teammates. That was probably not smart there. I wouldn't know not with this path I would have chosen if I was one of these cops have been like, hmm, these guys are all humongous and they all love each other and they're play together every day. They don't even know us. We should probably not do this here. They said that he was taken away for another week's confinement

and he's still bitter about the way the incident was handled. He said, quote, they were behind it, referring to the general manager and the team president there. They said, who are they to make those kinds of decisions? Well, also the psychiatrist. Also the psychiatrist made the decision, really. Your doctor came to your boss. And if my doctor goes to my boss and tells me. The doctor went to the boss.

Right. If my doctor goes to the boss. The boss went to the doctor. OK. And'm sorry, the boss went to the doctor. Okay. And said come take a look at him. Yeah. And then the doctor went, oh yeah, you're right. Yeah, and sort of filling out paperwork.

That's for sure the problem. Yeah. Either way, if my doctor and my fucking boss are having conferences about my behavior, I'm clear, I've got some bad behavior. There's an issue, yeah. And what is his, where's his wife in this? Isn't she like, yeah, Eddie was pretty fucked up, I don't know.

So she's, he said, who are they to make these kinds of decisions? I felt I had a legitimate gripe, but they felt because that I would be, that because I was upset, I was manic. That's the way I've been all my life. People trying to make things, people trying to make things easy for me, but it only makes things worse. It's easy for them to say what's right for me, but it only makes things worse. It's easy for them to say what's right for me because they've never been in my situation. And the team says we didn't have any fucking authority to put them in it.

We didn't do it. We did. I did call the guy, the psychiatrist. You raised flags? Sure. The team president said it's easy to ignore something and not get help. Somebody's got to get doctors there and make sure help is available. Sometimes you may have to do things that appear oppressive.

The guy went on to say that he's a very complex guy. I think I know a lot about him and yet I'm not sure I know him well. I don't know much about, I don't know how much is manic depression and how much is other emotional problems in his background. They said to what extent these problems stem from a troubled family life is difficult to say. Frank Johnson, here's Frank again, steadfastly refuses to talk about his brother's problems. Which is why we never realized they were brothers because he just wouldn't talk about anything

that happened with Eddie at all. So their names were mentioned together that often. These guys don't shit to deal with. Yeah, I gotta fuck some sponsor's wife in 20 years. What are we doing here? anything that happened with Eddie at all. So their names were mentioned together that often. These guys don't shit to deal with. Yeah, I gotta fuck some sponsor's wife in 20 years. What are we doing here? He said- I gotta go overseas to play basketball because I'm not good enough here.

Yeah, yeah, and then come back and then almost win a championship, but fucking John Paxson and his goddamn three pointer fucked me. So they said- Was it him that was supposed to be covering? No, I don't think so. Oh, it was Danny Ainge.

It was definitely Danny Ainge. Danny Ainge missed the cover. There's another reason to hate Danny Ainge. Fucking Danny Ainge. Instead of him. So they said the Hawks took Johnson off the suspended list on November 21st after only three full practices with the team. After Atlanta's 94-92 overtime victory over Cleveland last week, a game in which Johnson

scored 17 points and had six assists. Ted Turner burst into the locker room and said to Johnson, quote, now we've just got to find something for you to do to keep you busy in the summertime. Is that what we? Keep you off the coke, yeah. Yeah, keep you off the coke, on the lithium,

and out of an institution. And Eddie joked, yeah, he suggested maybe I could work on his plantation. I think I think he was joking I don't think I yeah, I don't think he said come on down and pick some I don't think that Turner said that probably He's they said Eddie joked later Yeah, he said that which is a funny fucking joke for me. Perhaps it was an orchard of a different variety Yeah, he was offering him a nice leisurely summer. No shit dude. So the Hawks mean leisurely. Meanwhile had won five in a row before their

98-90 loss last Saturday to Boston in which Eddie scored 15 points and played a good floor game. I think in all honesty that Eddie is on trial. This is the coach now. His position with the club is slightly different than the other players, but I don't foresee any more problems. What is he? Good now. So good now. Team president said, what other businesses there were a guy can be exposed to the kind of personal scrutiny scrutiny you have to have in pro basketball. Okay. He said you you're out there in your underwear with no place to hide. Well not really. You're in, not really, I mean yes, the shorts were shorter back then, but they, not underwear

by any stretch of the imagination. Jesus Christ. Everybody's in their underwear, they just have other things over them. I think wrestlers are the only ones out there literally in their fucking underwear. I think a swimmer is probably in his underwear. Outside of that, everybody else has a uniform. Some kind of uniform. You have a shirt on for fuck's sake.

You have shorts and a tank top. You have beach gear. You're fine. You people sleep in your shirts? What's wrong with you? What's wrong with you people? Lunatic? All twisted and shit?

No. No good. No good. So they said the fans feel that these guys are heroes and because they're making a lot of money that they shouldn't have problems like other people But all the money and attention just make it more difficult for them to function if they have a problem It's harder for them to seek help. Let's pay them more. That's yeah Hey, you know what? Let's pay him more. He's I think I think he'll realize money's more important than coke and they'll just save it No

The Hawks also received periodic reports on the lithium level in his blood Rather than they couldn't back then you couldn't force a guy to take drug tests, but you could force him to take lithium level tests Make sure he's taking his medicine. You're taking your meds. Wow, and though no one with the team will say whether blood tests are also screened for other drugs, the team president does say, as general manager, I think it would also be a good idea

for all athletes to be screened regularly. Johnson said he's confident that his skills and his speed will bring him through. He said, people are fickle. When you're going through it, people don't care what happens to you. When you make it back, everybody's got a pat on the back for you. Yeah. He said, they say, well, he can still play. That's their cop out. Well, I can still play. They can't take away my God-given talent to play basketball. I've been successful at that all my life. It's these other little obstacles that have derailed me from time to time. Little, you know, everything

else on earth except for basketball, you know that. Little obstacles. Tiny. You know, like living day to day. Those obstacles. So February of 1982, it's another fluff piece, all good now. They're saying one part of this article says it's premature to say that he's cured. That's true. But they're going to go, but it looks pretty good is what they're saying. They said he still takes his dosage of lithium. The true test will come this summer. In more than four NBA seasons, his problems never have surfaced during the season. When his life is structured, he never has missed a

practice or a game for any apparent reason other than injuries. It's been during the off seasons that he hasn't been able to keep his balance because he doesn't have that. So yeah, they talk all about that. March 3rd, 1982, they talk about how he's apparently rebounded from the mental illness that threatened his career. Again, it's all these different pieces. This is in every paper. He said, it's tough, but I think I've come all the way back, Eddie says. I feel good. I don't have any complaints. I'm playing as well as I'm capable of playing. I think I'm playing as well as I ever have. He said, I've had backing from my family and from the organization.

I couldn't have made it without both of them. He is A-okay. Yeah, the best I've ever been. Fucking prime grade A, good now at this point. No summer snowstorms ever again. Shit no, it's gonna be a warm summer no snow. This year he plays in 68 games 34 minutes a game 17.8 points a game 5.3 assists not bad a steal and a half a game pretty goddamn good I think is that yeah that's that and then the playoffs

11 points a game in the playoffs that year 82 83 season there 43 and 39 the team is and they lose in the first round of the playoffs to the Celtics This is when they're like coming into them in the in the Lakers were the trade-off dynasty that in the 80s So they were crushing it at that point. This is Dominique Wilkins is on the team now. Okay. This is his rookie year. Is Casey Ogman there yet? This is his rookie year. No, not yet. This is Dominique, Tree Rollins, Eddie, Johnny Davis,

Tom McMillan, Steve Hawes, George. Same team except Adnique. Same team, Adnique. Add the guy who you wanna watch. Add the guy that for the next 15 years will be everything for them. It will be the reason why people know that the Hawks are still a team even. That was it.

So October 28th, 1982, the Atlanta Constitution has a big article, Eddie Johnson battles lithium side effects. Oh. Yeah. They said he did the right- Side effects of lithium, really? Yeah, I guess after a while, I don't know. So they said he did the right effects of lithium really. Yeah, I guess after a while I don't know So they said he did the right things Eddie Johnson kept his life in order this summer

Unlike the last two years when he slipped into a personal hellhole He followed the suggestions took the precautions and hinted again. He may have found peace of mind He still must struggle with the cruel fate that dogs him. The medication Eddie Johnson now uses regularly to combat a manic depressive condition at least partially diminishes his skills. Lithium stands as an explanation for his poor training camp with the Hawks and the possibility rookie Keith Edmondson with the team only for a week will play at Johnson's off guard spot. They said, yeah, he's just not as fast now. They said he's the best he's ever been mentally. They said he's been very religious about following the program and all that kind of thing. But they say that a physician they talked to say

any dosage of lithium can lead to excessive weight gain, lethargy, so lethargy, just being tired, lack of coordination. These aren't things that are good for an NBA training guard. He's a fat, out of shape, uncoordinated guy. He's me. That's not good, yeah. They're turning fast Eddie into me. Not a lot of teams looking to sign you up

for the two guard position in the NBA. No sir. Caution patients about activities requiring alertness. You know, like professional basketball. So they said if you're a desk person, it's not gonna affect your life, you might be a little sleepy or whatever. They said.

You gotta keep your head on a swivel for a ball flying at you, that's a problem. And he showed up at camp 35 pounds overweight. Which is not okay. They're like that for a small guy whose nickname is Fast and that's your whole game. You're getting real slow. Wow. They said that, general manager said, if Eddie Johnson can't play basketball, I don't know

how happy he'd be with his life. Our first concern has always been for him as a person. We made the decision it was more important to get him functioning. It was obvious he had to try and make his life work. We didn't want any short-term solution just to make him a basketball player. And Eddie though, he said, I don't think that's had any effect on me. It hasn't bothered my playing. It might have something to do with my weight gain. explosiveness is coming back okay yeah cuz that comes back when you're getting to be here in your late 20s he said I knew all along it would take some time to get adjusted I've never come to camp with this much weight before I

have a better understanding of what the lithium is for I know I need it in my system. He does. 82-83, he plays less minutes, a little under 30 minutes a game, 16 points a game, 5.2 assists, still good. Not an all-star, he hasn't been an all-star. But he's putting... Intimidating, yeah. Yeah. July of 83, he's got a knee problem here they're talking about and it's not going well for him here. This has been, he thinks possibly because of the weight gain and stuff like that.

He said though that the weight gain he was horrified by it. He said I put a move on a guy and he'd still be there. Yeah, shit, he's still in front of me. That guy used to be behind me when I got done doing that. Where did he come from? Yes, he's like, fuck. He said that sucked. He said it was the worst.

To me, it's like last season didn't exist. So he had some knee problems here. So he is exercising at Georgia State University doing a rehab. And he says he hates doing rehab work, hates exercising. Yeah and that particularly because it's repetitive really easy things to do just fundamental shit and it sucks, it's so boring. Well that's exactly, and this is my problem too, he says quote I'm telling you it's boring. Yeah. Yeah. Basketball is a game and it's fun. Right. It's exciting, it's fun. You can be creative, you can create new things.

This is just move your arm. No, don't get fancy with it. Just keep doing it the same way. Basketball, you could create like a drill. They see if you can do this a bunch of times. I'm going to see if I can hit eight shots from this spot in a row. None of that doing this shit. So they said Tuesday, this day, he walked with a slight limp.

They said he looks trim, perhaps even under his listed weight of 200 pounds. He says his knee is now 65 to 70 percent. They said he won't begin playing until September and you know once he starts playing we'll know something here. The Hawks new coach here Mike Fratello, he'll be the Cleveland coach later and then an announcer for fucking ever. I think he just got fired, didn't he? Didn't he just lose his job?

Did he get fired? Did they cut him loose or something? I don't think he got fired for like cause or anything. They just moved on to somebody more exciting? Like 75 years old, yeah. He used to be a terrible announcer, I don't know. I loved him. I thought he was real annoying though.

Yeah? I mean he's very boring. Yeah, it's just, I don't know, something about him annoying. Maybe it was because they would, who they would team him up with, I'm not sure. He's like the Bob Costas of whoever he's with, you know what I mean? He's just giving the like facts and such. He's not colored by any stretch. He's the color guy.

Well he's the color guy. Is he? Yeah, the color guy. There's a play by play and a color and then usually a, you know, a player who just goes yeah you know that's called the this play you know what I mean that that was the Magic Johnson role in the 90s. Fratello's the color guy? He's the color guy yeah because it would be like an announcer and then he's the ex-coach who sits there he's the color guy so he said he's coaching for Hackensack now. Hackensack? Yeah. New Jersey? New Jer- the same, James. Community college?

I don't know. Probably high school. Hackensack County Community College. Man, Fratello says, you always have to be concerned whenever anybody has an operation on their knee. He seems to be on schedule and everybody seems to be pleased with his progress, but playing the game is different than working out. I'm still concerned he can go at full blast." This whole thing is explosiveness. Right. We need him to be the fastest guy.

Yeah. And he, Johnson said, yeah, I'm having a lot of fun. I think rehabilitation tells a lot about the kind of person you are, if you like it or not. He doesn't like it. He's being sarcastic. So yeah, anyway, they're talking about everything. And Eddie said, I think people perceive me as someone who has a lot of talent, who hasn't put it all together.

He says, the thing is, I'll be going to camp in the best shape I've ever been in. The way I look at it, all I have to get off to a good start, I feel I'm at the peak of my career and it's time to have a good season without any controversy. I am good now, everybody. It's like 11 times. It's so many ups and downs for this guy. It's good for like the next 25 years. It's just up and down, up and down, up and down. Atlanta 83-84 team team they finished 40 and 42 that year and There so Mike Fratello pretty much has the same record as the other guy. So not a big change. Perhaps it's the talent Baby, yeah, and they have Dominique now too, but they lose in the first round of the playoffs to Milwaukee

So they're the team that gets bounced every year in the first team, first round of the playoffs. Dominique though, had 21.6 points a game that year. He crushed it. He did very well. Eddie didn't quite have the same game, same year as him. That was a time that you couldn't match the athleticism that Dominique, Stacey Ogman had a similar thing that,

fuck, they could just get the ball around people and into the air he did it. It was crazy. Dominique seemed different because he was so fucking big. Like Dominique, not only is he a fucking tall guy, he's 6'7", almost 6'8", I think, but he's fucking thick too.

Dominique had like big shoulders and he was a fucking big guy. Well, when he came in he wasn't that big. Well his shoulders were big. He was a little skinnier. By the time like 86, 87 came around, he was a fucking truck. Like you watch those dunk competitions, you were like what the fuck man,

that's a big dude to be floating like that. And he was like sneaky tall because his neck was so thin. He didn't have any neck and any tiny little head. He was six,", I believe. That's a fuckin' big guy, man. So good. God damn it, he was so much fun to watch. He really was, he was a blast to watch.

By the way, on this team, Sly Williams on that team. Really? Remember him with his aggressively nasty anal warts? Yeah, anal warts, right. It's an old episode, I think episode 30-ish, somewhere around there. Was he the time machine guy too? No, that's Marvin Barnes.

Marvin Barnes. Thank goodness, time machine, yeah. Doc Rivers also on this team. Oh boy. I think he's a rookie, he's 22 years old, so. Yeah, must have been. A kid, a kid Doc Rivers, that's amazing. So Eddie Johnson here, they say October 28th, 1983,

the real Eddie Johnson hopes to start fast. Here we go. The real Eddie Johnson's back, baby. He said, I'm ready, is what Eddie says. I'm in the best shape of my life this year, and I'm going to hold on till this season starts. He said, yes, I held back during the exhibition games. Oh!

Didn't want anybody to know. Yeah, they were holding back like a horse. Pulling punches. Like a horse. They didn't want to really, they're going to let him run in the next race though. He said, I wasn't going to the basket in those games. So he was like, yeah, I was just fucking around, letting everybody think that they could, you know, I wasn't, didn't have those moves anymore, but boom, then I get you. So now I've got it all of a sudden. Now I've got it, but that year, 13.2 points per game. So down a lot. He went from 19.1, 17.8, 16.13, too, in the last four years.

Not looking great. 5.6 assists. That's a career high. So that's great. His steals have gone down from 1.7 at his peak to 0.9 right now, too. So that's not wonderful either here. So 84, 85 Hawks are 34 and 48.

Well, I wonder why Fratello ended up coaching other teams because, I wonder if he's thinking hack and sack. Wow, that's not great. So that year they, man, Dominique 27-4 a game that year for Dominique. Fuck, he was good. Jesus Christ, sorry, had to look at that,

but that's very interesting to me. 16.3 for Eddie, though, he's back. 16-3, 7.8 assists a game this year. There you go. By far a career high, more than two assists more than he's had any other year. 0.6 steals, though, those are done. He's not doing that anymore.

Defense is over. He's scoring in dishing, he's just not playing D anymore, yeah. He makes 491,000 bucks this year too. Not bad, not bad at all. Pretty good money here, and the Hawks in August of 85, they say they may not re-sign Eddie Johnson. After that. Yep, Mike Fratello said, Eddie did a good job for us, but as far as his future with us, it's early yet, we still have to see how things go. That doesn't sound

promising really. No. They said his problems are twofold he's an aging player by NBA standards and yep and his team is committed to a youth movement and he's an emotional player who's often clashed with Mike Fratello. So, they say fought, but clashed is the way they put it in the paper. At times, our relationship has been up in the air, Eddie said. We haven't always seen eye to eye, but I can tell you this. I always give Mike my very best. That's the only way I know how to play.

When we won, everything was cool. When we lost and I didn't play well, let's just say things weren't so cool. All I know is that when the team got in trouble with injuries last year, they looked to me for leadership. When that happens, the man behind you, Fritello, should have confidence in you. I did what they asked me to do. If they want me to have responsibility, I should be paid for it." Sure. Yeah, if you're gonna make me a team leader. But he said, I'm mature enough to accept that if I have to go somewhere else to play, that's how it is. I'll maintain my home in Atlanta, but I can go somewhere else if I have to.

His agent said that he's had several conversations with the Hawks and it's not clear what's gonna happen here. Yeah. Johnson said, I'm looking for a raise, but I'm not going overboard. He said, the amount and length of the, but I'm not going overboard. He said the amount and length of the contract will not be a deterrent to any team that wants me and appreciates my value. Yeah. Six a year for six years. Probably wants, yes. 600 a year, 800 a year or something. They said, um, so, you know, it could happen. Who knows

what's going to go on here? September 20th, 1985, the Cavs are trying to get him. Okay. And Eddie says, it's good to be wanted. Yeah. Just happy to be here, bro. It's just fun. It's on by who, but yeah. Yeah, he said, but I'm only asking

for a two-year guarantee. At my age, 30, I think that's a wise thing. I can give the team two good years and then get another contract based on my performance. Smart. He's being very conservative with it. You know what I mean? He's not trying to be crazy. He's saying, I'll show you I'm worth it and then in two years from then someone else will sign me. It'll be fine. Don't give me a 10-year deal. I don't need that. Yeah, especially all the assists going up. I think that's good for him here. Smart. Smart stuff.

So the Hawks general manager said, let's just say we have some things to do with guards and other things between now and training camp. So they said they're interested in a forward at this point and all that kind of thing. So 85, 86, he is signed as a free agent, because now he's a free agent, with the Hawks again. Okay. But he's not gonna be there all year though. The Hawks finished 50-32 that year. Yeah, because I think-

Playoffs and get bounced early? Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, no, they win the first round actually. They beat Detroit. So this is right before Detroit's little run here. And then lose to the Celtics, so I think won the title that year. So that's a, that's a thing that happens there. So he's a member of the Hawks here this year, Dominique, 30 point,

three points a game for Nick here. It's, it's fun having a side story of Nick fucking getting better and better and better. Oh boy. John Conkac on the team. I was just going to say that last time. I think they're getting Conkac and Willis and. Conkac, who one of the worst contracts ever. They gave him money for some reason. He's terrible. And also, Spud Webb joins the team that year.

No shit. Fuck yeah. So this is when they become the hawks that we know, me and you. Spud, Dominique, Conkac, all those, Stacey Ogwin, all those fucking guys. Ogwin's not on the team yet though. He's still not here.

He's coming next year I think. I think so, I think you're right here. 88? Yeah, I think 88. Yeah, yeah. October 31st, 1985, they said, hard times are recent memory for New Hawk, Eddie Johnson, and New is in quotes,

like ha ha, New Hawk. He said, he's got a cold right now, Eddie does. He's in between sniffles. They said, Eddie Johnson has the sniffles is the first line of the Atlanta Constitution's article on him. Well done, guys. Yep, and he said, I got it from my kids.

The blow? Your kids have coke? You did? Wow. Barely. Somebody arrest his children. Someone called fucking CPS here. So he said those long days with the kids are over, this article says.

Johnson's on the road again back in the spotlight earning six figures to play in the NBA. A year ago a father of two small children wondered about his life's priorities. He celebrated his son's first birthday during a spare half hour between flight connections at Hartsfield International Airport, Atlanta. But unemployment alters a man's perspective. The worst part was the waiting, he said. Yeah, waiting to see if you're going to have a job. I guess so.

So yeah, he said, they said, no, this has not been the easiest of times for Eddie Johnson, eight years in the league, 30 years old, an age when NBA players try to borrow against time. In Johnson's case, coming back to the Hawks was particularly difficult. He admits what the record suggests that he was not an easy man to get along with. He said, last year was particularly difficult. We weren't winning. Things were frustrating and I don't do a good job of hiding my feelings or my temper. When you react badly, even for a second, everybody in the arena knows it." So they said his young teammates grew close though after that, developing a comradeship among themselves and with team captain Tree Rollins. That was missed in the clickish days when age and habits split the hawks into two small groups.

So yeah, guys who did coke and partied and guys who didn't. Man, the word was passed that this team's young veterans did not relish the idea of having such a hard opinionated man in their midst. They conveyed that message to management, but general manager Stan Kastin and team president Mike Geeran gamb gamble that Johnson can still play so he's back you can't like everybody on your team and want to hang out with them. Johnson says he understands he says I have no hard feelings I know I have my faults I think things were magnified by us losing so many games I love to win I hate losing sure that's

what you want. I think Jesus they they talk about how coach Furtillo was kind of a lot of his frustrations and Johnson would come off the floor after an early hook and his mouth would be fucking mouthing off to Furtillo and Furtillo said, but to say we didn't want him is not right. We were pursuing other avenues. We had to hang in as long as we could. We offered Mike Glenn, the other free agent guard, a contract and he turned it down. We offered Eddie a contract. It took a couple of days and he agreed. So Eddie said, yeah, I'm going to stay cool. I know that at this point in my career, the days when I would just try and score are over. I've got to try to change. I've got to cater to my teammates and get

my 15 or 16 points in the flow of the game. No isolations anymore and all that kind of shit. Create fucking plays. But yeah, that's what you got to do now. You don't have that, that burst that you have when you're 21. He said, I'm going to be strong. My stamina will be there because I'm working out. I'll work out all season to stay strong. So yeah, there you go. I think he's going to be good now. February 3rd, they're talking about how things are going great and that he's, you know, playing well and they're happy with him. And they did say though, he's been late to at least

three practices and he did not accompany the team to Washington claiming the flu. Last week he missed a team plane to Detroit. It all happened at once this thing. Yeah, this is all familiar behavior. Um, rookie John Konkak also missed the plane but explained that he'd been caught in traffic by an accident on at the Riverside Drive exit on the I-285. Johnson said he missed the plane quote, because I couldn't get up. I just rolled over and over and went back to sleep. Oh my God. So that's different than I was caught in an accident. I also missed a job, but it was a fucking telemarketing job. Yeah. Wasn't playing for the Atlanta Hawks. I've done that. I didn't miss a plane to a road game. I basically just quit in bed.

That's how you quit a shit job. You just roll over. Quitting a shitty job is the easiest thing. You just have to roll over and then you're done. You quit. You don't quit the NBA like that. The NBA, that's a different story. Holy shit.

They say Hawks management and Johnson's teammates both understand the inconsistent nature of this player who bellows profanity on the court when frustrated, is likely to holler at his coach when criticized, and dances with glee when things go well. You know, as human emotions. He said, the GM said, I know he'll be difficult to handle at times. They said, but his game is also deteriorating now. They said to a point where it's not uncommon for him to dribble a ball off his foot and out of bounds or simply to throw wildly for the basket or at an imagined teammate and

hit nothing. Just terrible. Like Charles Barkley in Space Jam. Not good. Oh, shit. Yeah. Oh, well, good thing that's CGI. Oh, my talent's gone. Oh, shit. Yeah. Oh, well, good thing that's CGI.

Oh, my talent's gone. Oh, no. What happened? He said, but if Johnson's not adequate relief for Rivers, no one on the squad is, and the Hawks have not only failed to acquire another point guard, they appear wed to Johnson by the ties of his generous contract. Although no other team wanted him, Johnson signed for 325 this season, so he didn't get a raise.

He got a cut. Yeah. He is to be paid that sum next season as well, unless he didn't get a raise, he got a cut. He is to be paid that sum next season as well, unless he's waived before August 1st. In that event, he would take $175,000 severance pay, which is, you know, fucking half a salary more almost. So they said it's not management's nature to write off that kind of money, so they'll probably keep him. Saturday night, as has been the pattern, Johnson gave his team six good minutes

before his game came apart. Mike Fratello tried Spud Webb and John Battle and Johnson stead, but neither was effective in the loss to the Nets. Nor can either rookie be expected to hold the team together if Rivers is disabled for any of the remaining eight games of the current road trip or beyond. So, this year, Eddie only plays in 39 games.

That's not good. Only starts five of them. Oh, no. 22 minutes a game. Oh, boy. And this isn't wonderful here and averages 10 points. He is going to be traded on February 10th midseason by the Hawks to the Cleveland Cavaliers. He is going anyway. traded on February 10th, mid-season, by the Hawks to the Cleveland Cavaliers. He is going anyway. Yep, for Johnny Davis.

It's during the All-Star break they switched him out. And yeah, they're ready to give it another try something else here. So with the Cavs, 85-86, he is a different deal there, 29-53. God damn it, they stink. That is awful. George Carl was their coach, by the way. Really? This is his first fucking time?

Didn't even know he coached Cleveland and had no fucking, maybe I had. Full head of hair back then? He had like a big, a big coif, like a pompadour. So also on this team, this is an interesting team, World Be Free on this team. Oh is an interesting team, World B-Free on this team. Oh really? Shit yeah man.

Christ, I forgot he was still playing in the 85-86 World B-Free. Didn't have Brad Doherty yet though, did they? I don't think so. Or did he come? No, they didn't. I think he came a little bit later. He was 88 maybe, something like that. Was it the Manning?

Was it Manning and him that were traded for each other? Was that what happened? Possibly Clippers. That might be the way it worked there. That sounds right to me. Yeah, and then also they drafted Kevin Johnson too a couple years later and all that. Yeah, Cleveland likes to draft and trade back in the 80s here. So anyway on this team Eddie is not much better here. No, for them he's only nine point, eight points a game. He does make his money though that year.

Now, June 22nd, 1986, right after the season, he's gonna be going to rehab. Oh, Cleveland. Couldn't take it in Cleveland, huh? All this slender of Cleveland couldn't keep him sober? Well he's lucky the suicide bar, he didn't notice that. Instead he just did a lot of coke. In case you don't know if you're not from or have ever been to Cleveland, every home

and hotel room, it's the law there, must have a sturdy bar up that you can at least hang yourself by. It's the law. It's the law. It's the law. It's a suicide bar. It keeps things, keeps traffic flowing there. It's in the hotel room and didn't have a curtain on. Nope, just a bar and I was like, oh, it's the suicide bar. Excellent. In the middle of the room. I sent

a picture of it to Jimmy. I'm like, I might use this later. I'm not going to lie. Your room had a fucking curtain hanging from that. It was to divide half of the room halfway. It didn't go all the way across the room. It was just half. It was for like, you know what it was for? Cause it was between the beds. Yeah. It was for like corporate people.

It was a jerk off from privacy. Yeah. Corporate people who have to share a room so they're not staring at each other in the eyes. So they don't have to see your dick. As they go to sleep. That's how shitty of a hotel it was. As they jerk off before their training session of how to sell these fucking timeshares.

I'm never going to get to sleep if I don't do this. So yeah, they talk about that he came forward for help and is doing well now. He volunteered for the treatment about a month ago under the terms of the NBA drug rehab program. That sounds to me like he was about to get drug tested. There's a rule in some places that if you are about to be drug tested and you tell them you're going to be dirty and you have a problem, they have a responsibility to send you some of them have policies that they have to they have to give you help. Yeah, the league. I'm sure the league has something they've got to right,

especially by the mid 80s. Christ, everybody was doing coke. If somebody says, please help me, fucking help them. Please, please. So November 26 1986, Eddie signs with a new team. Oh, where's it going? No, he is signed with the Tampa Bay thrillers The what Tampa Bay thrillers is that a new expansion team? Who are they well in the Continental Basketball Association? Cba they've acquired him in a three-way deal with the Rockford Lightning and the Charleston Gunners Oh, those aren't good teams at all. No they are not.

That is crazy. The Thrillers traded Patterson to the Gunners for the rights to Johnson, a nine-year NBA vet. Holy shit. This deal should give the Thrillers coach added leverage as the team approaches the start of the 86-87 season. At this point, Frank is playing for the Washington Bullets. Yeah.

But by January 29th, he's good now. 1987, big article, Tampa Bay Times. On the rebound, Thriller star Eddie Johnson has beaten his drug problem. He beat it! Mission accomplished! Hang the banner, declare victory, it's over. He finally beat it

that's right get off of the ship grab your nearest chick and dipper and kiss her boy it's a ticker tape parade couldn't do it in Cleveland go on down to Tampa and it's all all's good all's well clear into weird Florida strange so they said when he was playing basketball for Lake Weir High near Ocala, Eddie Johnson said he never imagined that someday he'd be playing in the NBA. And when he made the All-Star team in 79, he never dreamed that seven years later, he'd be playing in the CBA. Yeah, that's funny. Eddie said things happen so quickly, especially when you're on a ton of cocaine, they happen twice as fast. He did say things happen so quickly.

He said, when you're young, you think things will last forever. You never look too far down the road because you think it'll never end. That's right, yeah. But guess what, motherfucker? I'm playing for the thrillers right now. And the worst part about it is that he is,

yeah, he's got a good, he's got a job in a basketball league. He's getting paid to play basketball. But he is going home, man. He is going far too close to home. He's far too close to home. He knows everybody. And he said playing in the NBA, quote, it was everything you could want. Money, big crowds to watch you play a game you love.

It was another world. Yeah. But he said then, you know, he had a lot of problems with the drugs and with the mood swings and the manic depression. He said, it was definitely a rough period of my life, but I've learned a lot about a lot from it and I've become a better person because of it. As far as my recovery is concerned, the Lord played a major role. That's right everybody. He's breaking rules left and right. When things are bad, he finds religion, which is obviously... He's gotten married, he's moved home, he's found Jesus. He's looking for something.

Shit. He says, I've got support from my family, strength from the Lord, and now that I'm older, I'm looking at life a lot differently. You fucking idiot. If only you knew your future here, you wouldn't be saying any of this. So they said after he left, the rehab NBA you know stayed away from him, you know Cavs dropped him. He said that he had to prove it to himself that he could make it back. So he did he went down to St. Petersburg to play in the CBA and he says people in the NBA want to know that I've done things the

things necessary to recover from those problems. I could have just stayed home but that wouldn't have done anything to get me back into shape. I knew I had to play somewhere where there was good competition night after night. It's about, he makes about $400 a week here. He does rank eighth in scoring with 23.8 points a game in the CBA,

and was selected to the All-Star team that year. You better. The man's only got 16 grand a year, James. Yeah, he fucking bet, no, that's not 400 a-Star team that year. You better. The man's making 16 grand a year, James. Yeah, he fucking bet. No, that's not 400 a week for the whole year. That's only for when they're playing games. Oh, great point. Oh, no, he's making eight grand a year.

If that, yeah, he's not doing well here. Holy shit. This is not good. The coach of the Thriller said, each game he's gotten better for us. It's just a matter of physical and mental conditioning before he's ready to play in the NBA again. Johnson says it's something I feel I have to do for myself and my wife understands that. That's nice. So March 2nd, he told her I'm

going to go down and get some seasonal work. I'm just playing basketball, not picking watermelons. March 2nd, 8070 signs the first of two 10-day contracts with the Seattle Supersonics. Okay. So it's just six weeks in the regular season. They take a look at him, basically. And yeah, because Eddie's always had a problem with his reputation, so they're like,

maybe he's a nice guy now. We don't know. We don't know, plus they have a hurt guard, so. And another Eddie Johnson. Yeah, and they're gonna have another Eddie Johnson. Yeah, and they're going to have another Eddie Johnson. They said the treatment is in the past, he said. I've been clean nine months and I try to take it one day at a time. Oh boy.

Lord, one day at a time, all that shit. He said there was a real thing against drugs this year because of the Len Bias situation, which we've done a Patreon on that. Also the Eddie Johnson situation. Yeah, that's the problem with Eddie, his own situation. Look at the picture of him in the paper, though. It's literally like he's on his way to church. He's got like a sweater and a dress shirt on under it

with a tie. Very clean. Big smile on his face. Looks like Draymond Green going to fucking church. He looks like Naaman from The Wire, just Naavan Johnson from The Jerk, Naaman from The Wire who's taken in by Colvin and taken somewhere nice. His Eddie Haskell look there. So he said, yeah, he said, I didn't think people were willing to take a chance on me.

And the Sonics say, it wasn't difficult. They said that, uh, his, he's known as a good player that overshadows everything. And we only need him for like 20 days. So really, as long as he doesn't have OD on the court in the next three weeks, we should be fine. He, uh, they say, quote, this is Bernie Bickerstaff. That's the, uh, Seattle guy. He said, I look at it like this. Somebody gave me an opportunity and here's another nice opportunity for something mutually beneficial to happen to both Eddie and the Sonics. So, um, because I guess they gave this guy a job after he'd been an assistant for 12 years.

Oh, bicker staff. Bicker staff. Yeah. So he's like, you know, this is a different story now, which I mean, that's nice of him to try to give people a chance. different story now, which I mean that's nice of him to try to give people a chance. But they said that they asked Lenny Wilkins, the Cavs coach, he said he wasn't even interested in inviting Johnson to training camp last fall after the drug issues. When Wilkins was asked for his impressions about Johnson's performance in an exhibition he answered, I have none. I can't make a judgment based on the amount of time he played Eddie said I had butterflies because it's a new start There he said it's good to it's a good feeling to be back out there and to contribute in a positive way

There's not an exhibition game. This is March a regular game and he said the last 11 months had been a very humbling experience I think it took a lot of courage for me to go to the CBA It was a hard decision But the right decision was it a harder said, was it harder than admitting the drug use? And he said, well, yes. He said, but I'll have to think about that one. Picker staff said because we're so concerned about our chemistry, we want our players. We went to our players and told them what we had in mind. And to a man, they were very receptive and that's important to us. So they had like a vote, do we sign Eddie Johnson or not?

Yeah. And they said that Maurice Lucas, the Sonics veteran, said Eddie's an extremely tough competitor, he's fought some outstanding odds to come back and be in the position he is today. As far as his heart is concerned, I give the man tremendous amount of credit for stepping forward and being a bigger man than what everyone projected him to be. So as far as his heart is concerned, I give the man tremendous amount of credit for stepping forward and being a bigger man

than what everyone projected him to be. As far as his heart is concerned, I think it'll hold up because he stopped doing coke. So he's gonna be on the Supersonics and we'll talk about their season very quickly, that 86-87 season. They were 39 and 43, but made the playoffs yeah beat the Mavs in the first round beat beat the Rockets and six in the second round and then got swept by

the Lakers who were a juggernaut so they were showtime at that point that Sonics team by the way Dale Ellis who we did an episode about recently Xavier McDaniel oh yeah Tom Chambers so we just talked about incessantly forgot he was on this team we got Eddie we got Nate McMillan who was a good player too yeah real good player there Maurice Lucas who's a veteran it's a lot of players they only won 30 games like that huh that's amazing that's a 39 games or something so there we go and Eddie March 23rd signed a contract for the

rest of the season with Seattle. His 20 days. They loved him. So now he's back. He's an NBA player, full fledged, minted and fucking dipped in bronze NBA player. There we will stop for the day here. Oh boy. And next week we will finish up and I know this week you go there hasn't been a lot of crime this week this guy got arrested a hundred times. This is the flex episode. Here we go. Where he's coming out of it he's going back into it it's this and that and the end of his career now his career is gonna be over and it is a fucking mess from here on out. There's some real bad stuff coming up too. It's not wonderful here at all.

But some interesting stuff. That's Eddie Johnson for now. We'll get into it. Now, if you enjoy that, tell the world about enjoying that. By the way, yeah, get in there. Tell your friends, tell everybody, but get on whatever app you're on

and definitely give us a review because they help a lot. More than you could possibly imagine. Give us five stars, by the way. You also should listen to our other two shows. Your stupid opinions which is fucking hilarious and also small town murder which is also fucking hilarious. I was going to say but it's gross but I would also say your stupid opinions can be gross also. It's gross too.

It's gross too. There will be poop and that is your dildo. So there you go. Check that out and you'll understand. Also follow us on social media. We're at Crime in Sports wherever you get your social media goodness do that. You definitely want to subscribe on Patreon. Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all your bonus material. This week is no different. Yeah. Five bucks a month gets you this giant back catalog, hundreds of episodes, all shit you've never heard before. Really good stuff and then you get new stuff every other week. One crime and sports, one small town murder and we're going to give you all of it.

All of it. For the low, low price of only $5 a month. So there you go. We're crazy. We're going to give you a crime and sports Patreon. There is a small town murder Patreon, but obviously you don't get that for the $5. What? They do? They do. They but obviously you don't get that for the five dollars They wonder what they do they do they get that too

They get that for fun. We're gonna throw in a frying pan as well this right But you'll never need another pan it broils it fucking this and that it boils. He's fucking sauteing it. It's amazing But wait the pocket fisherman. Yes This week what we have on crime and sports patreon in addition to the pocket fisherman We are going to talk about fireworks disasters and Accidents because it's the fourth of July coming up and there will be more and this year There's always an athlete that loses a limb don't do it. It hurts. It hurts We're going to talk about our own personal stories of firework accidents

It's going to be a lot of fun here. If you're not from this country, Fourth of July is when we shoot fireworks off, and half the country gets shit blown off. We give a middle finger to the queen, and by giving it to her, we give it to her. We blow off half our middle finger toward the queen. We give the nub of a middle finger to the queen that we've blown off in an accident

telling her to go fuck herself. So yeah, do that. And then for Small Town Murder, we're going to talk about real Tombstone, the shit surrounding the whole Wyatt Earp Cowboys doc holiday. I've read many books about it and it's a lot. All the witness accounts, what really happened to Johnny Ringo? What really happened to all these different guys? Because everybody's ending was different than it was in real life in the movie. They made it all dramatic, but

their life was kind of similar to what it was. So we'll talk about all that. Patreon.com slash crime in sports. Also shut up and give me murder.com is the website. Get your merch now. Do all that stuff. Tickets to small Town Murder. That said, Jimmy, tell me the people who have subscribed to Patreon this week and therefore become not only our friends, but wonderful, wonderful people who we hope good things happen to. Jimmy, hit me with them right fucking now.

This week's executive producer is our Frannie Hitsky. God damn it, I never get her name right. Well, thank you. I adore her. Franny in Australia, she's terrific. And she's doing murals down there now. She's painting, she loves art. Fran Australia, baby, thank you.

Fran Australia, Hitschke. Liz Vasquez, Jolita Renee Cecilia Gross King. Yeah, she's terrific, yeah. Madison Rae Hall, Netta, Nettie, Netay, Netay Marie. Netay. Net, like, I don't know. N-E-T-T-E, what is that?

Is that net? Netta? Netta. How do you pronounce V-E-T-T-E, James? Vet. Right. So it's net. So it's net.

Like a net, probably, short for a net. Or nanet. Who knows? Nanet has something, but with a net on the end of it something but with another producers this week James are Peyton Meadows Gary Howard Joe Joe gelita Renee Cecilia Gross King I said that Janice Hill she's wonderful to Zach Bowles Zach. Thank you so much Lori white angel angel angel Ledford Bailey Ashley Eric Garver Lori white Sharon Peters Angel Ledford, Bailey Ashley, Eric Garver, Lori White, Sharon Peters, Steve Galuski,

Amanda Sheridan, AJ Jaqui, Zach Nowicki, Elizabeth Munson, Munson? Mike Yost, Angel with no last name, Joe Sandoval, Emerl LaDue, Alyssa Madden, Lauren Taylor, Joseph Jurglen-annis, Jurglen-is. Jiggle it a little. Carolyn Cuckerts. Cuckertus. Jiggle it a little. Carolyn? Jiggle-an. Cuckerts.

Cuckerts? I think it's, I think it's, no. Cuckerts. Oh, sorry. Cuckerts? I don't know. I misheard you. It's fine. I wasn't looking over at you. She's heard it. Francine Butcher, Bo Cher, Boucher,

Kendra with no last name, Jeremy Triche, Lucas May, Ty Damon II, Rebecca Broussard, Jodie Olsen, Pingyu the Cat, Kelly L, India Allen. To you. There's a guy on TikTok that has his cat read things and then he just says meow and I die laughing every time. It's the dumbest shit on the planet. Darren with no last name, Corey Burton.

It is incredibly stupid. Be More Six. Haley with no last name, Megan Bortner, Bill Woodson, Scott C., Amanda Chamont, Aaron with no last name, Sarah Hixson, Sia Thebia, Court with no last name, Nicole Gabarik, Gaborik, Justin Jones, George George plant Dayton with no last name Jennifer Kavan Kevin Donnell Elliott with Anna Baxter sing Melissa Clark Darren Brand Jules Anderson Jordan Hadley Lisa Rizone Yeah, Don with no neck I guess Divas apologies about your neck. Nancy with no last name.

Aaron Wurlodchik. Wurlodchik? Wurlodchik. Wow. Angel Sonoran. Sarornan. Sarornan. Carl Height.

Aaron Hammond. Hammond, maybe. Craig Nicholas. Gail with no last name. Eldy with no last name. Sarah Sherwood. Megan Aiken. Kelder Varigate.

Mike Sackett. Brandy Zweter. Tarny Tuggle-Gradilis? What? last name Sarah Sherwood Megan Aiken Kelder Varigate Mike Sackett Brandy Zweter Tarney Tuggle Gradilis what? Tuggle that's the last name Joshua Wilson Eleanor Winfield Amanda Keenan Mary Marie Marie Evans Lily Meyers Matthew Bowers Andrew Palmer Natasha Dan Carol Carl Brum has two of them, James. He got two patrons, one for somebody else. Thank you, Carl.

You're amazing. Fuck yeah. Julie Olivier, John Stenstrom, Sierra Sturgell, Jessica Lopez, Mariah Kasner, Denise Taylor, Matthias Wanderth, Mathias, Matthias, Mathias, what do you do? Fiona Oller, valued customer, Maddie Tappa, Joseph would know last name, Joe would know last name, Tiffany Kameho, Davy Frankowitz, Damien would know last name, Judy Oyenart, Shelley would know last name, Jennifer Bach, J and N, the two letters J and N. Stacey would know last name. Anne Hunt, Melissa, oh boy, Konnichiwa, Knizic, Knuzki, I don't know.

Lauren Brown, Elena Marquez, Rochelle Taylor, Joel Crawford. I like how I try to help you and I don't have the names in front of me but I'm like trying to sound them out with you. I don't even know what letters are on the paper, I have no clue. Well, just say these so that I don't have to. Jake Giles, Peyton Herzner, Vinsuke,

Vinsuke, Owen Mitchell, Adriana Tiffany, oh boy, Sauravia, wow, Sauravia. Sauravia? Oh, wow. JT Kinder, Orkinder. Ashley Haley, Amanda Rosen, Kirk, Ryan, Jason, Nezeth, Sarah Whited, Whitehead, Paldo, Paldo Fett, Stacey, we know her last name, Kerry Kinghorn, Taylor Amason, Jennifer Graham, Katherine Hammerle, Max Cox, that's easy, Anita McCauley, Jordan Deal, Nick Cohan,

Cohen maybe, Jordan Peterson, probably not that one, Christopher Ford, and all of our patrons, you're terrific. Thank you everybody so much, honestly, from the bottom of our fucking hearts. We cannot thank you enough for all that you do for us and everything. Thank you, and thanks for hanging out with us, and thanks for doing cool stuff and chilling and doing all that kind of shit. So that said, if you want to follow us on social media, very easy to do that. Shut up and give me murder.com as all the links and shit to go everywhere. That said, we will see you next week for part three, the final part of Eddie Johnson, where it is a fast spiral down a drain of cocaine and

then into one of the most horrific things you'll ever hear about so Good shit here. Can't wait to do that and keep doing that and live from the crime and sports studios We will 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.