Boston Herald's Jim Baker Blasts Antoine

[wayray@ix.netcom.com (Way Of The Ray)]

Baker is the Herald's Sports Media Critic:

The big eyebrow lifter among weekend shows was a Celtic-heavy "20/20" piece on 
children fathered out of wedlock by NBA players - with Antoine Walker, larry 
Bird and Greg Minor put front-and-center in a dubious Sunday prime-time 
spotlight by ABC.

The Bird and Minor stories were familiar from exposes in Sports Illustrated and 
elsewhere, but the Walker segment was volatile and fresh.  Reporter Lynn Sherr 
said while Walker earns $2.4 million a year and lives in a private development 
for the wealthy, 4-year-old daughter Crystal "sleeps on a couch-a-couch she 
must share with her 2-year-old sister and mother in Chicago.

Sherr noted Walker recently began court-ordered child-support payments of 
$2,500 a month, but for three years, Crystal's mother, Margaret Johnson, "'had 
to go on public aid to make ends meet.'" 

Sherr pointed out that Walker bought a fancy house for his mother, Diane, whom 
Margaret claimed threatened her about going to "20/20" with the Crystal story.
"'She said if I go to "20/20," then I have to watch my back on the way to 
work	(as a hairdresser).  I told her I'm not going to be scared anymore.'"

Margaret now has a restraining order against Diane Walker.

Sherr said Antoine and his mother refused interviews, but ABC showed Walker 
sitting in his car, yelling at a producer: "'Get your story straight before I 
slap the (bleep) out of you!'"  When asked if he was now taking care of his 
daughter, Walker closed the door and drove off." 

Ray's Comment: Antoine must have thought the producer was a referee.