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McDonough: Lewis Tested Positive; ML Depressed Over Duncan
[The Boston Globe Online][Boston.com]
[Boston Globe Online / Sports]
Damaging testimony in the Lewis case?
By Will McDonough, Globe Columnist,
06/05/99
<snips>
Dr. Job Fuchs told the Northeastern
News this week that he will
testify in court that Reggie Lewis tested
positive for cocaine while he played
basketball at the school.
This is bad news for both the Celtics and
Reggie's widow, Donna Harris-Lewis, who
filed a malpractice suit against three
doctors who had treated Lewis.
Fuchs, who has flip-flopped in the past
about whether Lewis tested positive in
1987, told reporter Mike Trocchi: ''I
think it was pretty clear that he tested
positive on the first test. A few days
later he tested negative.''
In 1990 and '91, while playing for the
Celtics, Lewis signed three insurance
applications, totaling $17 million.
On the applications, Lewis was asked if he
''ever'' had used marijuana, cocaine, etc.
Lewis said no.
If Fuchs is correct - and his testimony
will be supported by others from
Northeastern - this becomes a $17 million
fraud.
It also contradicts the testimony of
Harris-Lewis that her late husband never
used drugs, that it was against Reggie's
''philosophy.''
The Celtics could find themselves at risk
for $5 million. This comes on the heels of
their last financial report, which stated
that the Boston Celtics Limited
Partnership, which owns 48.3 percent of
the team, lost $8.5 million in the last
six months of '98.
Harris-Lewis is being paid close to $12
million from those insurance policies,
which are covered under the statute of
limitations. However, the last policy for
$5 million is not, and the insurance
company will have an open door to try to
recoup that money.
Former NU athletic director Irwin Cohen
has said all along that Fuchs told him in
1987 that both Lewis and teammate Andre
LaFleur tested positive for cocaine. And
Karl Fogel, who was the NU coach at the
time, told the school newspaper that
LaFleur came to him a few days after the
test and told him that he and Lewis had
tested positive. Fogel told the paper he
talked to Lewis about the tests.
Fuchs said he expects to be called by the
defense lawyers in the next couple of
weeks.
M.L. Carr doesn't find it easy watching
Tim Duncan become the best player in the
NBA in less than two years. ''I think of
what might have been and it hurts,'' says
Carr, thinking back to the day a couple of
years ago when he and Celtics publicist
Jeff Twiss went to New Jersey, confident
they were going to bring back Duncan and
start a new dynasty in Boston. ''Jeff and
myself went down for the draft lottery,''
remembers Carr. ''We had a higher
percentage of chances than anyone else to
get the top pick, and Duncan. He is the
guy we coveted. I didn't think we would
miss him. And when we did, a little piece
of me died. I took a lot of bullets
[coaching the year before] hoping we could
get this kid, and it just didn't work
out.'' San Antonio ended up with the first
pick and took Duncan, who is now the
cornerstone of that team. ''When we got to
New York, I was very confident we were
going to get the top pick,'' says Twiss.
''We had two lottery picks, and two
expansion teams, Vancouver and Toronto,
couldn't pick if they were in the top
three. But I started to worry in the
warmup. They had a mock draft to show us
how the real one was going to go, and San
Antonio wound up with the first pick in
the mock draft. My palms started to sweat.
Then, when they won it again, I couldn't
believe it. We could have come out of that
draft with Duncan and Keith Van Horn, and
instead we ended up with the third and
sixth picks, when we had a chance for one
and two.'' Carr says Duncan is everything
he thought he would be: ''He is a dominant
player. He can run the floor. Passes out
of the post. Has a nice jump hook. Can
step outside and hit the jump shot. Can go
either way. If I brought him home there'd
be a second statue in Faneuil Hall right
beside Red [Auerbach], and that guy would
be waving a towel.''
The Celtics may bring a WNBA team to
Boston, but it won't be for another three
years. Rick Pond, the Celtics' chief
operating officer, says the team has been
doing all of its financial homework and
doesn't have the right formula yet. ''The
big drawback is that most of the [teams]
that have WNBA teams own their own
buildings. We don't. We are tenants in the
FleetCenter. The present teams in the WNBA
have their own buildings, and the new
teams being added this year all have new
buildings. I don't see us being able to do
anything until 2002 at the earliest, but
we do have a strong interest, and if we
can make it feasible financially, then we
will want to do it.'' What Pond is saying
is that it is much easier for a team like
the Knicks, who are owned by the company
that owns Madison Square Garden, to bring
in a women's team, because the
concessions, souvenirs, etc., are all
owned by the same entity. In the
FleetCenter, which is owned by Delaware
North (which owns the Bruins), all of the
concessions, etc., go to the FleetCenter,
not the Celtics. Therefore, it doesn't
make as much sense for the Celtics to jump
into the WNBA right away. In fact, the
Celtics were thinking about putting a WNBA
team in Hartford because it would be
cheaper, but the league wants the WNBA
squads to play in the same city as their
brother teams.
This story ran on page G1 of the Boston
Globe on 06/05/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.