Margery Eagan On Judging Reggie

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

      Boston Herald
       
      Judging Reggie on more than whether he snorted cocaine
      by Margery Eagan 
      Tuesday, April 27, 1999
      They sat perhaps six feet apart, but you could feel the awkwardness clear 
      across the courtroom.
      On one side of the front row was the widow Donna Harris-Lewis, elegant and 
      dignified in black: suit, stockings and patent-tipped pumps; no jewelry 
      save stud earrings, a white-gold cross at her neck and a gold ring on her 
      right middle finger. She no longer wears her wedding or engagement rings, 
      she has said, because they became too tight after the birth of Reggiena, 
      the child she was carrying when Reggie Lewis dropped dead on a basketball 
      court in 1993.
      On the other side of the front row was cardiologist Dr. Gilbert Mudge, a 
      handsome middle-age man with thick gray hair, fashionable glasses, a 
      well-tailored gray suit. He's the man Harris-Lewis once believed when he 
      said her husband would be all right. Now she blames Mudge for killing 
      Lewis. Now she has blotted Mudge's reputation, and he hers: He says Lewis 
      did cocaine.
      The pair hardly looked at each other yesterday in the 15th floor of the 
      old federal courthouse in Post Office Square. When the judge queried 
      dozens in the jury pool, each peered over opposite shoulders to watch 
      jurors respond.
      Among the questions: Had any jurors formed an opinion about the case? Only 
      11 raised hands to indicate ``yes.'' It was surprising, since the death of 
      Reggie Lewis has ignited such intense opinion. Much of it has been 
      directed against Harris-Lewis, another wife and mother, like Dr. Deborah 
      Eappen, made famous through tragedy yet inspiring more criticism than 
      sympathy.
      Too controlling and domineering of her husband alive, and dead. That, fair 
      or not, is the rap against Donna Harris-Lewis. Plus, detractors now add, 
      she's greedy for trying to win tens of millions in a malpractice suit that 
      will raise the cocaine question anew.
      ``It's very important that our children understand what happened to their 
      father,'' Harris-Lewis has said herself, though this case may never settle 
      that. 
      ``I'm looking forward to the truth,'' she has said too, though it's naive 
      to assume a civil trial will arrive at the truth. 
      We did not lead that sort of ``lifestyle,'' she has said. But what 
      lifestyle is that? George W. Bush Jr., possibly our next president, has 
      artfully sidesteppped questions about cocaine. What's his ``lifestyle?''
      ``Everyone who truly knew him knew what kind of person he (Lewis) was,'' 
      his wife has said. But what does that mean? That only bad people do 
      cocaine? Really? During the go-go '80s, when cocaine was still ``the 
      Cadillac of Drugs,'' when Eric Clapton was singing about it and Len Bias 
      had yet to drop dead from it, it seemed half of Ivy League educated, 
      caucasian Wall Street brokers did the drug through crisp $100 bills - then 
      settled down to become boring taxpayers, home owners, caring parents and 
      spouses.
      If an impetuous college-age Reggie Lewis did do cocaine, like so many 
      others, he had reason to lie: NBA expulsion rules, his career and $10 
      million contract.
      What's sad is that so many people, perhaps even his wife, seem to believe 
      his memory sinks or swims based on whether he did. It's as if we can't 
      differentiate anymore; as if we've lost such perspective on drugs that a 
      recreational user, however misguided, may as well be a career dealer.
      At a time when most athletes can't be bothered with any cause save sneaker 
      contracts, it's as if the legacy of Reggie Lewis now comes down to whether 
      he made some stupid, youthful mistakes.
      Yesterday in a courtroom sat a widow who may indeed be controlling, 
      domineering. But in the past year or so, she's also donated $50,000 to 
      Team Harmony, which uses professional sports teams to promote tolerance; 
      $30,000 for a computer lab at Northeastern's African American Institute; 
      $50,000 to the Courtside Club that supports Northeastern's basketball and 
      nearly $100,000 to the Reggie Lewis Foundation.
      When Lewis was alive he organized annual Thanksgiving turkey giveaways and 
      worked tirelessly with inner-city children. Those efforts, among many 
      others, drew nearly 15,000 people to the largest funeral in Boston's 
      history - his. We should all recover so well from our alleged 
      ``mistakes.''