Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 21, 1995 TAG: 9503210147
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOSTON LENGTH: Medium
Now a shadow is cast over the ceremony and the final days of the storied Garden, which is to close after the NBA and NHL seasons.
Suggestions of drug use arose almost two weeks ago in a report exploring Lewis' sudden death in 1993. The Wall Street Journal said Lewis refused to take a drug test, and questioned whether concerns about finances and bad publicity may have prompted the Celtics to ignore drugs as a possible explanation.
Then, in Monday's Wall Street Journal, Derrick Lewis said he and Reggie Lewis had used cocaine in a Maryland hotel before a Celtics game. Lewis collapsed five days later, April 29, 1993, during a playoff game at the Boston Garden against the Charlotte Hornets. He died in August 1993 after collapsing while shooting baskets.
Derrick Lewis, who played high school and college ball with Reggie Lewis but is no relation, said the Celtics star was ``with me, an experimental user of cocaine like a lot of people, from executives to college students, who try it once in a while. Reggie was addicted to basketball, not drugs.''
The two did a lot of ``heavy partying, mostly with marijuana. There was a lot of partying on the team,'' Derrick Lewis said of his days at Northeastern University.
He also recalled another incident in the 1980s, when he and Lewis attended a Celtics camp for college players and free agents. He said he, Lewis and two other players went to a McDonald's restaurant and used cocaine in the bathroom. The Journal said it confirmed much of the report with one of the other players, who was not identified.
Celtics officials, preparing for the ceremony Wednesday to retire No.35, had no comment on the report. They had vehemently denied a Journal report March 9 indicating the possibility of cocaine use had not been vigorously examined at the time of Lewis's collapse.
Lewis' No.35 will be retired Wednesday in pure Celtics fashion, with his family getting a piece of the famed parquet floor and his number being raised to the rafters of the Boston Garden beside those of Bob Cousy, John Havlicek and Larry Bird.
But recent and compounding drug allegations will make the event far different from recent ceremonies for Bird, Kevin McHale and Dennis Johnson.
On Saturday, The Boston Globe reported Lewis may have failed a cocaine test while he prepared to play for Northeastern in the 1987 NCAA Tournament.
Lewis' wife has said her husband never used drugs. She had no comment after the allegations of cocaine use appeared in Monday's Journal.
``It just shocks me,'' said Bob Wade, who coached both Lewises at Baltimore's Dunbar High School and later coached at the University of Maryland. ``There were no secrets at Dunbar. I ruled with an iron fist, so to speak. If the kids were to engage in anything, the word would get back to me [from] people in the community.''
Wade could not vouch for either Reggie or Derrick Lewis after they graduated, ``but we stayed in contact [and] no one ever said anything to me.''
Derrick Lewis could not be reached Monday for further comment.
No matter what is said, the Celtics vow to go ahead with the retirement ceremony.
by CNB