Sunday, November 16, 2008
Sports, "Hunt's Grunts"

A fork in the road

It was the late ’70s, and much like today, the Hawks were in a sudden and surprising resurgence

By Hunt Archbold

Once upon a time—30 years ago this fall, to be exact—there were two young black men in their early 20s, living in Atlanta and serving a demonic master known as drug addiction. It was the late ’70s, and much like today, the Hawks were in a sudden and surprising resurgence after many, many years of substandard and undistinguished play.

Their names were David L. Whiters and Edward Lee Johnson, or “Fast Eddie,” as he was better known. Today, they are 50 and 53, respectively. But back then, they were young and bulletproof, and oh, how they loved to get high. Johnson, still considered one of the greatest athletes to emerge from the Ocala, Fla. area, excelled at Auburn University, and by his second NBA season he was the Hawks’ starting point guard. He helped lead the team to the playoffs in the 1978-79 season, sweeping the Houston Rockets in the first round before taking the defending world champion Washington Bullets to seven games in the second.

The next year, Johnson scored 22 points in the NBA All-Star Game and tallied 16 the following mid-season classic. He was very popular both on and off the court. Back in those days, Whiters would occasionally see and talk with Johnson and other Atlanta players in downtown watering holes after Hawks games.

“I used to see Eddie and those guys, and he was always the nicest,” Whiters says. “He never thought he was above anyone. And man, could he play. He was so quick.”

In Johnson’s eight full seasons in Atlanta, the Hawks made the playoffs six times. Injuries caught up with him, though, and he was traded midway through the 1985-86 campaign. When he retired in 1987, he left the game with 10,163 points and a career average of 15.1 points per contest.

But then his addiction to cocaine only increased. Meanwhile, after a dozen or so years of being addicted to heroin, Whiters kicked the habit in 1984. It was a Tuesday in the middle of July, and he shared a needle with two others. One of those men died several years later of AIDS-related complications. The other is spending his life in prison.

Whiters woke up miserable on Wednesday, and then went to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting the following day in Chandler Park and has never looked back. He went on to earn his GED, and then his Masters in Social Work from the University of Michigan. Today, he is finishing work for a Ph.D. Nine years ago, along with a pair of fellow recovering addicts who also had gone on to greatly further their education, he founded the Decatur-based Recovery Consultants of Atlanta, Inc.

The organization has received great support through federal grants and is committed to collaborating with faith- and community-based organizations to develop social support programs that help individuals sustain recovery from addiction. I was working there on a video shoot last week, and experienced first-hand the miracles that Whiters and his staff are performing to help build a network of recovering individuals responsible for disseminating the message that both faith-based and 12-step approaches to recovery are effective methods for reducing relapse and maintaining long-term recovery. This is a man truly following his calling.

And what of Johnson? He became a habitual felon. By his own accounts, he was arrested about 100 times, and according to court records, his criminal convictions included burglary, battery, robbery, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. That is, until three weeks ago, when Fast Eddie was told he could run no more. In his hometown, a jury found him guilty of the sexual battery and sexual molestation of an 8-year-old girl in August 2006. During closing arguments, the prosecution held up a photograph of the girl’s swollen genital area taken during a medical examination several days after the alleged rape. Johnson now faces a mandatory life sentence.

Eddie Johnson was one of my sports heroes growing up. Whiters and I shared stories of his greatness on the court, and of his addictions off it.

“I could’ve ended up there; that’s what drugs do,” Whiters says, acknowledging that each and every day he awakes facing the world as an addict. “But God chose me, spared me so I could help others so they won’t end up living a life like Eddie’s.”

Happy times … and God bless you, David L. Whiters. SP