Bucks Admit Hiding Johnson’s ’83 Drug Problem

A member of the Milwaukee Bucks board of directors has confirmed that the club, when negotiating last September’s six-player trade that sent Marques Johnson to the Clippers, hid the fact that Johnson had undergone treatment in a drug rehabilitation center in 1983.

Bucks’ board member Daniel Neviaser said at a Tuesday meeting of the Pen and Mike club in Madison, Wis., that the Bucks “tried to hide” the fact that Johnson had been hospitalized at St. Mary’s Rehabilitation Center in Minneapolis in July 1983. Johnson’s stay at St. Mary’s was first made public in a Feb. 9 story in The Times.

Clipper President Alan Rothenberg and General Manager Carl Scheer said that Bucks President Jim Fitzgerald told them of Johnson’s drug history only after the Times story. Rothenberg said he hasn’t decided if the Clippers will take any legal action against the Bucks.

“‘Yes, we have thought about it,” Rothenberg said. “But that’s all. It’s a troublesome decision to make (whether to sue). We’d have to give it a lot of thought. If we go to court, it (Neviaser’s comments) wouldn’t hurt us.”

Fitzgerald did not return calls made to his Palm Springs home Wednesday night.

“It is nothing we don’t already know,” Rothenberg said of Neviaser’s statement. “After the story broke, Fitzgerald admitted it to me. This doesn’t do anything more than confirm what had already been confirmed privately. Since the story, there’s been no doubt that Marques had a problem.”

Johnson and Cummings were the key figures in the late September trade, which also brought swingman Junior Bridgeman and forward Harvey Catchings to the Clippers for guards Craig Hodges and Ricky Pierce. The Clippers used the trade as the main marketing vehicle in their first season in Los Angeles.

Johnson, 29, also had no comment on Neviaser’s statement. He has repeatedly refused to comment on the drug charges, other than to say, “I have nothing to do with drugs.”

Said Scheer, who dealt only with Milwaukee Coach Don Nelson in the trade negotiations: “My first blush is to say that it’s a major concession by the Bucks, to admit that they hid it. But then you have to ask, ‘Who did they hide it from?’ Did they just try to hide it from their inner family and the media, or did they deliberately hide it from us? All we know is that they did not tell us and we obviously thought we should know. There is (an obligation) for them to tell us, but if they are saying they deliberately tried to hide it from us, it’s a major revelation with far-reaching circumstances.

“Hypothetically, anything is possible. When two guys make a contract and they disagree on the contract, they go to court. The judge could do any number of things. He could rescind the deal and return Cummings to the Clippers. He could award the Clippers a first-round draft choice. He could award the Clippers a sum of money. Or he could do nothing. Those are the remedies, I guess.”

Buck management previously had declined to discuss any aspect of Johnson’s hospitalization, but Neviaser, a Madison businessman, told Wisconsin media members Tuesday that Johnson’s drug problem was not the reason he was no longer a Buck.

On the subject of the drug problem, he then added: “It’s true. We tried to hide that. That was not a recent problem. He (Johnson) went through that brief interlude and was OK. I can’t speak for what’s happening now.”

Questioned later, Neviaser couldn’t remember saying the Bucks tried to hide the drug problem. However, Vince Sweeney, sports editor of the Madison Capital Times, said he has the remark on tape. Neviaser’s comments first appeared in Sweeney’s paper.

Neviaser later told a wire service reporter, “We certainly didn’t publicize it (the drug problem).”

When a Times reporter phoned Neviaser at his Wisconsin home Wednesday night, the reporter was asked to identify himself. When he did so, he was told that Neviaser was “unavailable.”

Johnson, averaging 16.4 points a game, has not had a good season, for him, while Cummings (24.1 points) has had an excellent season for the Bucks, who are in first place in the Central Division.