Former NBA player confused with another in crime story

Former NBA player Eddie Johnson was recently mistaken in some media reports for another Eddie Johnson, a retired 10-year NBA player from Florida who was recently arrested and charged with sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl.

The non-accused Eddie Johnson is a former Illinois star who went on to a 17-year career with the Kings, Suns, Rockets and other teams. But when some news stories about the alleged crime included his bio information and file photo linked on the Internet, his phone started ringing.

"The thing that disappointed me the most is some people were overzealous enough to think it was me and attack me with a ferocity I can't comprehend."

Edward "Fast Eddie" Johnson, Jr., the one who is held in a Florida jail on sexual battery and burglary charges, is a 6-foot-2, two-time NBA All-Star who played most of his career in Atlanta. An Auburn alum, he retired in 1987 and is 51.

Meanwhile, in a haste to make deadline, the Chicago Tribune newspaper ran erroneous information that implicated the wrong Johnson. The publication apologized the next day:

"We made an inadvertent but hurtful error in an effort to get as much news as possible into [the] final edition of the Tribune sports section, and we would like to apologize to Eddie Johnson, his family and friends, and our readers.

"In Chicago, former NBA star Eddie Johnson means Eddie Johnson, 47, a 6-foot-7-inch forward from Westinghouse High School and the University of Illinois, the Eddie Johnson who went on to a 17-year pro career with seven NBA teams. The Eddie Johnson who was distinguished as much by good citizenship and charity work as by 19,202 career points, a 16-point scoring average and the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year Award he won with the Phoenix Suns in 1988-89," the newspaper stated.

"Again, we apologize."