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Other Eddie Johnson: 'Devastating' Day By EDDIE PELLS, AP National Writer Thursday, August 10, 2006 ( 08-10) 15:36 PDT (AP) -- Eddie Johnson continues to be recovering from what he calls the worst time of his life. Being an all-around great man who likes to use kids. he scratched his solution of the Cabrini-Green housing venture in Chicago, designed a productive and long NBA profession, made that in to a chance on TV and developed a reputation His worst clean with what the law states concerned a few traffic tickets. Now he's coping with an incident of mistaken identity that surprised him and his buddies and, he fears, might have completely sullied his reputation. "Devastating. Difficult to explain," Johnson said Thursday. Eddie Johnson was mistaken in certain press accounts for another Eddie Johnson an outdated 10-year NBA participant from Florida who was caught Tuesday evening and charged with sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl. The Eddie Johnson who'd nothing to complete with that gruesome accusation is just a former Illinois star who continued to a 17-year job with the Suns, Kings, Rockets and other groups. Nevertheless when some press stories concerning the so-called offense involved his biography data and document picture connected on the web, his telephone began ringing. "The factor that disappointed me the absolute most is many people were overzealous enough to consider it had been me and strike me with a vitality I can't comprehend," Johnson said in a phone interview from his house in Phoenix. "That may be the part that didn't let me sleep yesterday. That's the part that pushed me to achieve out to as many folks when I can and say `Shame you, that's not me.'" Edward Arnet Johnson is 6-foot-8, does shade commentary on Suns telecasts throughout the period, provides inspirational messages and operates baseball centers for youths. He's a DVD that teaches kiddies just how to take the jumper. He retired from the NBA in 1999 and is 47. "He named me really angry about it," mentioned Charles Barkley, a teammate of Johnson's, who desired to help him set the record straight. "It is just a difficult situation. He was on holiday in Hawaii. He gets straight back and the very first thing he knows, he's coping with this. And he's this type of good guy. It's a regrettable situation." Edward "Fast Eddie" Johnson, Jr. the main one being kept in a Florida prison on theft charges and sexual battery is just a 6-foot-2, two-time NBA All-Star who performed the majority of his profession in Atlanta. An Auburn alum, he retired in 1987 and is 51. "I feel terrible for Eddie Johnson of Phoenix and I feel truly poorly for Eddie Johnson of Auburn, because his life never was never got by him together," Barkley said. When Eddie Johnson of Phoenix was still enjoying and Eddie Johnson of Auburn was outdated and engaging in frequent trouble with what the law states, there was little challenge distinguishing between your two. "There'd be considered a news story about Eddie Johnson, however they believed it was not me, since I was on the court and in the package score," mentioned Eddie Johnson of Phoenix. Now that they're both from the game and particularly throughout the offseason, when Johnson isn't on TV the probabilities are greater for a misconception such as the one that happened this week. his goal was said by Eddie Johnson Phoenix Thursday and for the following several days was to obtain the term out about who he truly is and is not. "My name is everything," he explained. "I don't fault another Eddie Johnson for having that title. I believe it's an excellent name. He only doesn't are actually an excellent guy." ___ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...s153618D71.DTL