Columnist Dean Juipe: Tyson misled NSAC at 1998 hearing

Dean Juipe

Monday, Jan. 28, 2002 | 9:21 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

In a story that I wrote that appeared in this newspaper and was dated 10-20-98, Mike Tyson emerged from a licensing hearing in front of the Nevada State Athletic Commission and pledged to become a new man.

He was contrite and apologetic and committed to getting the kind of help he so badly needed.

Magic Johnson appeared on his behalf and so did Muhammad Ali, whose wife, Lonnie, read a proverb into the official record. "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear," she read, implying that Tyson would begin receiving advice and counsel from Ali.

Johnson, too, was anxious to help out and was making himself available to Tyson as a financial adviser. "Money management, that's what I'm bringing to Team Tyson," he told the commission.

Also on hand was a psychological report and a five-person entourage from Massachusets General Hospital, which had evaluated Tyson by the commission's request. A program had been laid out for Tyson to follow, with Dr. Richard Goldberg among those advocating that Tyson be licensed with the proviso that he commit himself to receiving therapy on a regular basis.

"Please let me go to therapy," Tyson said, almost boyishly, to the panelists before him. "I would love to go through therapy."

Moments later the commission voted by a 4-1 margin to grant Tyson a license, even though he had physically assaulted Evander Holyfield in the ring 16 months earlier and even though he had an assault charge related to a traffic incident in Maryland pending.

"A great day, a fantastic day," Johnson proclaimed as the Tyson entourage left the hearing that afternoon.

Need I come back to reality here and state the obvious? After regaining his license Tyson never sought out Ali, never took Magic up on his offer and never, to the best of our knowledge, began the therapy sessions that potentially could have improved his life.

Now he's back before the NSAC on Tuesday not only no better off mentally or financially than he was in 1998, but all the more worse for wear. Since that last hearing he was convicted in Maryland; he tested positive for drugs after a fight in Michigan; he was accused by three women of sexual assault in separate incidents, the most recent of which has Las Vegas Metro Police recommending that the district attorney indict him for rape; he has traveled illegally to Cuba and caused a minor disturbance there; and, last week at a press conference with heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis in New York, he sparked a melee that left both he and Lewis bleeding and required another man to be hospitalized.

It would seem as if the present commission has no choice but to deny Tyson a license, and any other course of action it chooses will only result in a cavalcade of critical remarks being directed Nevada's way.

The notion of granting him a "conditional" license has its legal drawbacks and any postponement of the issue -- be it for "further study" or for still another psychological evaluation -- should not be seriously considered.

The NSAC needs to resolve this item and do it conclusively. It can neither postpone nor delay a decision.

It can also look back on what happened at the '98 hearing to realize it was fooled that day and that it cannot let the same thing happen again.