[Hpn] Seattle, WA - From Riches To Rags: A man who had it all - KOMO 4 TV News - November 7, 2002

[Editor]

>From Riches To Rags

A man who had it all -- even helping the Bullets to the NBA
Championship over the Sonics in 1978 -- has now reached 
rock bottom on the streets of Seattle.
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By John Sharify - KOMO 4 TV News - November 7, 2002

SEATTLE - Walk the streets, talk to the people who live here --
the homeless -- and you'll see everyone has a story.

Maggie is manic-depressive and went to jail for beating up a
stranger. Clarence wants to keep his story to himself.

"I imagine you got a great story. A great story," says Maggie to
a man who towers over her. His name is Joe Pace. He stands 6 feet
11 inches tall.

And yes, he has quite a story.

Joe Pace should be wearing a ring. But he sold it at a pawn shop
for $500. It's the ring he earned for playing on the NBA Champion
Washington Bullets, the team that beat the Seattle Supersonics in
the NBA Finals in 1978.

Joe Pace played back up center for two years. His team won it
all. He had it all.

The Bullets drafted the big man in the second round after Pace
led his college team, Coppin State, to a National Championship in
the NAIA. Pace scored 43 points in that final game.

"When you reach the top and slide down the mountain, nobody going
to pick you up and try to get you back up there," says Joe Pace.

Nearly 25 years later, Pace doesn't have a dime to call his own.
Drugs, booze, and excuses have kept him down. He knows it.

"This is a bad dream," says Pace, who now calls the streets of
Seattle home. 

He'd been homeless in Atlanta, Baltimore and Washington D.C.
Last spring he hopped on a bus and traveled across the country.

"I figured I'd give Seattle a try. After all we beat Seattle in
1978," says Pace.

Joe Pace never thought his life would take such a sharp turn.
That at 48 years of age, he'd still be living on the streets,
sleeping on a bench, sleeping sitting up.

"They pee a lot here and it smells over here. It smells, so I
just stay on the chair, " says Pace who never made more than
$60,000 a year as a pro, and made much less than that when he
played abroad in the 80's. 

For the past 12 years Joe Pace has been homeless.

I first met Joe six months ago. Joe told me he was clean and
sober. This homeless man, who'd been so desperate, praying he
wouldn't die on the streets.

"I almost gave up 3 or 4 times," he says. "Thoughts were on my
mind, but I didn't do it. They say when you die, you go to hell.
This is hell to me. My whole life is flipped and I went to the bottom."

There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't hear from Joe.

He'd leave me messages on my voice mail.

"Things ain't looking too good. Yep," his voice echoed. Joe made
sure I knew where he was, what he was thinking. "I was just kind
of upset because I slept outside for about 2 days on the bench up
the Market Place."

Then one day, I heard nothing.

Where was he? Days went by. Still nothing. And then: " Yeah John
this Joe Pace,"-- a message on my voice mail. "Yeah, I'm in the
hospital where they can check on me."

He'd almost died. Joe checked himself into a drug treatment
center. At least he was off the streets, a roof over his head.

"It's like a 5 star hotel. You don't have to worry about the rats
messing with you," he said from his room at the treatment center
in Seattle.

He's safe for now. Joe had almost died consuming in one night: 2
six-packs of beer, a bottle of gin, and crack. He'd hit rock bottom.

"My heart was going to jump out of my chest," he confesses.

And now, Joe wants another shot at life. This former NBA
champion, with no ring to prove it, a man who had it all and
threw it all away.

"What if I pick up a drink? I won't do it. I won't do it," he says.

I want to believe him.

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Video : KOMO 4 NEWS A man who had it all -- even helping the
Bullets to the NBA Championship over the Sonics in 1978 -- has
now reached rock bottom on the streets of Seattle.

Watch Video 'http://www.komotv.com/news/qtmovie.asp?ID=21258', 'skillswin'
(Video requires the use of the free QuickTime Player.)


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source page:  http://www.komotv.com/stories/21258.htm

Homeless Daily News - H. C. Covington, Editor
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