Letters

"You left out Isaiah Rider's prediction at last year's NBA draft that he would win the slam dunk contest at the 1994 All Star Game—which he did."
MICHAEL HOMEWOOD, ANDOVER, MASS.

Bold Predictions
How could you have forgotten former Dallas Cowboy coach Jimmy Johnson in your list of those promising victories in sports (SCORECARD, June 13)? Before the Cowboys demolished the San Francisco 49ers in the 1994 NFC Championship Game, he told a Dallas radio station, "Put it in three-inch headlines, WE WILL WIN."
EUGENE E. JOHNSON, Quanah, Texas

Your list omitted a boast that was significant to people in Pittsburgh. In 1991 the Penguins lost the first two games of the NHL Wales Conference finals to the Boston Bruins, after which Penguin leftwinger Kevin Stevens nevertheless predicted that his team would win the series. The Penguins did just that, winning the next four games to advance to the Stanley Cup finals and, ultimately, the first of their two Stanley Cups.
ANNE-MARIE NELSON, Pittsburgh

What about the Phoenix Suns' 1993 opening-round NBA playoff victory over the Los Angeles Lakers? Sun coach Paul Westphal predicted his team would win, after it had lost the first two games at home, a bold and brilliant prophecy.
SEAN P. MCGIVNEY, Winooski, Vt.

Playing the Fool
The Dallas Cowboys' Nate Newton says, "I look back and see that I was nothing but a fool, a clown" (The Way He Was, June 20). Newton has had four children by four women and a DWI charge [he later pleaded guilty to reckless conduct], and so I wonder who is the fool here, Newton or SI for profiling this man?
MIKE ACHESON, Port Angeles, Wash.

Prozac Perils
Your June 20 SCORECARD describes marathoner Alberto Salazar's use of Prozac to rejuvenate himself physically. Prozac has complex, unpredictable effects on the pituitary gland and endocrine system. As I describe in my book Talking Back to Prozac, cowritten with my wife, Ginger Breggin, Prozac can also act like a stimulant drug, producing an increase in energy-compulsive hyperactivity, insomnia and agitation. It should be banned from sports on the same basis as amphetamines.
PETER R. BREGGIN, M.D., Bethesda, Md.

As an emergency room physician and Ironman competitor, I was appalled by your article. To mix drugs and sports is dangerous, especially drugs like Prozac. I have seen many cases of attempted suicide by people on Prozac, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received more adverse-effects complaints about Prozac from doctors and pharmacists than about any other drug in history. For this reason the drug should be off the market. My congratulations to Salazar on the marathon win, but did he really think he needed a drug to do it?
DAVID MINKOFF, M.D., Clearwater, Fla.

Sportsmanship
While watching the snarls and taunts of the players in this year's NBA Finals, I wondered more than once if the word sportsmanship has relevance any longer in sports. How refreshing it was to read about commissioner Dan Beebe and his sportsmanship policy for the Ohio Valley Conference (SCORECARD, June 27). Although you call it "quaint and impractical," it is to be hoped that other conferences will consider similar initiatives.

But isn't it remarkable that it has become necessary to adopt policies to enforce sportsmanship?
JIM HALSTEAD, Southern Pines, N.C.

Typical 18-Year-Old?
In the story on Jennifer Capriati (Lost Weekend, May 30), S.L. Price painted a picture of a child tennis star who has gone off the deep end. Since when does a person who wants to be "just another 18-year-old" throw 36-hour hotel parties at which the main entertainment is crack cocaine and heroin? Price seems to have pretty low expectations for the rest of the 18-year-olds in this country.
BILL MEAD, Columbus, Ohio

It is sad that we celebrate our mediocrity by reveling in the misfortunes of the gifted. Capriati's professional successes far outweigh her personal failures.
KATHIE ANSLEY, Richmond Hill, Ga.

PHOTO

JOHN W. MCDONOUGH

Rider met his own soaring expectations.

Letters to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED should include the name, address and home telephone number of the writer and should be addressed to The Editor, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y. 10020-1393.