Cocaine Didn’t Kill Celts Star

Doctors who reviewed the case of Reggie Lewis have concluded the Boston Celtics captain did not die from cocaine use, according to the state’s chief medical examiner.

“Reggie Lewis’ death was not caused by cocaine ingestion, nor was the damage to the heart at all typical of that known to be caused by cocaine usage,” Dr. Richard Evans, who oversaw the review of his department’s controversial finding, said Tuesday in Boston.

Authorities stopped short of saying Lewis never used drugs.

Lewis died July 27, 1993, after he collapsed while shooting baskets. Recent reports have questioned whether drug use weakened his heart, contrary to the public finding of the medical examiner.

Evans said Lewis died when several different problems caused his heart to beat irregularly, the same finding that was on his death certificate. Evans gave three other medical conditions leading to the defect in addition to the adenovirus listed prominently on the death certificate, including cardiac hypertrophy, or the enlargement of the heart.

“There’s only so much space on the death certificate,” Evans said when asked why adenovirus, a virus that causes the common cold, originally was given as the principal reason Lewis’ heart was flawed. The other causes were included less conspicuously.

Officials said there were no plans to change the death certificate.

Police acting on a tip raided the bedroom of a Melrose, Mass., teenager and found - in plain view - the stolen green-and-white banner bearing the retired number of Reggie Lewis.

The boy was not at home, but his apparently stunned father let in the police. A half-hour later, police said, the banner was on its way back to Boston Garden, where it had been raised to the rafters last week.

Houston Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon has anemia and likely will miss the next two games for the defending NBA champions.

Steve George, the Portland Trail Blazers fan punched in the face by Houston’s Vernon Maxwell during a Feb. 7 game, filed a $4.5 million lawsuit against Maxwell and the Rockets.

After reviewing videotape of the incident and other evidence, the NBA suspended Maxwell for 10 games without pay and fined him $20,000.