Andre Agassi & Crystal Meth

“There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness. Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I’ve never felt so alive, so hopeful – and I’ve never felt such energy.” Andre Agassi on his first taste of crystal meth.

Yes, tennis legend Andre Agassi admits in his forthcoming book ‘Open: An Autobiography’ that he used crystal meth during his playing career…Excerpts from the book are surfacing quicker than nude photos of Tom Brady would…Agassi, referencing an assistant by the name of Slim, writes:

“Slim is stressed too … He says, You want to get high with me? On what? Gack. What the hell’s gack? Crystal meth. Why do they call it gack? Because that’s the sound you make when you’re high … Make you feel like Superman, dude…As if they’re coming out of someone else’s mouth, I hear these words: You know what? Fuck it. Yeah. Let’s get high…Slim dumps a small pile of powder on the coffee table. He cuts it, snorts it. He cuts it again. I snort some. I ease back on the couch and consider the Rubicon I’ve just crossed…There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness. Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I’ve never felt so alive, so hopeful – and I’ve never felt such energy…I’m seized by a desperate desire to clean. I go tearing around my house, cleaning it from top to bottom. I dust the furniture. I scour the tub. I make the beds.”

More from the book when Agassi received a call from a doctor working for the ATP, telling him he had tested positive for drugs:

“There is doom in his voice, as if he’s going to tell me I’m dying…And that’s exactly what he tells me.  He reminds me that tennis has three classes of drug violation…Performance-enhancing drugs would constitute a class 1, he says, which would carry a suspension of two years. However, he adds, crystal meth would seem to be a clear case of class 2. Recreational drugs, that would carry a much lower suspension of three months. Agassi goes on to tell how he continually lied to the ATP: My name, my career, everything is now on the line. Whatever I’ve achieved, whatever I’ve worked for, might soon mean nothing. Days later I sit in a hard-backed chair, a legal pad in my lap, and write a letter to the ATP. It’s filled with lies interwoven with bits of truth…I say Slim, whom I’ve since fired, is a known drug user, and that he often spikes his sodas with meth – which is true. Then I come to the central lie of the letter. I say that recently I drank accidentally from one of Slim’s spiked sodas, unwittingly ingesting his drugs. I ask for understanding and leniency and hastily sign it: sincerely. “

The ATP accepted Agassi’s version of events and the rest, as they say, is history…and I, for one, am on the fence about this whole ‘admission’ thing…why now? Is Andre that afraid that his book would sit on the shelf collecting dust without some sort of ‘oh god no’ moment? He certainly doesn’t need the money…was he fearful that a toothless tweeked out Slim would resurface after publication and claim Agassi didn’t fully disclose everything? And why in the world would you admit to biting the ATP hand that fed you all those years? Dear god, is the next excerpt going to be about you doing lines off Brooke Shields bum…come on Andre, what are you DOING? After spending years to establish your Foundation one of the most respected and successful events EVER, I can only hope you grab on to the backlash headed your way and send some hefty donations to various drug-recovery programs across the nation…

As always, thanks for reading. Delinda@athlebrities.com