Ice T on his friendship with Mike Tyson

Ice T wrote about his friendship with Mike Tyson for The Daily Beast. Tyson is, of course, the subject of the excellent new documentary Tyson.

See, I am one of those people that when Mike was really winning, he was my hero. What bothers me are the people that dropped him when he had hard times, and walked away from him, not even remembering what he meant to them. I don’t like that part of society, where they just leave you when you lose. When Mike was in prison, he says that he felt that people wanted him to get out so he could fight, but not just so he could be free. It’s like when I’ve been down, and people would say “Ice, can you get back up to entertain us?” And I didn’t know if anyone cared about me at all as a person, or just wanted me to get back up and entertain.

Say what you will about Mike Tyson, but as a guy who grew up in the 80′s, I can think of no other athlete, aside from Michael Jordan, who became more of a household name. Love him or hate him, Tyson is the one guy no one would ever want to fight. And when someone did step in the ring with him, it was utterly captivating.

My Friend Iron Mike – The Daily Beast