Former hoops star indicted

Former basketball star Ron Mercer has been indicted by the Davidson County grand jury on charges stemming from an alleged fight last year at Anthony’s Show Place, a downtown strip club.

Mercer, 31, is charged with misdemeanor assault. His friend, Robert Johnson, 34, was also involved and is charged with assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly stabbing a security guard.

Both surrendered to police last July.

Their cases will now move to Davidson County criminal court.

During Mercer’s preliminary hearing in October 2007, two guards testified that the former basketball star and his friend attacked them outside the club after one guard asked them to leave.

In the early 1990’s, Mercer, then a student at Goodpasture Christian School, became one of the most heralded high school athletes ever to come out of Nashville.

He was an all-American and all-Southeastern Conference player at the University of Kentucky before he was chosen by the Boston Celtics with the sixth pick in the 1997 NBA Draft.