All Victor's Children

His memory of his first soap opera is as indelible as soap-opera lipstick: "One day when I was about 30, my first wife told me, 'Tom died.' I said, 'Who?' She said, 'Tom.' I said, 'How long have you known him?' She said, 'He's on my soap.' I said, 'Oh' and pulled up a chair. The next day I was back in front of the set. I wanted to know what happened next."

Gibson tries to keep up with Y&R when the Cards are out of town, but when that's not possible he enlists his second wife, Wendy, to watch for him. "I call home to ask if Victor has left Hope yet," Gibson reports. "I couldn't see him staying with her to begin with. With Hope being blind, Victor thought he could control her. He's finding out it's not that way and starting to reach back to his ex-wife Nikki. As self-assured as Victor is, he's insecure about Hope." Last Christmas, Wendy bought her husband a portable television for his car. "Reception's a problem," he says. "Makes me nuts."

That and Victor's teenage son, Nicholas. "How could Nick send his girlfriend a $500 coat and not tell her it was from him?" Gibson sputters. "If Victor cares about you, you'll hear about it and very soon! What the hell could Nick have been thinking? Teenagers! Puppy love! Drives me up a——wall."

Gibson shakes his head like a pitcher who's just walked the bases loaded. "I don't know," he says. "Some of that stuff just isn't real."

"Victor Newman is the height of swa-vay!" says cruiserweight boxer Thomas Hearns. "He got it going, and what's going he gets done. I like how smoothly he talks, and how he squashes people in a sneaky way. I once saw him driving around Los Angeles. I was in a Rolls with darkened windows, and I had the driver pull my car over next to his. Pulled up besides Victor Newman! Rolled down the window and said, 'Victor! My man! Anytime you have trouble with those beautiful women, you give me a call.'

"I only get to see him on TV. I watch him two, three times a week, except when I'm in training. Can't watch him then. He's got way too much going on. I can't concentrate on what's going on with me. Victor won't let me concentrate. Women can rob you of your concentration too. They can make you do things you had no intention of doing. Victor's the same kind of treacherous. Which is why, when it comes to training, I don't have no Victor.

"Tommy Hearns has got it goin' on in boxing. But in soaps, Victor's got it goin' on. Get in his way and it's all over. We approach women, business, life the same sort of way—like cobras. Before I became the Hit Man, I was the Cobra. I pass that torch on to Victor. I just wish he could pass the smooth and the swa-vay on to me."

"Victor Newman," says Sam Cassell. "Vic-tor Newman. Vic-tor Newman. Victor New-man."

On the final day of the Houston Rockets' regular season, the point guard repeats this pregame mantra to his locker room cubby. "Sam!" says teammate Vernon Maxwell. "You know about Victor?"

"Who don't know about Victor?" says Cassell. "He's the man. The Victor Newman. Victor is cold."