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Sicignano's testimony was the first linking pro athletes to allegations that Gold Club owners provided sexual favors

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The owner of an Atlanta strip club paid dancers to have sex with with professional athletes to lure other celebrities to the club, a former manager testified Friday.

The account by Thomas "Ziggy" Sicignano came in the federal racketeering trial of Gold Club owner Steve Kaplan and six club associates. It was the first testimony linking professional athletes and sex at the Atlanta nightspot.

Prosecutors say Kaplan turned the club into a brothel, overbilled customers' credit cards and used his gains to pay off the Gambino crime family. Sicignano said the practice of paying dancers for sex led to what Kaplan referred to as the "Studio 54 effect," after the New York City nightclub that was a favorite haunt of celebrities in the late 1970s.

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Sicignano entered a plea agreement this week in which he admitted failing to turn over information about a crime to the government, a felony.

Sicignano said Kaplan got the idea of offering sex to sports figures in 1994, when he overheard a conversation between Sicignano and basketball player Larry Johnson, then a member of the Charlotte Hornets. According to Sicignano's testimony, Johnson approached him at the club one night and asked whether he could set him up with a girl or have one sent to his hotel room that night.

Sicignano said he refused the request, but was reproached afterwards by Kaplan.

"Do you see how he was begging? He's begging you, and he's a celebrity. This is the way we have to go," Sicignano said Kaplan told him.

The club manager said he interpreted that to mean he should have arranged for a dancer to provide Johnson with sexual favors.

Sicignano testified that the first time he knew such arrangements were made was when former New York Knick John Starks -- one of Kaplan's favorite sports figures -- visited the club. Afterward, Kaplan told Sicignano he had sent three women to Starks' hotel room, the former manager said.

Sicignano said an entertainer, whom he identified only as Vickie, told him and Kaplan in a later conversation that the three performed lesbian oral sex acts and that she had intercourse with Starks. Sicignano testified Kaplan told him that he "had taken care of the girls."

Testimony and cross-examination are expected to last well into next week.

CNN Producer Henry Schuster contributed to this report.