In a latest interview with the BBC’s Katty Kay, NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson recalled his journey with HIV after saying his analysis in 1991.
“Everything was going well, and then this devastating news comes,” Johnson instructed Kay. On the time, Johnson was a star participant on the Los Angeles Lakers, main the workforce to 5 championship wins between 1980 and 1988.
Johnson shared with Kay the recommendation his physician gave him: Be constructive and settle for you should have HIV for the remainder of your life; take your drugs day-after-day; and train. “Do those three things, you give yourself a chance,” he recalled being instructed.
Johnson, now 64, had simply married to Cookie Johnson, who was pregnant on the time, two months earlier than saying his HIV analysis, Kay identified within the interview.
“The longest ride I ever had in my life was going home to tell Cookie I had HIV,” Johnson stated. She slapped his face when he instructed her, however assured him that they’d work by means of it collectively.
His analysis not solely threatened his private life, however his profession, too. The 1992 NBA All-Star Recreation and Barcelona Olympics have been approaching—in the meantime, gamers didn’t need to be on the court docket with Johnson, he stated. They feared getting HIV, too, as stigma and misinformation across the illness and its transmission remained excessive within the early Nineteen Nineties.
The late David Stern, former commissioner of the NBA, helped change Johnson’s trajectory. Stern’s resolution to permit Johnson to play within the 1992 All-Star recreation proved that being round an HIV constructive individual was secure—and that Johnson was nonetheless on the high of his recreation.
Stern’s resolution “not only changed the basketball players’ minds, it changed the world,” Johnson instructed Kay.
Stern’s help for Johnson’s profession continued into the 1992 Olympics, the place he personally picked Johnson to be on the workforce of 10 representing Staff USA, he instructed Kay.
“When I got that call, that I was one of the guys to play, I was screaming and hollering,” Johnson stated within the interview. “It was the greatest moment of my life, especially having come off retirement and HIV [diagnosis]. It was such a great honor to represent my country, the Lakers, my family.”
That ‘Dream Team,’ because it was known as, would go on to dominate the Olympics, going undefeated to win gold.
However whereas Johnson was driving the excessive of the Video games, he struggled financially. Skilled athletes usually rely upon sponsorships to make a residing, and after sharing his analysis, a number of sponsors dropped him, he stated.
Johnson didn’t remorse going public along with his analysis, although. “I felt good about it,” he instructed Kay. “I wanted to help people.”
He met with individuals who had been identified with HIV and have been afraid to share the information, whereas educating others who might concerning the situation.
In 1991, Johnson based the Magic Johnson Basis, whose mission consists of creating applications that help AIDS/HIV consciousness, therapy and prevention.
“I was on a mission,” Johnson stated.
Johnson has turn into a central voice in destigmatizing HIV and AIDS. Kay stated that she known as Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Ailments. He instructed her that “Johnson did more than almost anyone to lift the stigma” round AIDS.
