Anyone old enough to remember Magic getting HIV?

[Buckets22]

That November, as a new season was set to open, Magic Johnson announced to the world that he was HIV positive, a stunning event that brought revelations about the climate of sexual frivolity around the Lakers. Johnson admitted he had been sleeping with 300-500 people a year.

https://www.sbnation.com/2010/2/23/1322694/no-johnson-puns-necessary-magic

Damn, he was going for Wilts record

[Joshyjess]

I was already married at the time (so yes, I remember it well). Like others, I thought he would be dead within a couple of months (at the most within a year or two). From what we knew AIDS really was like a death sentence back then - if you got it, you 100% were going to die very soon. Even though Magic was on the "enemy Lakers", I remember feeling very sad about the news. I respected the crap out of him, and the thought of him dying in a few weeks (again, so we thought) really was upsetting.

[Jakay]

Is anyone here old enough to remember Magic getting diagnosed with HIV?

What was the reaction?

Did people think it was a death sentence?

Was the nba world really sad?

Was anyone here alive back then and able to remember the early 90’s? lol

Yes.

I recall I was riding my dinosaur when I heard the news. Tragic. It was sad.

We'd just finished settling the west when news broke. When you only learn of events carried to you by packhorse it's hard to say what the general inclination was, but judgin by the furrowed brow that Tex was sportin, I'd say it was a foul cry raised, one that came from a place of fear. Awful demons in the night if you're not careful. I just made sure to keep the fire lit and the coffee warm for morning.

[Fencer reregistered]

1. Everybody I knew personally or heard of who had the disease was dying.

2. I was aware that knowledge about the disease was improving. I thought he had a good chance of lasting for years, and some chance of totally beating it.

3. Actually, Magic's case was a wake-up call about the dangers to men of heterosexual transmission. I was not always using a condom back then.

[prophet_of_rage]

Is anyone here old enough to remember Magic getting diagnosed with HIV?

What was the reaction?

Did people think it was a death sentence?

Was the nba world really sad?

Yes, they considered it a death sentence and then it became a platform for tolerance. Magic had to retire to try a brief comeback. Karl Malone refused originally to play against him. Rodman said it would be no big deal.

Trainers started wearing gloves.

Sent from my SM-N970W using Tapatalk

[NPZ]

Yes, old enough, yes fan back then. I have the 11/8/91 Lakers at Suns gm where Rambis (a Sun then) gave what sounded like a eulogy at the start of the game, watched it on KCAL9 the night of. By Scott was crying, very sad. I was sad, it was sad. It was thought as a death sentence then because it wasn't common knowledge that there were meds that could be taken that were good enough to combat it even if one had the money, which he did. Apparently there were. From an article I can recall, he takes/took what they call a cocktail (a group of meds) and they change those up every so often so his immune system doesn't get "used" to any one treatment. It took decades before enough people even understood that AIDS is a clinical threshold of HIV infection. It's the point at which a patient has 200 or less of a specific immune cell. He's never reached the AIDS threshold. His viral count is undetectable, which is a thing possible for non-rich folk as well. If he were to stop taking his meds, the virus would probably replicate, but he's in good shape. No one in 91 save for docs thought that kinda thing was possible. He winds up outliving the teen phenom drafted by the Lakers in 96. No one knows what the future holds.....

[NPZ]

Yes- I was a junior in high school.

The eerie thing is I remember saying to my friends a day or 2 before he made his announcement that perhaps he had AIDS because he sat the first 2 games. I was speaking off the top of my head but unfortunately I was right.

It was a very somber day- everybody thought he would die in a few years. I was a big fan of his back then so it was quite sad. Thankfully he is still healthy

You probably said that because he initially was sidelined for the first few games of the 1991/92 RS and the excuse was "viral infection". The Lakers knew what it was obv, and gave him and themselves time to get things in order for the presser/retirement, etc.

[NPZ]

Is anyone here old enough to remember Magic getting diagnosed with HIV?

What was the reaction?

Did people think it was a death sentence?

Was the nba world really sad?

Yes, they considered it a death sentence and then it became a platform for tolerance. Magic had to retire to try a brief comeback. Karl Malone refused originally to play against him. Rodman said it would be no big deal.

Trainers started wearing gloves.

Furor over his attempted comeback in 1992/93, was that in the 8th preseason game, he got cut and Lakers trainer Gary Vitti, deliberately chose NOT to wear gloves while treating it to show that contracting it even w/o gloves in that way was a minor worry. That plan backfired in a big way. Media got Karl Malone into it and that was that. Even before that, Magic was set to play an amended schedule with a minimum of back-to-backs. He looked excellent in the preseason, however. Was a shame and I'm not convinced that Karl Malone really feared for his health more than he feared playing a once-again competent Lakers in the playoffs. He was just as likely to collide and trade blood with Magic as a teammate in Barcelona than as an opponent in Utah. You're not guaranteed only to bump into your opponents in the sport of basketball.

Watch on YouTube

;t=255s

[NPZ]

I was young enough so that I was getting confused about 'AIDS' the disease and the diet candy 'Ayds' that used to be advertised on radio. Talk about unfortunate branding!

Once it got through my thick head, I just thought of Magic as a cool guy and I was sad to hear about it. He's a living legend, not just for his play but for showing the nation that the disease is survivable.

It's like Corona beer.

[Capn'O]

He winds up outliving the teen phenom drafted by the Lakers in 96. No one knows what the future holds.....

Damn. Ain't that the truth...

[Capn'O]

He winds up outliving the teen phenom drafted by the Lakers in 96. No one knows what the future holds.....

Damn. Ain't that the truth...

How did I miss that he turned 60 last year. Iirc, at that point there was some inclination that the drug cocktail could stave off death for a few years but I doubt any but a few of the most
optimistic in the medical field would have thought he could still be alive. Nobody would have put money on it.

[dautjazz]

I was in elementary school, and barely into basketball at the time, really probably just played with kids in the neighborhood at the time, but yeah I knew who MJ, Magic, and Bird were for sure, maybe a few more players. With as young as I was, l can tell you everybody was talking about it.

[JohnnyKILLroy]

I was in junior high Huntington Beach California.

We had 2 basketball die hard Laker fans in our class, these girls were basketball nuts.

They ran up and down the hallways crying and yelling about it while class was in session. They were crying so hard.

I’ll never forget that day.

[jojo4341]

I was in the 6th grade. I remember being picked up from school and my mom had to stop by Thrifty. I still remember hearing Magic Johnson speaking over the PA/radio by the sound of his voice but couldn't make out exactly what he was saying. When I got home and I saw the news, I was shocked. He was and still is my favorite player of all time...not to mention living in LA. Back then, as people mentioned, HIV and AIDS were kind of thought as the same thing and you usually had 2 years left to live. I really thought the Lakers would get back to the finals as they just added Sedale Threatt as a backup PG.

[The Rodzilla]

yes it was a death sentence, this ad scared me as a kid ffs

Watch on YouTube

[Triples333]

He winds up outliving the teen phenom drafted by the Lakers in 96. No one knows what the future holds.....

Damn. Ain't that the truth...

How did I miss that he turned 60 last year. Iirc, at that point there was some inclination that the drug cocktail could stave off death for a few years but I doubt any but a few of the most
optimistic in the medical field would have thought he could still be alive. Nobody would have put money on it.

Nowadays HIV is not even considered a fatal disease. +1 for science.

[gavran]

I'm sure the girl who gave it to him does.

[Doctor MJ]

Is anyone here old enough to remember Magic getting diagnosed with HIV?

What was the reaction?

Did people think it was a death sentence?

Was the nba world really sad?

Yup. I grew up playing basketball on playgrounds in LA during the '80s. I tried to get the nickname "Magic" because my last name was Johnson, but every kid wanted to be Magic so only the best kid got the nickname (he also had a connection to the Lakers and got to be in the locker room during one of the post-finals celebrations - he was also 6 feet tall in 5th grade and super athletic, we thought he'd play in the NBA, but he never grew another inch - while I would grow another 21 inches and end up actually being Magic's height by the time I graduated college. He'd have been in the NBA at my height, and I'd have taken the game more seriously had I had any idea how tall I'd grow).

On the day it was announced, it didn't feel like a death sentence, it felt like Magic was already dead. When he spoke, it felt like we were hearing the last words of a ghost. It was an utter shock, and it was the first time someone I knew of anyone - public figure or otherwise - that I cared about would be diagnosed with the disease.

I think the NBA at that moment was actually more panicked than sad. A bit like Gobert with the COVID test. The NBA was known for sleeping with different women in every town to a degree even beyond other athletes. If one of these guys was getting it, maybe a lot of them have it! But once it turned out that it was just Magic, the panic fell off, and the individual tragedy of Magic took a more empathetic route.

Then there was the whole situation with Karl Malone acknowledging he wasn't so sure about playing in a game against an HIV Positive player. Malone's a simple man with some non-progressive ideas I don't want to defend, but I always had a lot of sympathy for Malone here. A doctor can tell these players that the odds of transmission by playing are so low not to worry about it, but these guys have to play without hesitation, and information about AIDS had been radically changing in the years leading up to this. Understandable if players had safety concerns that were not easily addressed.

EDIT: Incidentally, since I was one of the best kids on the playground but not the best, I still got to grab one of the choice superstar/player/nicknames. I was referred to as "Doctor J" or "Doc". There was also a Jordan, but it's telling that this was still a time and place where Magic was King, and Jordan wasn't seen as clearly better than Julius.

[Doctor MJ]

I was in the 6th grade. I remember being picked up from school and my mom had to stop by Thrifty. I still remember hearing Magic Johnson speaking over the PA/radio by the sound of his voice but couldn't make out exactly what he was saying. When I got home and I saw the news, I was shocked. He was and still is my favorite player of all time...not to mention living in LA. Back then, as people mentioned, HIV and AIDS were kind of thought as the same thing and you usually had 2 years left to live. I really thought the Lakers would get back to the finals as they just added Sedale Threatt as a backup PG.

Yup, I was in middle school and heard about it in the parking lot after school as we waited for parents to pick us up. Word came from the car radios.

[Doctor MJ]

That November, as a new season was set to open, Magic Johnson announced to the world that he was HIV positive, a stunning event that brought revelations about the climate of sexual frivolity around the Lakers. Johnson admitted he had been sleeping with 300-500 people a year.

https://www.sbnation.com/2010/2/23/1322694/no-johnson-puns-necessary-magic

Damn, he was going for Wilts record

The irony is that Wilt's close friends say that the forever bachelor literally could have slept with 20K women if he'd wanted to, but mostly preferred to be by himself, making this a classic tall tale.

Magic on the other hand was married at the time of his diagnosis and had not been looking to brag about how many other women he was sleeping with until people started calling him gay. Whether Magic was in fact bi, the thing about Magic was that he was basically the perfect extraverted, high value man. It's quite easy to imagine him being a heterosexual sex addict because the socializing would have come so naturally to him, and male groupies wouldn't have been able to gather at the team's hotel the same way.