Along with Ryan White, the teenage boy who fought the disease for himself and others, Magic changes the face of AIDS. No longer is it presumed to be a promiscuous gay man: It could be any of us, even a straight, world-famous multi-millionaire athlete.
The announcement also makes fellow Los Angeles Laker legend Wilt Chamberlain's recently-published book, Wilt: A View From Above, containing a claim about 20,000 women, one of the most ill-timed books ever.
The next day, Magic appears on The Arsenio Hall Show, to further explain, because he doesn't want anyone else to have to go through what he's going through.
A few weeks later, Magic appears in an Ancient Egypt-themed scene in the video for Michael Jackson's song "Remember the Time." Eddie Murphy plays the Pharoah. And Eddie's pal Arsenio says, "I hope Magic lives a long time, so, someday, we can go up to him, and say, 'Hey, Magic: Remember the Time?'"
It wasn't the only way we dealt with it through laughter: People joked that Magic was the only man who had HIV and gained weight.
In a column for Sports Illustrated in November 1999, Rick Reilly mentioned 4 men who had died in the calendar year: An 84-year-old baseball player, from lung cancer; a 63-year-old basketball player, from heart disease; a 46-year-old football player, from a rare liver disease; and a 42-year-old golfer, in a plane crash: "Joe DiMaggio is dead. Wilt Chamberlain is dead. Walter Payton is dead. Payne Stewart is dead. And Magic Johnson is alive."
It has been more than 30 years. A lot of progress has been made in preventing, and treating HIV and AIDS. Many people diagnosed with HIV in the 1980s are still alive.
Magic Johnson is alive, one of the richest men in the world, the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the operational part-owner of the Los Angeles Lakers. This means that he can tell both LeBron James and Clayton Kershaw to call him "Boss." It also means that he owned 2 World Championship-winning teams between October 27, 2020, when the Dodgers won the World Series, and July 20, 2021, when the Milwaukee Bucks succeeded the Lakers as NBA Champions.
Magic Johnson is alive... and Michael Jackson is dead. Not from AIDS.
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November 7, 1991 was a Thursday. The baseball season was over. It was midweek for football. There were 5 games played in the NBA that day. The Lakers were not in any of them:
* The New York Knicks beat the Orlando Magic, 128-100 at Madison Square Garden. John Starks did not start the game, but still led all scorers with 30 points.
* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Miami Heat, 111-89 at the Meadowlands.
* The Houston Rockets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 105-86 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")
* The Denver Nuggets beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 88-77 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.
* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Utah Jazz, 103-95 at the new Delta Center in Salt Lake City.
There were 5 games played in the National Hockey League:
* The Boston Bruins and the Calgary Flames played to a tie, 4-4 at the Boston Garden.
* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.
* The Detroit Red Wings beat the St. Louis Blues, 10-3 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Paul Ysebaert, Shawn Burr, Jimmy Carson and Nicklas Lidstrom each scored 2 goals for the Wings, and Brett Hull did so for the Blues.
* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Quebec Nordiques, 4-2 at the Chicago Stadium.
* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.
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