On This Date: Magic Johnson Announces He Has HIV (Nov. 7, 1991)
On Nov. 7, 1991, Magic Johnson told the world he had tested positive for HIV and was retiring from the Lakers. He said he planned to live a long time.
Magic Johnson won 5 NBA titles and 3 MVP awards, and he’s one of the 10 or so best players who ever lived. The most important thing he ever did happened at a press conference.
On Nov. 7, 1991, at the Forum in Inglewood, California, Johnson told the world he had tested positive for HIV and was retiring from the Los Angeles Lakers, effective immediately.
The Physical
Johnson was 32. He had led the Lakers to the NBA Finals 5 months earlier and had gotten married in September.
Before the 1991-92 season, he took a routine physical, and the test came back positive. He sat out the first 3 games of the season, and the Lakers said he had flu-like symptoms.
The Press Conference
In 1991, HIV was widely seen as a death sentence. Most people thought of it as a disease of gay men and drug users, not of famous, married athletes. Nobody that famous had ever said it out loud.
Johnson walked up to the podium in a suit and said it.
“Because of the HIV virus I have attained, I will have to announce my retirement from the Lakers today,” he said, at the Forum, where he’d played for 12 seasons.
He said his wife, Cookie, was pregnant and that she and the baby had tested negative. He said he wasn’t going to hide. “It can happen to anybody,” he said. “I plan on going on, living for a long time.” He promised to become “a spokesman for the HIV virus.”
The Reaction
The news stopped the country. TV networks broke into regular programming. In New York that night, Pat Riley, his old coach, now with the Knicks, took the microphone at Madison Square Garden and led the crowd and both teams in the Lord’s Prayer. President George H.W. Bush called Johnson “a hero for anyone who loves sports.” Calls to AIDS hotlines jumped across the country, and so did the number of people getting tested.
Not Done Yet
He didn’t stay retired. Fans voted him into the 1992 All-Star Game anyway, and he scored 25 points and won the MVP. That summer he played on the Dream Team in Barcelona and won a gold medal.
A comeback with the Lakers that fall fell apart when some players said they were afraid of playing against him. He finally came back for 32 games in 1996, at 36, and then retired for good.
35 Years Later
Johnson is 67 now. He became one of the most successful businessmen in sports, with stakes in the Dodgers, the Sparks and the Washington Commanders.
When he said he planned on living for a long time, almost nobody believed him. He was right.
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