"Because of the HIV virus that I have obtained, I will have to retire from the Lakers, today," the then-32-year-old told a hushed press conference in Los Angeles on November 7, 1991.
The Los Angeles Lakers point guard added in the next breath that he did not have AIDS, but HIV. This had been confirmed by Dr. Michael Mellman just before that press conference. HIV, or human immunodeficiency viruses, can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), which has fatal consequences.
The Lakers had instructed Johnson to return to Los Angeles from a pre-season game in Utah so that the team doctor could give him the bad news in person.
"At the very first, when he first announced it to me, I thought: 'Oh, man, I am going to die. I think it's over.' And he said: 'No, no, it's not like that.'" Johnson later recalled in an interview with US public broadcaster PBS.
Mellman reassured him that if he took his medication, he could go on to live a long life.
A shock on par with Kennedy's assassination
At the time, becoming infected with HIV was generally regarded as a death sentence, which is why Johnson's press conference came as such a shock. Some Americans compared it to the way they felt when learning of President John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963 or Richard Nixon's resignation over the Watergate scandal in 1974.
The announcement came when Magic Johnson was in his prime as a basketball player. He had already led the Lakers to five NBA titles and been named the league's MVP three times.
Until then, HIV and AIDS had been widely seen as diseases that only gay men or drug addicts got. However, as Johnson pointed out, he belonged to neither of these groups.
"I am going to be a spokesman for this HIV virus because I want them (the kids) to understand that safe sex is the way to go," Johnson told reporters.
"Sometimes we think only gay people can get it, it's not going to happen to me. Here I am saying it can happen to anybody, even me Magic Johnson it can happen to," he said.
The announcement came just two months after Johnson had married his wife Cookie, who, he stressed, did not have the virus. It was only later that Johnson revealed that he had contracted HIV during unprotected sex with another woman.
The 'Johnson effect'
Shortly after learning of his infection, he established the Magic Johnson Foundation, which provides financial support to AIDS groups and campaigns. And Johnson himself has never tired of campaigning on behalf of those affected, and educating people about the disease.
He was one of the keynote speakers at the World AIDS Day conference in 1999, when he described the virus as "public enemy No. 1."
Johnson's words did not fall on deaf ears. Statistics released by US scientists in 2021 demonstrated that the press conference on November 7, 1991, led to significantly more American men getting tested for HIV. This was particularly true for heterosexual black and Hispanics in cities with NBA clubs.
Magic Johnson's basketball career did not end on that November day. In 1992, he played in the NBA All-Star Game and was later part of the USA's "Dream Team" that won Olympic gold in Barcelona. Johnson also made a comeback in the NBA, spending the 1995-96 season with the Lakers, before retiring as a player for good.
Having achieved everything there is to achieve in the sport, the Lakers retired his number, 32 and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002.
Billionaire and philanthropist
Now, as World AIDS Day is marked on Sunday, Johnson is a successful investor, having sunk his money into real estate, cinemas and companies like EquiTrust and Starbucks. Forbes magazine estimates Johnson's current fortune to be some $1.2 billion (€1.14 billion).
For many years his foundation has been involved not just in AIDS projects, but also other organizations that support the education, health and social needs of people in ethnically diverse cities.
When Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in 1991, azidothymidine (AZT) was the first HIV drug on the market. Today there are numerous active substances that help to reduce the viral load to below the detection limit. If this is successful, the patient's immune system recovers and the patient can live and work normally. HIV is now considered to be treatable, provided the infection is detected early and treatment begins immediately.
The number of people who are HIV positive worldwide today is estimated at around 40 million. More than than half of them live in southern Africa. A quarter of all infected people worldwide do not receive any medication. Johnson admits he is fortunate.
To this day, he does not have AIDS.
"I am not cured. I have just been taking my meds," Johnson said in that PBS interview. "I am doing what I am supposed to be doing and thank God the HIV virus in my blood system and in my body have laid dead in a sense, and we don't want anything to wake it up."
