The Associated Press - Tuesday, 19 November 1996.
Adrian Croft

Now, after becoming perhaps the most prominent spokesman for HIV sufferers, the former basketball superstar is pleased that public attitudes have changed markedly.

"It's so much different now because we can hold a conversation about it anywhere now. It used to be ... everybody looking around," Johnson said, lowering his voice to a whisper to show how people were embarrassed in the past to talk about AIDS and the human immunodeficiency virus that causes it.

"Now it's out and you can be talking about it, and not just because of me, it's because of everybody involved," he told Reuters during a recent visit to San Francisco for a fundraiser for AIDS causes.

The public attention that Johnson brought to the AIDS issue has played a part in changing attitudes, experts say. It was on Nov. 7, 1991, that Johnson, one of the all-time greats of basketball who had led the Los Angeles Lakers to five National Basketball Association championships in 12 seasons, announced that he was retiring because he was HIV-positive.

Johnson's announcement shocked his fans worldwide and helped shatter complacency about AIDS, showing that even a wealthy, admired sports star was not immune to the virus.

And his disclosure that he had contracted the virus from heterosexual sex showed that everyone was at risk and it was not limited to homosexuals or intravenous drug users.

"I think it was a real wakeup call for folks who might not otherwise have felt they were at risk for HIV," Pat Christen, executive director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, said.

After Johnson's announcement, she said, there was a sharp jump in calls to the foundation's AIDS hotline, which offers information on where to get tested for HIV and on treatment.

In his 1992 autobiography "My Life," Johnson said he contracted the virus during a "casual encounter." He described his former promiscuous lifestyle, telling how women threw themselves at him and other basketball stars. "When you play in the NBA, there are women waiting to meet you in every city along the way."

Since announcing he was HIV positive, Johnson, 37, has devoted a lot of time to raising awareness about AIDS and warning teen-agers of the dangers of unprotected sex. In 1991 he set up the Magic Johnson Foundation, which has raised millions of dollars for HIV/AIDS programs specializing in education, prevention and care.

Despite his retirement from basketball, the inspirational 6-foot, 9-inch tall point guard was voted into the All-Star game in 1992 and helped the U.S. "Dream Team" to a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics.

He served briefly as Lakers' coach and made two short comebacks to professional basketball, including one before the 1992-93 season that was cut short when other players expressed concern about the risks of playing with an HIV-infected player.

In January of this year he made a second comeback, signing a $2.5 million contract to play for the Los Angeles Lakers for the rest of the season.

Despite a 4 1/2-year absence, Johnson shone on the court, but he retired again in May -- this time, he insists, for good -- after the Lakers' loss to the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs.

Johnson said other players did not object to playing against him during his second comeback because they were now "educated" about HIV. "They realized they could play against me, nothing was going to happen to them," he said.

Johnson says he now intends to concentrate on his business interests, which include a chain of movie theaters, a shoe company and shopping centers. He appears to be in good health and says he has developed no AIDS symptoms.

"I'm probably healthier now than I was even when I was playing five or 10 years ago," he said. He lifts weights, runs and plays basketball to keep fit and has a healthier diet than before.

"I look at it like this -- it's another challenge in my life. I don't think about it as much as other people think about it ... I'm a guy who always meets a challenge head-on. I don't have any excuses. I don't say 'Why me?' I don't blame anybody but myself, but I keep moving."

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