It was two decades ago today that Magic Johnson announced he had HIV and was retiring from the NBA. \u00a0Of course, he would come back to the All-Star game, the Dream Team, and eventually to play and coach again in brief stints. \u00a0He would also turn into a mogul – one of the most successful African-American businessmen of our era, if not ever.<\/p>\n
Oh yeah – and he’s still alive.<\/p>\n
Magic changed the paradigm for HIV. \u00a0It was no longer a gay problem, it was no longer a white problem, it was something that could hit the healthiest person imaginable, and it was something that didn’t have to be a death sentence. \u00a0Who among us, on November 7 of 1991, would have predicted that Magic would be alive in twenty years – let alone filthy rich, running businesses and raising literally millions of dollars for AIDS research?<\/p>\n
The fact that the most terrifying illness of my adolescence has become something you manage and live with – if that’s not proof we live in the future, I don’t know what to tell you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was two decades ago today that Magic Johnson announced he had HIV and was retiring from the NBA. \u00a0Of course, he would come back to the All-Star game, the Dream Team, and eventually to play and coach again in brief stints. \u00a0He would also turn into a mogul – one of the most successful … <\/p>\n