By Odeisel

Much to my father’s chagrin I’ve been a Laker fan since the NBA was broadcast on tape delay. It was totally due to the smile and the ruthless joy of Earvin “Magic” Johnson. Yeah, the gritty pre-Disney streets of New York was the polar opposite of Floss Angeles, but even as a child, I recognized a winner when I saw one and for me, Magic was the guy.

It was the 80s, the “me” decade, and the first decade that Black men could occupy the upper echelon of icon status across mainstream. Eddie Murphy was the biggest movie star, Michael Jackson was the biggest pop star, and Magic was arguably the biggest sports star with a championship pedigree. Then one day, 20 years ago, it all came crashing down.I remember that summer and that preseason. The Lakers were the Air’s first victim but they had beaten a stacked Portland team and with a summer of rest for Worthy’s hamstring and a little more experience from Vlade Divac, there was no reason we couldn’t go back. Then came the preseason, and Magic sat out a few games with “flu like symptoms,” but it was the preseason. Stars sit out. Then came a call from my mom. Corporate America always got the rumors first. Magic was going to announce he had AIDS. I didn’t believe it. Even before the internet, there were fake rumors. But then came that awkward ass news conference. And Magic stood there, in front of those flashing lights and retired, still in his prime, from the bubble, the monster, the sentence. The END.

We weren’t that sensitive back then. Liberace. Freddie Mercury. Rock Hudson. That was the face of AIDS back then.  It was the gay disease. We weren’t as civil to that plight and the rumors were quick to spread. Then came the jokes. “Magic-My Ass Got Infected Coach.” I was devastated. There was the Linda Ellerbee-hosted Nickelodeon special where Magic talked to the kids about what was then a very new disease, as well as vehement denials that he contracted the virus “that way.” He got a little criticism for bigging up his macho sexual exploits in order to prove he was VERY heterosexual.

But throughout his journey of the past 20 years, from his triumphant All-Star Game in 1992, his incredible run as a business person and his disastrous run as a talk show host, a funny thing happened in the public zeitgeist: Magic helped people sympathize with the gay community. Not that he specifically championed their plight, but Earvin Johnson was the first high profile case that made HIV real. When gays were dying off, people could always tilt their heads, shrug their shoulders and go “Well, you know…” Magic wasn’t some heroin addict sharing needles in the gutter, or someone people could dismiss as alternative. Arthur Ashe tragically contracted it from a blood transfusion, but he wasn’t the headliner that Magic was.

And so the mainstream had to think and reexamine. The boogeyman was coming for all of us and Magic was (hopefully) living proof. AIDS wasn’t just a gay disease. It was a disease and that softened the stance of many towards the idea of the disease as the “wrath of God” on deviates.

It’s been 20 years since that awkward press conference. Medical advancements have been made and people are now able to live with the disease. It’s no longer the imminent death it once was. Earvin Johnson is a big reason why people living with the disease have been able to hold on to hope and he’s faced it down with that same smile he carried when he was carving up opposing teams. Without him as a force and presence in this journey, who knows how many resources would have been diverted from the fight for the cure. May not be fair but it is what it is. I sure as hell don’t know if I would have been able to handle that.

Peace

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