Tomorrow will be the 30-year anniversary of Magic Johnson revealing to the world that he had been diagnosed with HIV. At the time, very little was known about the virus, and it led to a lot of aggressive responses towards Magic. Some NBA stars didn't want to share the court with him as some thought that the virus could be spread through sweat. It was also believed that Magic had been served a death sentence, however, to this day, HIV cannot be detected in his system due to modern medicinal advances.
With the 30 year anniversary of his diagnosis upon us, Johnson decided to speak to Gayle King of CBS about how he felt when the diagnosis was revealed to him. As he explains, he was in complete shock over it, and he was also terrified of telling his wife Cookie, whom he had been unfaithful with.
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"You just sit there and say, what does this mean? Am I gonna die?'" Johnson said. "I had to really learn a lot about the disease, HIV as well as AIDS. I had to make sure that I was open-minded enough to ask a lot of questions, go get a lot of information from different people. I'm asking him 100 times, 'Are you sure?' And they say, 'Hey, we ran the tests a couple of times, and yes, you do have HIV.' And so I just lost it right there, you know?"
Now, Magic is as healthy as ever and he is an example of how HIV doesn't mean you are going to die. The medical advances have been tremendous, and Magic is forever grateful for the care and support that he received through it all.
You can check out Magic's interview with King, right here.
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[Via]