Good Morning POU!
On Thursday, Nov. 7, 1991, Earvin “Magic” Johnson made people stop and watch at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif. But this time it wasn’t his basketball brilliance as a perennial NBA All-Star and three-time MVP that was captivating audiences worldwide. Instead, the 32-year-old groundbreaking point guard was holding a press conference to make the stunning announcement that he was HIV-positive and would be retiring from basketball immediately. But the shock of this declaration went deeper.
Having the AIDS virus in 1991 was widely seen as a death sentence, and the commonly held belief was that we would be watching a beloved sports hero die excruciatingly and swiftly in front of our eyes. Yet Magic had a different narrative in mind. He defied the odds, not just surviving, but truly living and prospering. From his MVP performance in the 1992 NBA All-Star Game, his participation on the original Olympic “Dream Team” later that year and an NBA comeback in 1996, to his astounding success as a businessman, philanthropist and ambassador in the fight against AIDS, Magic has lived up to the promise of his nickname.
In “The Announcement,” Nelson George and NBA Entertainment get to the core of this incredible personal journey and explore how he continues to thrive two decades later.
The Director, Nelson George, convinced Johnson that it wasn’t enough to be interviewed for the documentary but that he should be the narrator.
“I felt it would be better in his voice, him looking back at this life,” George said.
It was the right decision. Johnson tells his story with an honest emotion that a dispassionate actor with a baritone could not. “The Announcement” did not have to be an unbiased endeavor. It is a personal tale.
Johnson conveys wonderment at the great fortune of his pre-H.I.V. life, including sexual freedom that he exploited as a wealthy and high-profile prince of Los Angeles, as well as the devastation of his becoming a pariah in his own sport who couldn’t rustle up a one-on-one game.
He recalls his anxiety before the announcement; the relief when he thought he could continue his playing career; and the fear that he might have infected his wife, Cookie, and their unborn child. He had not.
“I can understand if you want to leave me,” Johnson remembered telling his wife, who was interviewed extensively about the subject for the first time, as was his older son, Andre.
Cookie Johnson is as private a person as her husband is a personality who craves the public’s love. She did not want him to publicly announce that he had H.I.V.
“Why do we have to tell anyone?” she recalled telling him. “We have to do this ourselves.”
George artfully mixes archival video (much of the best from NBA Entertainment) with interviews with reflective people you would expect (the Johnsons, Pat Riley, James Worthy, Arsenio Hall, Commissioner David Stern and Chris Rock) and others like Gary Vitti, the Lakers’ trainer; Dr. David Ho, the eminent AIDS researcher who treats Johnson; and Karl Malone, a former Utah Jazz power forward.
Malone’s unwarranted fear that he could be infected led Johnson to cut short his comeback in 1992 after playing well in the Summer Olympics. Malone does not apologize but admits to being educated.
“Tell me one other athlete who could have dealt with it the way he did,” Malone told George.
Telling the story of Johnson’s announcement and its aftermath is George’s way to discuss the continuing epidemic. “For people who grew up in it, it’s a mission,” he said. “Magic is the most famous person whose life was transformed. But he’s kind of a metaphor for the others. He shines a light on a relatively unappreciated community, both who have it and those who work against it.”
George is as amazed as anyone at Johnson’s survival. He asked: who would have expected the H.I.V.-infected Johnson to have outlived renowned contemporaries like Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston?