The late actor Elizabeth Glaser, who herself contracted HIV after receiving a contaminated blood transfusion, encouraged his public advocacy. There were his teammates at the Los Angeles Lakers, who embraced him, and would go on to support him when he returned to play again, first as part of the 1992 Olympics “dream team” and then during another stint at the Lakers. There was, of course, his wife, Cookie – the love of his life, whom he had met at college and had recently married. That’s who I am.”īut, as he remembers the period shortly after the diagnosis, he thinks of those he relied on. It was one of the hardest days of his life he later disclosed he contracted HIV from unprotected sex. Johnson has never watched a recording of that press conference. Dr Ho and Dr Fauci calmed me down, because I was thinking I was going to die And it has interesting parallels for today, when the world continues to battle another public health crisis.
It was a seismic moment, not only in the history of basketball, but in the continuing war on HIV and Aids, as an athlete of Johnson’s stature vowed in public to raise awareness about the virus. There was one drug then, now we have 30-something drugs,” he says. “As we talk today, right now, I’m thinking, ‘Wow’ – it’s been 30 years and I’m still here, healthy. Now 61, he is one of those rare public figures who has redefined his purpose at different stages in life: first as an athlete, then as a public health advocate, and later as a successful businessman and philanthropist. Today, sitting in his offices in California, in a brown executive chair, that famous, dimpled smile beaming down the camera over Zoom, Johnson finds it hard to fathom that this year marks three decades since his diagnosis. Johnson shoots for Michigan State Spartans against the Kentucky Wildcats in c 1977 in East Lansing, Michigan.