While fans, players and City Hall continued an outpouring of affection and concern for Magic Johnson, his doctor confirmed the retired Los Angeles Lakers superstar contracted HIV from heterosexual activity.
"This is a heterosexual individual who was infected through heterosexual activity," Lakers team physician Michael Mellman told the Orange County Register in Friday editions. "And that is why his message is coming out for safe sex."Mellman declined all media requests for interviews Friday, saying through a spokesman that Johnson believes everything concerning his illness has been addressed.
A three-time NBA Most Valuable Player who guided the Lakers to five league championships in his 12 seasons, Johnson announced his retirement Thursday while revealing he has tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
Johnson appeared on the "Arsenio Hall Show" (he and Hall are good friends) Friday night and said his role in life now is to educate the public about the dangers of HIV.
"We don't have to run from it, we don't have to be ashamed of it, but what we have to do is make people aware of what's happening," Johnson said in an upbeat appearance on the show. "If I can come out and educate, not only the young people, but I also have to educate the black community, because it's really spreading quickly in the black community.
"First of all I'm far from being homosexual, but that's the whole thing. (People) think it can only happen to gay people, and that's so wrong. Even I was naive to think well it can't happen to me. Well that's wrong. (For) heterosexuals it's coming fast and we all have to practice safe sex."
Johnson said God had given him the opportunity to teach people that athletes are not all "dumb jocks" - that they can also get into business.
"Now he's taking me and saying `OK, let's educate the public about what's going on with this HIV virus,' " Johnson said. "You don't have to feel sorry for me because if I die tomorrow I've had the greatest life that anybody could ever imagine."
Meanwhile, Lakers officials said Johnson's wife, Cookie, is seven weeks pregnant. Doctors say because she has tested negative for HIV, the baby would not be affected. The couple was married Sept. 14.
Johnson, who according to Forbes Magazine ranks among the world's top 25 sports figures in income - some say he earns as much as $9 million a year - will probably shift from product endorsement to public-service announcements for the companies he represents.
"This disease has been largely ignored by corporate America up until this point," said Nova Lanktree, head of the Chicago-based Burns Sports Celebrity Service, a firm specializing in matching athletes with corporate sponsors. "Now there is someone available who they admire to carry the message that a company cares to the American people."
Johnson has contracts with, among others, Spalding, Converse, Disneyland, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Nestle Crunch and Pepsi. He owns a major interest in a Pepsi bottling company in Washington, a T-shirt company and the first in a chain of three stores selling licensed sports clothing.
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Utah statistics
Utah's number of HIV-positive reports and actual AIDS cases continues to climb. Current data provided by the State Health Department include:
Estimated HIV-positive 2,500 to 4,000
Known HIV-positives 498
Total AIDS cases 454
AIDS deaths 267
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Who should be tested
Everyone who is at risk for AIDS should be tested, Salt Lake City-County Health Department officials said Friday.
Department officials made the announcement, thanking Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Magic Johnson for "his efforts to prevent a repeat of the tragedy" that has stricken him.
Those who should be tested include:
- Men who have had sex with another man, even once, since 1978.
- Anyone who has had multiple sex partners.
- Those who use or have used intravenous drugs.
- Anyone whose sex partner has engaged in high-risk behaviors.
Low-cost confidential and anonymous testing for the AIDS virus is available at the Health Department, located at 610 S. 200 East. Clinic hours are: noon to 4 p.m., Mondays; 1 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., Wednesdays; and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Fridays.
Making an appointment by telephone, 534-4666, will minimize waiting times.
For more information, call Dr. Harry Gibbons, 534-4501, or Lewis Garrett, 468-2721.