Earvin "Magic" Johnson said he suffers no ill effects from the anti-AIDS drug AZT and wants to set the record straight: "I respect women to the utmost."
Johnson, who retired from professional basketball after learning he has the virus that causes AIDS, made the remarks in an interview to be broadcast tonight on the CBS-TV program "Face to Face with Connie Chung."Johnson said he was only joking when he told Sports Illustrated magazine that he tried to have sex with as many women as he could when he became a star in the National Basketball Association.
According to a transcript of the CBS interview, he said, "When you say I tried to accommodate all these women, then you get into a disrespect for women, and I - I'm not like that. I really respect women, and I just should've been protecting myself, as well as my partner, and I didn't."
Johnson announced on Nov. 7 that he was retiring from the Los Angeles Lakers because he had contracted the HIV virus.
The drug AZT, proven so far to be the most effective drug available for delaying the onset of AIDS symptoms, occasionally has side effects that include anemia, nausea and muscle pain. Johnson said he has none of those problems.
"I've run four miles a day, I lift weights, I'm . . . still working out, still doing everything," he said.