The reason for the dical examination was because Johnson’s contract was still worth $2.5 million per year, while other league superstars were already heading toward the tens of millions.
The extraordinarily long and large contract Johnson had signed back then was, in the face of inflation, gradually becoming a cheap deal.
To compensate Johnson, Buss decided to offer him a low-interest loan worth $3.6 million—giving him money directly would violate league rules, but loans were permitted and could later be deducted from the amounts in his future large contracts.
To get the loan, Johnson needed to have life insurance, and to get life insurance, he had to undergo a thorough dical examination, including a blood test.
The results ca back, and the thing Johnson feared most had happened—he was indeed HIV-positive.
When he learned of the result, Johnson felt as if his entire body had been struck by a heavy blow, a numbness rendering him unable to speak.
Nevertheless, he suppressed his fear and uneasiness and called his wife, telling her over the phone that there was sothing he needed to tell her but couldn’t say on the phone, and that he’d explain when he got ho.
Kelly was pregnant at the ti, and she seed to already have so sense of what was going on. When Johnson returned ho, Kelly directly asked him, "Do you have AIDS?"
Johnson’s silence confird her suspicions. Kelly began to cry, not only worried for herself but even more for the child she carried.
Johnson later recalled, "So people think the hardest monts of my life were on the court, facing Larry Bird or Ah Gan, but the reality is those were nothing—the hardest mont was going ho to tell my wife I had AIDS."
Facing Kelly’s tears, Johnson told her she could leave him. Kelly slapped him in response, saying she wouldn’t leave but would stay by his side.
From this perspective, Johnson hadn’t chosen the wrong person to marry; the one who made the wrong choice was Kelly—but Johnson was already better off than many Black n.
After informing his wife, Johnson locked himself in a room and started making phone calls, dialing the won he’d had relationships with in the past.
His address book was filled with these nas and numbers. So of these won Johnson couldn’t even rember—who they were or when they had dated—but he called them one by one from mory, informing them he had AIDS and advising them to get tested.
One call followed another, and what greeted Johnson was inevitably anger, fear, pain, and a stream of endless future troubles—lawsuits were bound to co his way.
Afterward, Johnson made a call to his father in Lansing, informing him of the situation. He chose Saturday because his mother would be at church for worship and wouldn’t be ho.
His father remained calm, telling Johnson, "This isn’t the end of the world. You can handle it."
As for his mother, upon learning the news, she imdiately went to Los Angeles to be with her son. Despite intense anguish and anger in her heart, she still told her son, "This is God’s will. All of us will die of so disease. You won’t die until it’s your ti."
After dealing with the emotions of family and friends, Johnson knew that everything had to go public.
He had already missed two weeks of practice, and the regular season was a week in. Johnson’s personal situation had beco a topic of public concern.
Finally, on November 7, Johnson held a press conference, personally announcing that he had contracted HIV and would retire as a result.
The entire country was shocked; no one had expected Magic Johnson to retire this way, leaving the basketball stage alongside Larry Bird.
At this ti, Gan Guoyang and the Portland Trail Blazers happened to be in Los Angeles for an away ga. When they learned the news from the television, everyone was highly surprised.
Only Gan Guoyang appeared calm, thinking of his friend Raymond from San Francisco many years ago, who had died from AIDS long ago.
But AIDS was a death sentence for soone like Raymond, a poor man, whereas for soone like Johnson, a wealthy man, it wasn’t necessarily the sa. It was now 1991, and research on AIDS had made great progress.
With enough money, while it couldn’t cure all diseases, many conditions could indeed be controlled, especially in Arica.
Gan Guoyang knew he had one less opponent in the Western Conference. Without Johnson, the era of the Los Angeles Lakers had co to an absolute end.
Although his relationship with Johnson was ordinary—they’d been rivals for years and didn’t get along—Gan Guoyang still felt a twinge of sadness over the sudden retirent of such an extraordinary player.
He suddenly wondered: When would his own era co to an end? Would it happen at fifty?
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