20 years after The Announcement
I will say this again. ESPN Films produces THE BEST documentaries. They had another winner last night with The Announcement. I was twelve years old on November 7, 1991, when Magic Johnson stood at a podium and announced his retirement from the Lakers.
 |
| This is when I first started playing basketball in elementary school a couple years before The Announcement, I think. I wore James Worthy's #42. |
Then after my own selfish mourning, it hit me! Oh No! Did he give it to his wife and baby? Cookie Johnson was pregnant. Not once did I think about him. Probably because I blamed him for having it. I was angry with him, to be honest. How could he do this? Was he cheating on her? Yep...he was probably cheating on her. And now he's risking her life and their baby's life and my team!
Last night, changed that for me. It put a lot into perspective. Especially now, looking back with a more sober and mature mind. Magic was young and having fun, not unlike many people do in their late teens and early twenties. He was doing no more than people did then, and continue to do now.
I don't know how he contracted the virus. No one knows. It could have been in his system for a year or two or more before he got back together with Cookie. I actually didn't even know they had dated so long before...I learned that from the movie.
The Announcement directed by George Nelson, whose sister contracted the virus in or around 1992 from her husband, changed my mind and gave me brand new insight. How would you feel if you were on the world's stage, and the doctor just gave you what you thought was a death sentence?
HIV wasn't like cancer, where people have sympathy for you. Nope. Unless you contracted it from a blood transfusion (and even if you did...), people blamed you. They looked at you with hatred and spoke to you with vitriol. No sympathy.
So there he was, MAGIC Johnson, lying on the floor at his doctor's office, hearing "You tested positive for HIV." In 1991, it was a death sentence, not life without the possibility of parole, but DEATH. He said he was down on the floor for two hours. Quite certainly his world was crashing at that moment.
Then he had to tell people. Not just any people, but his wife who was pregnant, his coach, his teammates, his fellow NBA players, and his fans. How heavy is that?
The most poignant moment in that film was not The Announcement for me. It was THE REACTION. No, not the negative reaction from folks like Karl Malone, or the unnamed players who didn't want to play with him, but the reaction of Pat Riley.
He did something amazing... He encouraged Magic Johnson to keep going. Riley had left the Lakers, but he hadn't ended his bond with Magic. Riley was moving on to the Knicks, but called Magic to work out. At this point in the film, I cried. That one example of love moved me.
And then there was the reaction from Cookie Johnson that floored me. She was tested and tested negative. She hadn't contracted the virus. And Magic told her she was free to leave him. But she stayed.
What is it that we all want? Love and acceptance...through good, bad, and ugly. With those two things, people will find the will to overcome some of life's most daunting trials.
In the film, Magic said, God chose the right person to give this disease. I don't see it as God giving him the disease, but I understand what he meant. God put's no more on you than you can bear. Magic did more than grin and bear it...he embraced it and embarked on a mission to change some things. AMAZING. Here Magic Johnson is, twenty years later...living...surviving...thriving.
But that within itself, like Magic said, is a blessing and a curse. People feel as though it is okay to contract HIV. They are reckless in their sexual and recreational activities. Still sharing needles, still being careless. Last night someone tweeted that 50,000 people contract HIV in the US each year.
Something has to change.
