Nov. 10, 2002   

Magic Johnson's announcement that he has HIV was supposed to deliver a life-saving message. Eleven years later, sexually promiscuous pro athletes still are playing with fire.
By Charean Williams Star-Telegram Staff Writer

 
Shawn Marion can't remember where he was Nov. 7, 1991, when Magic Johnson announced he had "attained the HIV virus." Marion was only 13.

Marion, a forward with the NBA's Phoenix Suns, has no recollection of Johnson saying: "Sometimes you are a little naive and think it can never happen to you. You think it can only happen to other people. Well, here I am to say it can happen to anyone, even me, Magic Johnson."

Marion knows only that Johnson won five NBA championship rings, three MVP awards and three NBA Finals MVP awards as a guard for the Los Angeles Lakers.

"I just remember Magic, man," Marion said. "I don't know anything about that [HIV]. When you say Magic, you don't even think about him having HIV no more. It just went in one ear and out the other."

That is Johnson's fear now: Because he is not gone, his lesson has been forgotten.

"They still feel macho, like it can't happen to them, much like I was feeling it couldn't happen to me," Johnson said recently in Dallas.

In the 11 years since Johnson's revelation, everything has changed.
 

And nothing has changed

An expensive daily drug cocktail has reduced the HIV presence in Johnson's body to undetectable levels, allowing Johnson, now 43, to brag he has "beaten this."

But AIDS still is a killer. About 36 million people around the world have HIV, and most will develop AIDS and die. This year alone, AIDS will claim the lives of more than 15,000 Americans.

"It's not over," said Ray Moore, who has AIDS and is chairman of the Fort Worth chapter of Positive Voices, an advocacy group. "Magic Johnson has money, and that makes all the difference ... I just have to hope and pray."

The impact of Johnson's revelation has indeed faded. Since 1991, at least eight athletes -- including the late tennis great Arthur Ashe, Olympic diver Greg Louganis and boxer Tommy Morrison -- have contracted HIV or died of AIDS, although not all contracted the virus through sexual relations.

"The further it gets away from that [1991], the less of an impact it has," said Ozzie Newsome, the Baltimore Ravens' senior vice president and a Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end. "... For the people of that generation, it still has an impact. But how much has it impacted the generation that's coming up? Probably not very much."
 

Where were you?

Without shedding a tear and while flashing his trademark smile during the 1991 announcement, Johnson created public awareness of a disease first diagnosed in the United States only 10 years earlier. He took the disease from the gay bath houses into America's bedrooms.

The National AIDS Hotline received 40,000 phone calls, instead of the usual 3,800, the day of Johnson's news conference. Everyone who had been promiscuous suddenly saw himself at risk.

"The first thing I did was I tried to find out what it was, how long he was going to live and how somebody got it," said Sacramento Kings center Vlade Divac, a former teammate of Johnson's with the Lakers.

Only six years earlier, officials in Kokomo, Ind., barred Ryan White, a 13-year-old hemophiliac who had contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion, from attending classes at his middle school. And a year before that, political columnist and author William F. Buckley Jr. had suggested that AIDS patients be tattooed for identification purposes.

In 1992, members of Australia's basketball team threatened to boycott if Johnson played in the Olympics, and several NBA players, including Mark Price and Gerald Wilkins, questioned the health risk Johnson posed by playing.

"Magic's revelation ultimately led us to the adoption of control-spread procedures, with respect to player education, and, most importantly, with the way the country began to treat people who were HIV-positive," NBA commissioner David Stern said. "Magic put a face on it. As a result, a debate on AIDS was very much changed.

"Magic played a very strong part of changing a society that found people discriminating against hemophiliac children who had been affected by HIV through transfusions, without any compassion to trying to understand better what the risks were for HIV and what the risks were for transmission in terms of kids playing with each other or perspiration on the court."

Johnson contracted the virus through heterosexual sex, admitting he "truly lived a bachelor's life" before his marriage. He slept with so many women that he earned the nickname "Buck."

"When I was playing, it was always there," Johnson said. "I wouldn't see that changing now. I think that the athletes and the women have to change their attitudes, because one can't change and the other not."
 

Looking for a good time

The still of the downtown Dallas hotel is broken only by the occasional ringing of the telephone at the front desk and the delivery of the Sunday newspapers. The well-heeled drunks staggered back to their $135-a-night rooms a while ago, leaving the bar littered with empty beer bottles and full ashtrays.

When the Golden State Warriors, fresh off a loss to the Jazz in Utah, reach the hotel at 2:26 a.m., there are no limousines idling and no groupies waiting. As they step off their chartered bus, the Warriors are greeted only by two autograph seekers.

Carrying bananas, bottled water, CD players and looks of exhaustion, the players silently grab envelopes containing their room keys from the front desk and head to their eight-foot California king beds. Presumably alone.

"Charters [airplanes] have changed things somewhat, because they have shortened our stays in cities," said Mavs assistant Del Harris, who was head coach of the Lakers when Johnson returned for 32 games in 1995-96.

"I don't think there's near as much craziness as there was in those days in the '70s and '80s. ... But I know even an incident like Magic's is not going to keep everybody staying at home watching TV by themselves on an off night."

Women still seek good times with athletes. They no longer dress like prostitutes and make themselves conspicuous in hotel lobbies, but they're still around. They're at clubs, restaurants and games, writing their phone numbers on cocktail napkins or, sometimes, even their underwear. The come-ons are found among the fan mail -- an invitation in the form of a nude photo.

"Society has changed, too," Kings forward Chris Webber said. "It's not in the best light to be considered a groupie. They're not obvious anymore. They could have a great job, which makes you want to trust them more. It's not, 'Here I am,' like maybe it used to be."

The NBA, prompted by Johnson's revelation, presents a sexual-health-education program every season. Mosaic Health in Elkridge, Md., conducts a condensed sex-ed class that includes information about sexually transmitted infections and relationship issues. Rookies are required to hear the presentation at the rookie transition program before the season, and veterans receive the lesson annually.

"Our players have been very receptive to it, surprisingly," said Michael Bantom, the NBA's senior vice president of player development. "The only possible negative aspect that we may get is from the guys who have been here since Day One. They've heard it before. That's why we've tried to incorporate other aspects into the presentation, so that we're not just coming to them every year and talking about HIV and AIDS."

A rookie who attended the transition program this year said paternity suits are the main concern of the NBA and its players. A Sports Illustrated investigation about athletes and their illegitimate children in 1997 found, among other things, that the NBA's Shawn Kemp had seven children with six women.

"They told us, 'If you plan on getting wild with the ladies, you better save your money because you're going to have one or two kids,' " the rookie said. "Guys may be using protection, but it's not out of fear of HIV. It's for fear of having a child out of wedlock and losing their money."

Major League Baseball and the NHL do not have annual consultations with players about sex. The NFL addresses the issue the same as the NBA, at its annual rookie orientation and at veteran life-skills presentations made annually to each team.
 

But education has its limits

"You know, if a guy is 29 years old, it's either too late or Gomer Pyle has been revisited," Mavs owner Mark Cuban said.

Wedding rings optional

Scoring has a different meaning off the court.

NBA Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain boasted in his autobiography, A View from Above, that from the age of 15 to 40, he had sex with 20,000 women, an average of 1.37 women a day. Promiscuity is a sports tradition. Not even Magic Johnson's announcement has changed that.

Ticket managers are careful not to put girlfriends next to wives in the stands, and travel coordinators have been known to arrange for a second hotel to be used for girlfriends on road trips. "If a guy is in with the ticket manager, it ain't to discuss his season tickets," a public relations director said.

An AFC defensive back imported three Midwest strippers to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl one year only to have them mistakenly try to check in at the hotel where the players and their families were staying.

Many professional athletes can't resist the temptation of no-strings-attached sex.

"It's too easy," an NBA player said. "You can get whatever you want, whenever you want it."
 

For little money and little effort

A trial last summer revealed that several high-profile athletes had sex with dancers at the Gold Club, a strip club in Atlanta. Baseball player Andruw Jones, football players Terrell Davis and Jamal Anderson and basketball players Patrick Ewing, John Starks and Dikembe Mutombo were among those subpoenaed.

During a road game in New Orleans a few years ago, a married NFL player spotted a twirler in the college band performing at halftime. As sports writers watched, he sent the public relations director to get her phone number. The next week she was sitting in the stands, an all-expenses-paid trip in return for sex.

"Whew! The temptation is great," Pittsburgh Steelers safety Lee Flowers said. "Certain women can't wait until that one section of USA Today comes out where they can see the salaries, so they know who to go after. Players just need to understand that if you weren't getting that kind of attention in college, and all of a sudden you're getting it in the pros with all these women attracted to you, it's obviously got to be the money. Let's face it, in a year, you haven't gotten that much cuter.

"I think a lot of guys get caught up in, 'I'm a professional athlete, and every time we go on a road trip, I want to see how many women I can sleep with.' But, having said that, I still think guys are being careful as far as protecting themselves. I don't think being careful is sleeping with a lot of women, but if you're going to sleep with a lot of women, protect yourself."
 

Who's next?

Magic Johnson, who is about 15 pounds heavier than the 235 pounds he weighed when he retired for the final time in 1996, is the picture of health. He has not suffered weight loss, had skin blotches, low energy or low resistance to infections, meaning the disease is not manifesting itself in any of the typical ways.

He takes Combivir, which contains AZT and 3TC, an AZT-like drug that became available in 1995, as well as a protease inhibitor, an AIDS-virus suppresser that has revolutionized treatment since its discovery in 1996. Johnson eats healthily and works out vigorously.

"Everybody knows that I love living and life, and so I've always been about that. That's been my motto," Johnson said. "My doctor told me, 'Look, you've got to keep stress out of your life and have a positive attitude besides taking your medicine.' I said, 'Is that all I need to beat this? Shoot, it's in trouble then.'

"For more than 10 years, I've done it, and I feel I'm just going to continue to do it. You have to be in that mindset."

But Johnson is not cured. The only thing he has won is more time.

"There is not a cure in sight," said Scott Brawley, the director of public policy for AIDS Action, a national non-profit advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. "People are living longer. We are in a better place. But there is some complacency that has come with that. People think that it's as easy as taking a couple of pills, and you'll be fine."

In 1991, there were 206,392 known AIDS sufferers in the United States and 20,255 died of AIDS that year. In 2001, the numbers were 816,149 and 15,603. Nothing has changed; everything has changed.

Johnson, Louganis, Morrison and figure skater Rudy Galindo are the only athletes known to have HIV, but no one expects them to be the last. Johnson's lesson has been lost in his living.

"Eleven years is a long time, and I think a lot of guys feel like progress has been made in controlling this," Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy said. " 'Maybe I don't have to worry quite as much; maybe that was a one-in-a-million deal.' I don't know that there's a whole lot of difference.

"I don't think there's any doubt that we will have another Magic Johnson."
 

Athletes and HIV (AIDS deaths)

• Jerry Smith, 43, tight end with the Washington Redskins from 1965-77, died of complications related to AIDS on Oct. 15, 1986.
• Thomas Waddell, 49, a U.S. decathlete in the 1968 Olympics, died of complications related to AIDS on July 11, 1987.
• Esteban DeJesus, 37, former WBC lightweight boxing champion, died May 12, 1989, after contracting AIDS in the early 1980s while in prison.
• Tim Richmond, 34, stock-car racer, died of complications caused by AIDS on Aug. 16, 1989.
• Alan Wiggins, 32, Padres second baseman, died of complications caused by AIDS on Jan. 6, 1991.
• Arthur Ashe, 49, tennis player, died of AIDS-related pneumonia Feb. 6, 1993.
• Chad Kinch, 35, who played in the Final Four for North Carolina-Charlotte in 1977 and was a No. 1 draft pick of the Cleveland Cavaliers, died of complications from AIDS on April 3, 1994.
• John Curry, 44, former Olympic and world champion figure skater from England, died from an AIDS-related illness April 15, 1994.
• Glenn Burke, 42, a major-league outfielder who says he was blackballed from baseball for being gay, died of AIDS-related complications May 30, 1995.
• Bill Goldsworthy, 51, a 14-year NHL veteran, died of complications from AIDS on March 29, 1996.

HIV positive

• Magic Johnson, who helped the Lakers to five NBA championships, announced Nov. 7, 1991, that he had tested positive for the AIDS virus and was retiring. In September 1992, he made a two-month comeback. Hired as Lakers coach in March 1994, he finished with a 5-11 record. At age 36, he made another comeback starting Jan. 30, 1996, and played the rest of that season before retiring for good. Johnson, now 43, has a $500 million business empire that includes ownership in restaurants, movie theaters and shopping centers.
• Greg Louganis, the only man to sweep diving gold medals in consecutive Olympics, said on Feb. 22, 1995, that he had full-blown AIDS and was HIV positive when he competed in the 1988 Seoul Games. Louganis, now 42, won the springboard and platform gold medals in Seoul, duplicating his 1984 sweep in Los Angeles.
• Tommy Morrison announced Feb. 12, 1995, that he was HIV positive. Two days earlier, he was suspended by Nevada boxing authorities before a scheduled bout with Arthur Weathers. Now 33, he was released from a Little Rock, Ark., community detention center in February after serving time for drugs and weapons charges, and he has opened a boxing camp in Arkansas.
• Rudy Galindo, the 1996 U.S. figure skating champion, revealed April 6, 2000 he was HIV positive. Galindo, now 33, is a touring pro.

AIDS primer

• What is AIDS? Acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The virus attacks the immune system, weakening it and leaving the body susceptible to opportunistic diseases, including pneumonia and certain forms of cancer.

• How is HIV transmitted? HIV is spread by sexual contact, by sharing needles or syringes used by drug abusers and through transfusions of infected blood or blood clotting factors, although this method is rare in countries where blood is screened for HIV antibodies. Babies born to HIV-infected women may become infected with the virus before or during birth or through breast-feeding after birth.

• How is AIDS treated? A variety of drugs have proved effective in reducing the effects of AIDS, but the most effective treatment is taking a combination of drugs that target the virus at different points in its life cycle. The result has been a drop in death rates and a rise in life expectancy for AIDS patients.

• What is the outlook? The number of U.S. AIDS deaths has declined steadily since 1995, dropping to 15,603 in 2001 from a high of 51,670. But the rate of decrease has slowed dramatically -- 6.4 percent from 2000-01 -- and the number of deaths seems to be leveling off at about 15,000 per year. The number of new AIDS cases in the United States fell from 40,766 in 2000 from 60,805 in 1996, but rose slightly to 41,311 in 2001.

Source -- U.S. Centers for Disease Control
 

Sex and sports

The pro sports leagues' and NCAA's sexual-education programs:

• NBA: Offers condensed sexual-education class with information on sexually transmitted infections, relationship issues and spousal violence. The program is required as part of a rookie-transition program, and all players attend a team meeting twice a year.

• NFL: Required rookie symposium addresses health issues such as HIV prevention and sexually transmitted infections. The league also imposes a personal-conduct policy prohibiting players from engaging in violent and/or criminal behavior, including spousal abuse and hiring prostitutes.

• NHL: The Players Association gives team seminars on various topics during training camp, and sex has been discussed but is not an annual topic. Players can request information anytime.

• MLB: Has no league-wide program.

• NCAA: Most colleges and universities participate in the Champs/Life Skills Program, a total development program for student-athletes sponsored by the NCAA. One topic covered is establishing relationships and developing sexual responsibility.

-- Kathleen O'Brien 
 

Charean Williams

appeared from:

Eleven Years After Magic Johnson Revealed His HIV Diagnosis, Professional Athletes Remain 'Promiscuous,' Practice Unsafe Sex

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram yesterday examined how Magic Johnson's announcement in 1991 that he was HIV-positive both has and has not changed the sexual conduct of professional athletes. Johnson, who revealed that he was HIV-positive on Nov. 7, 1991, is currently taking antiretroviral drugs to fight his infection. In response to Johnson's announcement, the National Basketball Association each year presents a sexual health education program to rookie athletes. Rookie and veteran basketball players are required to attend, and the class includes information about sexually transmitted diseases and relationship issues. The National Football League runs a similar program, but Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League do not have similar annual seminars. While Johnson's announcement changed attitudes regarding HIV and people infected with the virus, sports officials and players say that there are still many "sexually promiscuous" professional athletes who continue to practice unsafe sex. "They still feel macho, like it can't happen to them, much like I was feeling it couldn't happen to me," Johnson said, adding, "I think that the athletes and the women have to change their attitudes, because one can't change and the other not" 

(Williams, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 11/10).