The Announcement (NR)

The sports network ESPN has released numerous documentaries covering athletes and teams from all the different leagues. “The Announcement” is a heart wrenching and dramatic film that is essentially divided into two parts; bisected by the titular and ominous press conference that shocked not only the sports community but the entire world.

The event occurred on one of the most infamous dates in the history of sports, November 7^th, 1991, when superstar basketball legend and worldwide celebrity Earvin Johnson (more renowned for his nickname “Magic”) abruptly retired from the Los Angeles Lakers after testing positive for the HIV virus.

Johnson himself narrates the film, which starts as his basketball career takes flight in a high school in a poor section of Lansing Michigan.  Interviews with former teammates, trainers, his agent, and legendary coach Pat Riley, are entwined throughout the story.  Fellow NBA stars, competitive rivals, and close friends Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, and Karl Malone weigh in as well, along with celebrities Chris Rock and Arsenio Hall.  His wife Cookie provides the touching commentary of Johnson’s off-the-court side.  Cookie and Magic had been dating on and off for over a decade since the two were in college at Michigan State and had just gotten married less than two months before Johnson tested positive for the disease.  Miraculously, Cookie (who was also pregnant at the time with the couple’s first child) tested negative.

Johnson would become one of the biggest names in sports.  During the 1980s, the 3-time league MVP would lead the Lakers to 5 NBA Championships.  The name Magic Johnson would become synonymous with the game.  One of the sports world’s truly good people, Magic was never seen without a giant smile on his face.  Long time competitive rival and close friend Larry Bird, couldn’t hold back the tears when the announcement bombshell was dropped, and was unable to play in that night’s game.

The HIV virus came to prominence in the early 1980s, and was first thought to be limited to homosexuals and drug users. The world was still naïve in 1991, when the one of the biggest names in the history of sports, a physically dominating and superbly athletic star in the prime of his career (Magic was 32 when he retired) announced he had contracted the virus through unprotected sex.

In a shocking and emotional press conference, Johnson vowed he would beat the disease and in a matter of ten short days, went
from preparing for the start of the upcoming season to being the face and voice of the thousands of people afflicted with the sinister illness.

Johnson told his trainer that “when God gave me this disease, he gave it to the right person.”  This is a reference to his understanding that he had important work to do in raising awareness for HIV and AIDS.  The second part of the film focuses on his becoming an unofficial spokesman for the AIDS community.  Until that time, most people did not know anyone personally that was suffering from the disease.  But everyone knew Magic Johnson.

This is not a story exclusively for fans of basketball or sports.  The film is highly emotional and informative. You see the transformation of a star athlete, photographed with playboy models and celebrities like Jack Nicholson and Sean Penn, to someone treated like a leper by ignorance and unnecessary fear. Even the press conference Q&A sounds like backwoods rednecks from the 1950s asking questions about the disease – it’s difficult for people nowadays (just 20 short years later) to comprehend the ambiguity of it.

Even his own doctors forced him to retire from the game he loved because they thought the fatigue on his body from training would accelerate the progression of the virus.  When Johnson would go on to star for the United States Olympic Team in Barcelona in 1992, other players were afraid to slap hands or embrace him because he was sweating.

Though it cut short his playing career, it hasn’t cut short his life.  Johnson is now 52, and has been living with HIV for 21 years.  Throughout all his great accomplishments as a basketball player, he has done much more important work off the court, raising millions of dollars and more importantly education and awareness for a terrible disease.

– by Matt Christopher