25 years ago: Magic stuns world with HIV announcement

Monday marks a quarter-century since one of the biggest bombshell announcements in sports history. On Nov. 7, 1991, Magic Johnson - still in his prime as a three-time NBA MVP with the Los Angeles Lakers - announced he was retiring due to contracting HIV, the virus that can lead to AIDS.

It's worth remembering that little was known about the illness in 1991, and that Magic's announcement played a significant role in increasing awareness of the disease and its causes.

"In the heat of the moment, you had to remind him that it was HIV, not AIDS," Johnson's then-agent Lon Rosen told ESPN's Marc Stein in 2011. "That's how little we both understood about it ... how little we all understood about it at the time."

The evolution of that knowledge ensured Johnson's basketball career wasn't over, however. Fans voted him to start the 1992 All-Star Game, despite not playing all season. Johnson responded by scoring 25 points and winning his second All-Star MVP award.

That summer, Magic won Olympic gold with the original Dream Team, but abandoned a comeback attempt for the 1992-93 NBA season after some players - including Olympic teammate Karl Malone - voiced concerns over playing against an HIV-positive athlete. When Johnson finally returned to NBA action, it was for 32 games in 1995-96. Four-plus years of retirement had added weight to his frame, but he averaged close to 15 points as a power forward.

Twenty-five years after his initial diagnosis, Johnson, now 57, continues to thrive as a businessman and a puzzling tweeter. In regards to theories and misconceptions about his condition, he's credited his longevity to his lifestyle.

"(In 1991) people just said it was a death sentence," Johnson told Hip Hop Nation's Renada Romain in 2014. "It's just laying asleep in my body. The drugs have done their part, and I've done my part by exercising and having a positive attitude about having HIV."