The most memorable sports moment from the '90s: Magic Johnson announces he's HIV-positive

theScore's '90s week finishes with a look at number one in our countdown of the 99 most memorable sports moments of the decade. 

Entries 99-76 can be viewed here, 75-51 here, 50-26 here and 25-2 here.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

The well-known proverbial phrase suggests that even in the most difficult of situations, there's reason for optimism. It also proposes that the situation isn't quite as dire as it might seem, because in addition to lemons, you also have water and sugar, and probably some ice.

It's an important idea because human beings tend to get bogged down by adversity and we too often end up submitting to obstacles. That's why we celebrate overcoming hurdles as one of our highest achievements. The ability to make lemonade from lemons — in the figurative sense — is the business of the remarkable. 

Earvin "Magic" Johnson was a remarkable athlete, who revealed himself on November 7, 1991, to be an even more remarkable man. 

It was discovered by accident. 

In the process of securing a loan from Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, Johnson submitted to an in-depth physical examination for insurance purposes.

Dr. Michael Mellman, the Lakers' team physician and Johnson's personal doctor, received the results, and immediately telephoned his patient. Not wanting to share the life-altering news over the phone, Dr. Mellman told Johnson to leave his team's preseason game in Utah, and come see him at once.

Johnson flew to Los Angeles, where he was picked up at the airport by his agent and driven straight to the doctor's office. The news was shocking, surreal and unbelievable. It was so far fetched to Johnson—that he, as a heterosexual, would be stricken with a virus erroneously associated solely with the homosexual community—he had two more tests conducted by preeminent HIV doctors. Both came back positive.

He later likened learning he was HIV-positive to feeling as though he'd been sentenced to death, and Johnson wasn't alone with such a sentiment. To so many at the time, HIV meant AIDS, and AIDS meant death.

The idea was frightening not just for the implications on his own life, but also his family's. His wife Cookie had learned she was pregnant only a week before, but fortunately, both she and the fetus were left unaffected by the virus in Magic's body.

By the time the third test result came back, Johnson had decided that he would announce his resignation from basketball, and inform the public of exactly why he'd have to step away from the game. To this point, only a handful of people were aware of what was actually happening with the basketball star. The media had been told that Magic Johnson was missing preseason games because he was suffering from a flu.

In the ESPN 30 For 30 documentary The Announcement, Cookie explains why she didn't want him to go through a press conference to reveal the news:

I was just mortified. I said to him, "Why do we have to tell everyone? We can do this ourselves." 

He just looked me right in the eye and said, "I have to save as many people's lives as I can. People don't realize this is a disease for heterosexuals. They think it's only for gay people, and they write it off. People need to know that anyone can catch this disease, and that's what I have to do."

Courageously, Johnson sacrificed his own privacy—his own image—to ensure a better understanding of the disease.

Watching the press conference today, a little less than 23 years later, it's amazing how direct Johnson is. There's no overwhelming emotion or obvious tears. He states in a very matter of fact manner that "because of the HIV virus that I've attained, I will have to retire from the Lakers today." 

He's succinctly aware of his role as the face of the virus. And he uses it right away in the press conference, encouraging people to practice safe sex, and informing the public that this isn't something that only affects homosexuals.

His last statement to the press is perhaps the most inspiring:

This is another challenge in my life. It's like your back is against the wall. And you have to come out swinging. And I'm swinging. I'm going to go on. I'm going to beat this, and I'm going to have fun.

There is no such thing as self-pity in Johnson.

There's a wonderful parallel here between Johnson during his playing days, and Johnson making the announcement. A center, forward and guard who could play any position interchangeably, and who often created more chances through his passing than his shooting, was once again ignoring easy classifications, and creating opportunities out of what was handed to him in order to assist others.

To people who had seen the network news images on a nightly basis of people's bodies ravaged by AIDS — thin, gaunt and covered in lesions — Magic offered a jarring juxtaposition. It wasn't just weirdoes outside of our hetero-normative understanding of the way things were supposed to be. If it could happen to him, it could happen to anyone.

Suddenly, we began to understand more. We learned the difference between HIV and AIDS. We found out that the virus was indiscriminate in who it could affect. We came to understand the importance of safe sex. It was as close to an overarching ethos as the post Gen-X, pre millennial generation would find. And it probably saved our lives.

Instead of shirking away, Johnson embraced his role as an example of what could happen. By becoming an identifying point for so many, he single-handedly increased the understanding of millions of people whose fears over the disease were becoming rational rather than based in ignorance.

A month after his announcement, there was a dramatic increase in the number of people seeking HIV tests across the United States. There are people alive today who otherwise wouldn't be because of Johnson's willingness to announce what had happened. 

He was the best thing that could have happened to the fight against the AIDS epidemic, and he accepted that.

When we talk about great moments in sports, we typically refer to moments of illusion. It's incidents in which our vicarious relationship with sports is at its strongest, when the escapism that sports offer is at its most overwhelming.

The greatest sports moment of the 1990s was the opposite of that. It woke people up to the reality of a dangerous situation, and it prompted real life changes that saved and extended the lives of human beings.

However, those great sports moments never occur outside of context. The best also demonstrate great odds being overcome and seemingly impossible obstacles being cleared away.

This, too, is evident in Magic Johnson's announcement. A great and charismatic figure took the lemons life gave to him, and instead of merely making lemonade, he made a life-affirming elixir for all of us.

That's why Magic Johnson announcing his HIV-positive test is the most memorable sports moment from the '90s.