SPEAK OUT FOR FIRST TIME ON LOVE, AIDS AND MARRIAGE
8
SPEAK OUT FOR FIRST TIME ON LOVE, AIDS AND MARRIAGE 100 eBONY»Aph! 1992
Transcript of SPEAK OUT FOR FIRST TIME ON LOVE, AIDS AND MARRIAGE
SPEAK OUT FOR FIRST TIME ON LOVE, AIDS AND MARRIAGE
100 eBONY»Aph! 1992
'The truth is, she has never stopped loving Magic Thafs why she slapped him— just hauled ojfand smacked him as hard as she could—when, after telling her he had the virus, he ojfered her an easy way out ofthe marriage, '
By Laura B. Randolph Senior Staff Editor
Studio Photographs by Harry Langdon
Anticipating birth of their first chi ld. Clooki« li-ts Masit listi-n to bahy's heartbeat.
\
SHE was just sitting there in the tele- vision rwim, relaxing and flipping
the channels, when he walked in and shattered her world. At first she thought she d misunderstood him, tliat her mind was playing tricks on her.
She coiikln t possibly he hearing him right. He couldn t be telling her he had the AIDS virus. Not now. Not the month after their wedding. Not now that they d finally begun their life together as hus- band and wife. And not now—please, God, not now!—that she was pregnant with the baby they d talked about having for so long.
It had to be a mistake. Some cruel hoax. But one Uxïk at Magics face and Earleatha (Cookie) Johnson knew it was true. "It was, " she says softly, "your worst nightmare come true."
The tears came in uncontrollable waves ("I don t remember how long I
Coniinved on Next Page 101
MAGIC & COOKIE continued cried") and as she struggled to absorb the implications, a rush of emotions vied for control of her mind. There was shock. / can't believe this w happening. Panic. What about the hahy}' Anger. How could you let this happen? But the emotion that triumphed, eclipsing all others, was fear. For herself and for her man.
"I was so scared—for him and for my- self." she confides in her first interview sinc'e her husband, Earvin (Magie) John- son, amiounc-ed he has the AIDS virus. "Just scared to death."
Seeing the depth of her pain. Magic struggled with his own emotions. "I was angry because Id just gotten married and now I had to put this on her, " he says, recalling the rush of feelings that engulfed him after tests for an insurance jxjlicy revealed he had the AIDS virus. "1 was afraid just to go home and tell her . . . I kept going back and forth in my mind wondering, "Howean I soften it? What c-an 1 say?. . ." And Í was shocked liecause I never thought it could happen
102
to me. " But more than any concern for him-
self he hurt for his wife, the woman who had loved him since they were college sweethearts at Michigan State. "We d waited so long and finally we d done it," he says shaking bis head. "I wanted ev- erything to be perfcict. My whole world was going to be perfect with her. And then BAMl"
It couldn t help, of course, knowing he was the primary reason it took 14 years, two postponed wedding dates and, iis Cookie puts it, "a lot of breaking up and getting back together" for their romance to niatnre into marriage. "I'd always thought that I couldn t play bas- ketball and be man'ied," Magic says, in- timating it was the pressures of his daz- zling pro career that made him wait so long to commit. Suddenly he stops. As he stares across the room, you can feel him weighing his next words, deciding just how close to the truth he wants to take you, how deep he wants it to get.
"I was iifraid," he confides upon re- flection. "The truth is, I never really let
With Cookie at his side, Magic tells historic press conference that "because of the HIV virus that I have obtained, I will have to retire from the Lakers."
her into my world. You work so hard and you ve been used to being by yourself making all the decisions by yourself and doing it all alone. Sometimes that's the problem with us being strong Black men. We feel we can t really let a woman into our world. But that's wrong, be- cause you know what I found out? All the time I was thinking she would l>e harm- ful, she was really helpful. Brothers need to understand that old saying is true: 'Behind every good man, there's a goixl woman.' No, make that beside ev- ery good man, there s a good woman."
Though she left her job as a buyer for a Toledo department store three years ago to move to I^s Angeles, it was only in tlie last \ear that Magic really let her be- come an integral part of his life. "She went through everything with me—the games, the pain, the playoffs—and I'd never really let that happen before," he confesses. "She helped me so much I said, 'Wow, I should have been doing this a long time ago.'"
That's exactly what he told her tliat af- tenioon last August when, while vaca-
EBONY* April 1992 Continued on Page 104
Celebrating the power of their love, couple share tender moments dancing to Luther Vandfoss' hit song, "The Power of Love. " Magic says, "We dance to Luther all the
MAGIC & COOKIE continued tioning in the Virgin Islands, he ealled her in L.A. and told her he was finully ready. "Id been thinking al>out her ev- ery day," he remembers. "I tried to get her to marry me the next week. I didn t want to wait an\- longer." Three weeks later they wed. "It was the best thing I ever did, " he says, breaking into his sig- nature light-up-the-night smile.
Magic and Cookie are sitting, hands entwined, in a photographers studio in Beverly Hills. Cookie is explaining why she doesn't like—and rarely gives—in- terviews. "I prefer the background," she says, finding and holding her husband's gaze. "I'm much more comfortable there. "
In person, she is much taller (5'8") and thinner {size 4) than she appears in her photographs. In íact, though she is well into her pregnancy, save for a slight bulge in her midrifi she's still taut, lean, willowy.
"You'll be fine," Magic assures her, pulling her close and smoothing her
104
hair. "I'm going to step outside so you can talk woman to woman. But I'll be close if you need me. '
"I wanted everything to be perfeet. My whole world was going to be perfect with her. And then BAM!"
—Magic Johnson
Magic and Cookie have been close since 1977 when, as college freshmen, they met at a party. "It was so funny be- cause every girl on campus wanted to meet him," Cookie remembers ofthe night she first set eyes on Magic. "I just thought forget it. There's no way he's going to pick me over all these other women. "
Wiiich, of a>urse, he did—although he waited until she was leaving to ask for her phone number. "1 said, 'What?
You've never asked me to dance, never had a conversation with me. . . . ' But he said hed watched me the whole night," she says wistfully.
And their 14-year love affair began. Though she's stayed the course with
Magic, it wasn't always easy. In addition to the normal complexities of love. Cookie had so much more to deal with. Anyone as famous—as adored—as Magic comes with a lot of baggage: the press, the groupies, the incessantly in- trusive lifestyle. And there was also Magics obsession with basketball, his complete and total preoccupation with the game. "It wasn't always easy," she ac- knowledges. "There was a lot of break- ing up and getting back together, a lot of ups and downs. We've been through ev- erything together."
Part of "everything" was Magic's at- traction to other women and his enor- mous appeal to them. As the most lumi- nous star in basketball, he could have as many women as he wanted. And though she sat there looking so composed, so se-
EBONY» April 1992
time." The basketball legend has received thousands of letters and bas become, in bis words, a national "educator" on tbe AIDS epidemic.
rene, as Magic told the world lie con- tracted the AIDS virus from un- protected sex and that the women he had slept with were so numerous he couldn t be sure who had infected him, she could not help being concerned.
"Whatever the price, she was in for the duration."
THE truth is, she has never stopped loving Magic—a fact she felt he, of
all people, should know. That s why she slapped him—^just hauled off and smacked him as hard as she could—- when, after telling her he had the virus, he offered her an easy way out of the marriage.
"I told her I would understand com- pletely if she wanted to leave," he re- calls. "I couldn't even get the words out of my mouth before she slapped me. . . . My grandmother and mother always told me Black women are strong, hut I'm just now finding out what they
EBONY «April 1992
THE impetus that spurs Magic Johnson's declared war on
AIDS is the high incidence of the disease in Black America. Ac- cording to the Center for Disease Control, of all people diagnosed with AIDS (206,392), almost one- third (60,037) are Blaek.
In New York and New Jersey, AIDS is the No. 1 killer of Black women aged 15 to 44. The national numbers are just as frightening. More than half (52 percent) of all women with AIDS are Black. For Black children and babies, the num- bers are wi)rse: of the 3,471 children with AIDS, 1,844 (53 percent) are Blaek. And of all babies Iwrn wi -h AIDS, a startling 58 percent are Black. Almost 50,000 Black men have been diagnosed with AIDS. That means one out of four inen di- agnosed with AIDS is Biack.
meant. . . . I don't know of many women who would have stayed in this situation. "
That's probably because there aren't many. Frankly, there isn t a person on earth who would fault Cookie if she left. After all, the only reason she is in this situation i.s because of Magics failure to practice safe sex. Which leads right back to the critical question, the one every- body wants to know: Why didn't she just pack her bags and walk?
"I love him very much and I always have," she says slowly, trying to find a way to express what she feels. "We've been together off and on for 14 years and the love that we've built up over that time period is what I hold on to. There's no way—even though something like this happened—that I was going to just throw it all away and not stand by him and leave him to deal with it by himself There's no way I would do that.'"
That's exactly what she told Magic— after she slapped him. Whatever it took, whatever the price, she was in for the duration. "I never even tliought about
Continued on Next Page 105
Meeting with President flush on his first visit to White House as a member of the National Commis- sion on AIDS, Commissioner Johnson urges the president to get more involved in tlie fight against AIDS. "No matter how good the team may be," he told the president, "it won t win the championship without the owner fully in the game,"
MAGIC & COOKIE continued leaving," slie says. "To stay by him was not a hard thing to do."
Then the tabloid rumors started— how she has moved out of the bedroom and into tlie maid s quarters. How she is so terrified the baby will get the virus she is agonizing over whether or not to have an abortion. How she is so scared of contracting the virus she won t even let Magic touch her, never mind make love to her.
Cookie lauglis when you teU her these stories. "All of those rumors are false," she says. Aside from severe morning sickness ("My first three months I was sick morning, noon and night"), she is feeling fine, she says— emotionally and physically. Though medical experts warn it can take as long as six months for AIDS antibodies to show up in the blood system, she has tested negative twice and wants everyone to know her doctors feel confident both she and the baby are out of tlie woods.
As for their marriage, "it has only got- ten stronger, it s just fine, " she discloses. Ditto for their sex life. As Magic puts it, "We are still doing our thing. " In fact, he says, the only restriction the doctors have placed on physical intimacy "is that we can t have unprotected sex"—a stip- ulation Cookie maintains she is "very c-omfortable" with.
"We ve been together forever and there is nothing that is going to keep us 106
apart. . . ," she says, dismissing all the gossip with a wave of her hand. "I hon- estly feel that the Lord is going to heal him and that we arc going to live to- gether forever and have more children and be happy. I honestly feel that."
And there is something about the way she says it, about the way her face softens whenever she looks at Magic or says his name, that makes you know she means it—that this isn t just a public re- lations answer or wishful thinking on a California morning.
But to understand her faith, you have to understand one fundamental thing about Cookie Johnson. She loves Magic. Totally. Completely. Unflinchingly. And that love has made her strong—strong like a rock. And that strength is what Magic is holding on to, what is getting him through. "Between Cod and her," he says softly, "they give me the strength to carry on. "
That, and his belief that he has been chosen to carr)' a message. Tm doing the Lord's work. . . ," he says, referring to his determination to prevent "a gener- ation of Black Americans from being devastated" by AIDS.
"Before, I was on my agenda. Now I m on God's agenda. . . ," he says. "They told me I went from being a leader on the basketball court to a leader among people, especially my people . . . and Tm trying to learn how to handle it.
I don't know yet what it all entails but I'm ready for it. I'm ready to lead my people."
In the five months since be stood at the podium in the Great Western Fo- nini in Inglewood, Calif., and forever changed the way America in general and Black America in particular thinks about AIDS, he has spent countless hours trav- eling the country educating young peole about responsible sex ('I tell them absti- nence is liest but if not, use a condom "), joined, at President Bush's personal re- quest, the National Commission on AIDS, and formed The Magic Johnson Foundation to raise money for the re- search and development of a cure.
Still, even braced by their faith. Magic and Cookie admit their lives are far from worry free. While they're hope- ful, even optimistic, about the future, they are also mindful of the virulent na- ture of this disease. Yes, concedes Cookie, the thought of "not having him around to watch our child grow up, of us not growing old together" sometimes haunts her. She stops, looks away, un- able to finish. "But if that's what the Lord chooses to do, then that's the way I'll have to deal with it, ' she says softly.
And sometimes—-not often Init some- times—Magic, too, can hear the faint echo of his mortality, he can sense its fleeting footsteps. "If God says that it's my time, then it's my time, " he says qui- etly. "Death doesn't scare me."
But he's only 32 years old, the age when most people are just beginning to comprehend lite, not contemplating death. How can he be so calm, so san- guine?
"I guess because I have so much to be thankful for, " he says with the serenity of a man who has made peace with himself his life, his choices. "I've won champion- ships, been around the world, and I was able to finally marry her. And hopefully we'll have a big, strong healthy baby and they'll live on. And I'm hoping and pray- ing and I/et'/ that I'm going to be here with them. "
And if not? "If not," he says gently, "I know that I've saved a lot of lives. I know this world will líe a better place because of what iVe done. No matter what hap- pens to me, I hope that I will make a difference. And no matter what, I've had a good time. "
Not that the good times are over— they aren't, he insists. Not by any means. "Nothing has changed. I'm feel- ing as strong as ever, " he says, noting the AZT treatments he started shortly after he announced he had the virus have had no side effects, thougli his doctors have decided to try some other things. "
EBONY-Aprii 1992
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His daily four-mile run and workout.s at the gym are keeping him in shape for the summer Olympics, and next year he will lead a U. S. all-star team in a series of games abroad. And who knows? he says. If he continues to feel this strong he may even return to play for the Lakers. "I haven't ruled out coming back," he con- cedes.
But all that is in the distant future. Right now, he says apologetically, he has to say g(K)dbye. He is meeting Michael Jackson across town in 15 minutes, then he and C ookie are catching a plane to Hawaii. As they head for their waiting
EBONY-April 1992
limousine, Luther Vandross' "The Power of Love" comes on the radio. Magic stops, draws Cookie close to him, and begins to sing to her. "We've gpt love power, it's the greatest power of them all,' he sings through heilf-closed eyes.
Standing together, swaying to the mu- sic, they radiate a sense of strength. Tliougli he is in the throes of a life and death battle, at this m<inient you feel he is capable of weathering any storm, of going on, even if no one else with this disease ever has.
How many times has he been told the game was over, that there was no way he
aiuld win? And how many times has he defied all odds, every probability, to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? And the only thing at stake then was a game.
"Love is strong, " he says, l)efore dis- appearing into the limo s backseat. As they slice througli the palm-tree-lined streets of Beverly Hills, you can t help wondering if their love will be strong enough to sustain him—how long it will lie able to hold ofFthe devastating conse- quences of this harrowing disease. Only time will tell. This much, though, is cer- tain: Tlieir love has the (xjwer of Magic.
Continued on Nexf Page 107
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100 eBONY»Aph! 1992
'The truth is, she has never stopped loving Magic Thafs why she slapped him— just hauled ojfand smacked him as hard as she could—when, after telling her he had the virus, he ojfered her an easy way out ofthe marriage, '
By Laura B. Randolph Senior Staff Editor
Studio Photographs by Harry Langdon
Anticipating birth of their first chi ld. Clooki« li-ts Masit listi-n to bahy's heartbeat.
\
SHE was just sitting there in the tele- vision rwim, relaxing and flipping
the channels, when he walked in and shattered her world. At first she thought she d misunderstood him, tliat her mind was playing tricks on her.
She coiikln t possibly he hearing him right. He couldn t be telling her he had the AIDS virus. Not now. Not the month after their wedding. Not now that they d finally begun their life together as hus- band and wife. And not now—please, God, not now!—that she was pregnant with the baby they d talked about having for so long.
It had to be a mistake. Some cruel hoax. But one Uxïk at Magics face and Earleatha (Cookie) Johnson knew it was true. "It was, " she says softly, "your worst nightmare come true."
The tears came in uncontrollable waves ("I don t remember how long I
Coniinved on Next Page 101
MAGIC & COOKIE continued cried") and as she struggled to absorb the implications, a rush of emotions vied for control of her mind. There was shock. / can't believe this w happening. Panic. What about the hahy}' Anger. How could you let this happen? But the emotion that triumphed, eclipsing all others, was fear. For herself and for her man.
"I was so scared—for him and for my- self." she confides in her first interview sinc'e her husband, Earvin (Magie) John- son, amiounc-ed he has the AIDS virus. "Just scared to death."
Seeing the depth of her pain. Magic struggled with his own emotions. "I was angry because Id just gotten married and now I had to put this on her, " he says, recalling the rush of feelings that engulfed him after tests for an insurance jxjlicy revealed he had the AIDS virus. "1 was afraid just to go home and tell her . . . I kept going back and forth in my mind wondering, "Howean I soften it? What c-an 1 say?. . ." And Í was shocked liecause I never thought it could happen
102
to me. " But more than any concern for him-
self he hurt for his wife, the woman who had loved him since they were college sweethearts at Michigan State. "We d waited so long and finally we d done it," he says shaking bis head. "I wanted ev- erything to be perfcict. My whole world was going to be perfect with her. And then BAMl"
It couldn t help, of course, knowing he was the primary reason it took 14 years, two postponed wedding dates and, iis Cookie puts it, "a lot of breaking up and getting back together" for their romance to niatnre into marriage. "I'd always thought that I couldn t play bas- ketball and be man'ied," Magic says, in- timating it was the pressures of his daz- zling pro career that made him wait so long to commit. Suddenly he stops. As he stares across the room, you can feel him weighing his next words, deciding just how close to the truth he wants to take you, how deep he wants it to get.
"I was iifraid," he confides upon re- flection. "The truth is, I never really let
With Cookie at his side, Magic tells historic press conference that "because of the HIV virus that I have obtained, I will have to retire from the Lakers."
her into my world. You work so hard and you ve been used to being by yourself making all the decisions by yourself and doing it all alone. Sometimes that's the problem with us being strong Black men. We feel we can t really let a woman into our world. But that's wrong, be- cause you know what I found out? All the time I was thinking she would l>e harm- ful, she was really helpful. Brothers need to understand that old saying is true: 'Behind every good man, there's a goixl woman.' No, make that beside ev- ery good man, there s a good woman."
Though she left her job as a buyer for a Toledo department store three years ago to move to I^s Angeles, it was only in tlie last \ear that Magic really let her be- come an integral part of his life. "She went through everything with me—the games, the pain, the playoffs—and I'd never really let that happen before," he confesses. "She helped me so much I said, 'Wow, I should have been doing this a long time ago.'"
That's exactly what he told her tliat af- tenioon last August when, while vaca-
EBONY* April 1992 Continued on Page 104
Celebrating the power of their love, couple share tender moments dancing to Luther Vandfoss' hit song, "The Power of Love. " Magic says, "We dance to Luther all the
MAGIC & COOKIE continued tioning in the Virgin Islands, he ealled her in L.A. and told her he was finully ready. "Id been thinking al>out her ev- ery day," he remembers. "I tried to get her to marry me the next week. I didn t want to wait an\- longer." Three weeks later they wed. "It was the best thing I ever did, " he says, breaking into his sig- nature light-up-the-night smile.
Magic and Cookie are sitting, hands entwined, in a photographers studio in Beverly Hills. Cookie is explaining why she doesn't like—and rarely gives—in- terviews. "I prefer the background," she says, finding and holding her husband's gaze. "I'm much more comfortable there. "
In person, she is much taller (5'8") and thinner {size 4) than she appears in her photographs. In íact, though she is well into her pregnancy, save for a slight bulge in her midrifi she's still taut, lean, willowy.
"You'll be fine," Magic assures her, pulling her close and smoothing her
104
hair. "I'm going to step outside so you can talk woman to woman. But I'll be close if you need me. '
"I wanted everything to be perfeet. My whole world was going to be perfect with her. And then BAM!"
—Magic Johnson
Magic and Cookie have been close since 1977 when, as college freshmen, they met at a party. "It was so funny be- cause every girl on campus wanted to meet him," Cookie remembers ofthe night she first set eyes on Magic. "I just thought forget it. There's no way he's going to pick me over all these other women. "
Wiiich, of a>urse, he did—although he waited until she was leaving to ask for her phone number. "1 said, 'What?
You've never asked me to dance, never had a conversation with me. . . . ' But he said hed watched me the whole night," she says wistfully.
And their 14-year love affair began. Though she's stayed the course with
Magic, it wasn't always easy. In addition to the normal complexities of love. Cookie had so much more to deal with. Anyone as famous—as adored—as Magic comes with a lot of baggage: the press, the groupies, the incessantly in- trusive lifestyle. And there was also Magics obsession with basketball, his complete and total preoccupation with the game. "It wasn't always easy," she ac- knowledges. "There was a lot of break- ing up and getting back together, a lot of ups and downs. We've been through ev- erything together."
Part of "everything" was Magic's at- traction to other women and his enor- mous appeal to them. As the most lumi- nous star in basketball, he could have as many women as he wanted. And though she sat there looking so composed, so se-
EBONY» April 1992
time." The basketball legend has received thousands of letters and bas become, in bis words, a national "educator" on tbe AIDS epidemic.
rene, as Magic told the world lie con- tracted the AIDS virus from un- protected sex and that the women he had slept with were so numerous he couldn t be sure who had infected him, she could not help being concerned.
"Whatever the price, she was in for the duration."
THE truth is, she has never stopped loving Magic—a fact she felt he, of
all people, should know. That s why she slapped him—^just hauled off and smacked him as hard as she could—- when, after telling her he had the virus, he offered her an easy way out of the marriage.
"I told her I would understand com- pletely if she wanted to leave," he re- calls. "I couldn't even get the words out of my mouth before she slapped me. . . . My grandmother and mother always told me Black women are strong, hut I'm just now finding out what they
EBONY «April 1992
THE impetus that spurs Magic Johnson's declared war on
AIDS is the high incidence of the disease in Black America. Ac- cording to the Center for Disease Control, of all people diagnosed with AIDS (206,392), almost one- third (60,037) are Blaek.
In New York and New Jersey, AIDS is the No. 1 killer of Black women aged 15 to 44. The national numbers are just as frightening. More than half (52 percent) of all women with AIDS are Black. For Black children and babies, the num- bers are wi)rse: of the 3,471 children with AIDS, 1,844 (53 percent) are Blaek. And of all babies Iwrn wi -h AIDS, a startling 58 percent are Black. Almost 50,000 Black men have been diagnosed with AIDS. That means one out of four inen di- agnosed with AIDS is Biack.
meant. . . . I don't know of many women who would have stayed in this situation. "
That's probably because there aren't many. Frankly, there isn t a person on earth who would fault Cookie if she left. After all, the only reason she is in this situation i.s because of Magics failure to practice safe sex. Which leads right back to the critical question, the one every- body wants to know: Why didn't she just pack her bags and walk?
"I love him very much and I always have," she says slowly, trying to find a way to express what she feels. "We've been together off and on for 14 years and the love that we've built up over that time period is what I hold on to. There's no way—even though something like this happened—that I was going to just throw it all away and not stand by him and leave him to deal with it by himself There's no way I would do that.'"
That's exactly what she told Magic— after she slapped him. Whatever it took, whatever the price, she was in for the duration. "I never even tliought about
Continued on Next Page 105
Meeting with President flush on his first visit to White House as a member of the National Commis- sion on AIDS, Commissioner Johnson urges the president to get more involved in tlie fight against AIDS. "No matter how good the team may be," he told the president, "it won t win the championship without the owner fully in the game,"
MAGIC & COOKIE continued leaving," slie says. "To stay by him was not a hard thing to do."
Then the tabloid rumors started— how she has moved out of the bedroom and into tlie maid s quarters. How she is so terrified the baby will get the virus she is agonizing over whether or not to have an abortion. How she is so scared of contracting the virus she won t even let Magic touch her, never mind make love to her.
Cookie lauglis when you teU her these stories. "All of those rumors are false," she says. Aside from severe morning sickness ("My first three months I was sick morning, noon and night"), she is feeling fine, she says— emotionally and physically. Though medical experts warn it can take as long as six months for AIDS antibodies to show up in the blood system, she has tested negative twice and wants everyone to know her doctors feel confident both she and the baby are out of tlie woods.
As for their marriage, "it has only got- ten stronger, it s just fine, " she discloses. Ditto for their sex life. As Magic puts it, "We are still doing our thing. " In fact, he says, the only restriction the doctors have placed on physical intimacy "is that we can t have unprotected sex"—a stip- ulation Cookie maintains she is "very c-omfortable" with.
"We ve been together forever and there is nothing that is going to keep us 106
apart. . . ," she says, dismissing all the gossip with a wave of her hand. "I hon- estly feel that the Lord is going to heal him and that we arc going to live to- gether forever and have more children and be happy. I honestly feel that."
And there is something about the way she says it, about the way her face softens whenever she looks at Magic or says his name, that makes you know she means it—that this isn t just a public re- lations answer or wishful thinking on a California morning.
But to understand her faith, you have to understand one fundamental thing about Cookie Johnson. She loves Magic. Totally. Completely. Unflinchingly. And that love has made her strong—strong like a rock. And that strength is what Magic is holding on to, what is getting him through. "Between Cod and her," he says softly, "they give me the strength to carry on. "
That, and his belief that he has been chosen to carr)' a message. Tm doing the Lord's work. . . ," he says, referring to his determination to prevent "a gener- ation of Black Americans from being devastated" by AIDS.
"Before, I was on my agenda. Now I m on God's agenda. . . ," he says. "They told me I went from being a leader on the basketball court to a leader among people, especially my people . . . and Tm trying to learn how to handle it.
I don't know yet what it all entails but I'm ready for it. I'm ready to lead my people."
In the five months since be stood at the podium in the Great Western Fo- nini in Inglewood, Calif., and forever changed the way America in general and Black America in particular thinks about AIDS, he has spent countless hours trav- eling the country educating young peole about responsible sex ('I tell them absti- nence is liest but if not, use a condom "), joined, at President Bush's personal re- quest, the National Commission on AIDS, and formed The Magic Johnson Foundation to raise money for the re- search and development of a cure.
Still, even braced by their faith. Magic and Cookie admit their lives are far from worry free. While they're hope- ful, even optimistic, about the future, they are also mindful of the virulent na- ture of this disease. Yes, concedes Cookie, the thought of "not having him around to watch our child grow up, of us not growing old together" sometimes haunts her. She stops, looks away, un- able to finish. "But if that's what the Lord chooses to do, then that's the way I'll have to deal with it, ' she says softly.
And sometimes—-not often Init some- times—Magic, too, can hear the faint echo of his mortality, he can sense its fleeting footsteps. "If God says that it's my time, then it's my time, " he says qui- etly. "Death doesn't scare me."
But he's only 32 years old, the age when most people are just beginning to comprehend lite, not contemplating death. How can he be so calm, so san- guine?
"I guess because I have so much to be thankful for, " he says with the serenity of a man who has made peace with himself his life, his choices. "I've won champion- ships, been around the world, and I was able to finally marry her. And hopefully we'll have a big, strong healthy baby and they'll live on. And I'm hoping and pray- ing and I/et'/ that I'm going to be here with them. "
And if not? "If not," he says gently, "I know that I've saved a lot of lives. I know this world will líe a better place because of what iVe done. No matter what hap- pens to me, I hope that I will make a difference. And no matter what, I've had a good time. "
Not that the good times are over— they aren't, he insists. Not by any means. "Nothing has changed. I'm feel- ing as strong as ever, " he says, noting the AZT treatments he started shortly after he announced he had the virus have had no side effects, thougli his doctors have decided to try some other things. "
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His daily four-mile run and workout.s at the gym are keeping him in shape for the summer Olympics, and next year he will lead a U. S. all-star team in a series of games abroad. And who knows? he says. If he continues to feel this strong he may even return to play for the Lakers. "I haven't ruled out coming back," he con- cedes.
But all that is in the distant future. Right now, he says apologetically, he has to say g(K)dbye. He is meeting Michael Jackson across town in 15 minutes, then he and C ookie are catching a plane to Hawaii. As they head for their waiting
EBONY-April 1992
limousine, Luther Vandross' "The Power of Love" comes on the radio. Magic stops, draws Cookie close to him, and begins to sing to her. "We've gpt love power, it's the greatest power of them all,' he sings through heilf-closed eyes.
Standing together, swaying to the mu- sic, they radiate a sense of strength. Tliougli he is in the throes of a life and death battle, at this m<inient you feel he is capable of weathering any storm, of going on, even if no one else with this disease ever has.
How many times has he been told the game was over, that there was no way he
aiuld win? And how many times has he defied all odds, every probability, to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? And the only thing at stake then was a game.
"Love is strong, " he says, l)efore dis- appearing into the limo s backseat. As they slice througli the palm-tree-lined streets of Beverly Hills, you can t help wondering if their love will be strong enough to sustain him—how long it will lie able to hold ofFthe devastating conse- quences of this harrowing disease. Only time will tell. This much, though, is cer- tain: Tlieir love has the (xjwer of Magic.
Continued on Nexf Page 107
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