When the Game Was Ours - Larry Bird [120]
A week after his appearance on Arsenio Hall's show, Magic received an invitation from President George H. W. Bush to join his National Commission on AIDS. Johnson was genuinely flattered and eager to get involved, but first he needed to do his homework. Glaser and another activist, Derek Hodl, pointed out the serious flaws in the Bush administration's approach to AIDS. They armed Magic with statistics to back up the assertion that the president wasn't doing enough. Johnson presented those facts and figures to Bush when he met with him at the White House. The president accepted the data, then presented Magic with a pair of cuff links and gave him a tour of the White House horseshoe pit. Johnson left hopeful that Bush and the commission would become a major player in the fight against AIDS and HIV.
The support did not materialize. While Magic forged ahead with an educational television program on HIV aimed at teenagers and young adults and wrote a book for the same target group, the president failed to adequately fund research or treatment for the disease. It soon became evident to Johnson that the commission was an impotent organization hamstrung by a president who simply had not made AIDS or HIV a priority.
"It was the worst thing I've ever been a part of," Magic said. "They were so hung up on their 'regulations,' we couldn't get anything accomplished."
The final indignity came in the fall of 1992 when Johnson toured a new hospice in Boston. The gleaming facility featured state-of-the-art equipment and twenty new beds for AIDS patients, but only two of those beds were filled.
"There were hundreds of people trying to get in there," Magic explained, "but the only way they could was to have the proper 'certification.' And they couldn't get the certification because of all this political red tape that Bush had created. I said to one of the committee members, 'Are you joking? These people are dying and they need these beds, and they're sitting here empty because you guys say they need some piece of paper?'
"I quit the next day."
On September 25, Johnson drafted a letter to President Bush and formally resigned from the commission, citing the president's lack of support in the fight against AIDS.
"I cannot in good conscience continue to serve on a commission whose important work is so utterly ignored by your administration," Magic wrote.
Johnson's resignation triggered headlines across the country. Bird smiled when he read Magic's comments in the morning paper.
"I was glad he quit," Bird said. "Sometimes people just want to use your name. It happens all the time with people like Magic and me. I knew how seriously he took his fight against AIDS. I figured he'd get a whole lot more done doing it his way."
The Magic Johnson Foundation was created in 1991 with the aim of raising awareness of AIDS and HIV by providing education, treatment, and research. One of the first donations he received was a sizable check from actor and devout Lakers fan Jack Nicholson. He was also genuinely touched to receive a personal check for $50,000 from Charlotte Hornets and Washington Bullets guard Rex Chapman, who was not particularly close to Magic but who explained in his brief note that he felt "compelled to help with a wonderful cause."
The foundation would aid more than 350,000 people through community grants, education on HIV, scholarships, the opening of HIV/AIDS clinics, the provision of mobile testing units to under-served communities in Los Angeles, and a partnership program with the Abbot Pharmaceutical Company, called "I STAND With Magic," aimed at decreasing the alarming number of new HIV/ AIDS infections in minority communities.
The inroads the foundation made would be both rewarding and gratifying, but the foundation did not fill the void created by Magic's retirement.
Even though he would not play for the Lakers during the 1991–92 season, Johnson's name still appeared on the All-Star ballot, which had been printed months before his announcement that he was HIV-positive. As the votes began to be tallied, it was clear that