Presented by ZAMZOWS.
This Day In Sports…January 30, 1996, 30 years ago today:
Magic Johnson returns to the Los Angeles Lakers lineup for his first regular-season appearance since his 1991 announcement that he had tested positive for HIV. Johnson was 36 years old by then—and 30 pounds heavier—but he played 27 minutes, contributing 19 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists in a 128-118 win over the rival Golden State Warriors. Johnson appeared in 32 games for the Lakers that season before retiring for the final time.
Johnson had suddenly announced his first retirement at the beginning of the 1991-92 season after a physical examination, just after he had played with the Lakers at a tournament in France and had been named the MVP of the event. He later acknowledged that his HIV diagnosis was due to the “harems of women” he had engaged with during his NBA career, and he then stumped earnestly with the message that heterosexual man could indeed contract the disease. Although some teammates were against it, Johnson did play in the 1992 NBA All-Star Game after being voted in as a starter by fans.
Magic also made an exception for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, where he was part of the USA Dream Team that dominated the Games and won the gold medal. He had planned to follow that up with a comeback in the 1992-93 NBA season, but the pushback was such that he remained retired. Johnson would later say he wished he hadn’t done that, but that he had stepped aside because he “didn’t want to hurt the game.”
Toward the end of the 1993-94 season, with the Lakers muddling through at 28-38, team owner Jerry Buss asked Johnson to take over as the team’s head coach. Johnson was intrigued, and he accepted. L.A. won five of its first six games under Johnson but faded quickly, finishing the season on a 10-game losing streak. Magic was no longer intrigued, and he resigned with a 5-11 coaching record.
Johnson returned as a player about 2½ years later, and after that solid debut against the Warriors, he logged the final triple-double of his career in a win over Atlanta two weeks after that. He averaged 14.6 points, 6.9 assists, and 5.7 rebounds in his 32 games, during which the Lakers went 22-10 and made the NBA Playoffs. But this heavier version of Magic was plugged in at power forward instead of point guard, and he was frustrated with that. Johnson toyed with joining another team that would play him at the point, but he ultimately decided to retire for good, ending one of the greatest careers in pro basketball history.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
