‘Magic’ comes to TT in 2004

FORMER National Basketball Association (NBA) superstar Earvin “Magic” Johnson will visit  Trinidad and Tobago in May 2004 to give a series of lectures on the dangers of HIV/AIDS.

This was revealed by head of the Medical Research FQoundation Professor Courtenay Bartholomew when he addressed the Gala Enterprises Presentation of “AIDS 03 Stigma and Discrimination” at UWI’s School of Continuing Studies Auditorium, St Augustine yesterday.
Prior to the 1991-92 NBA season, Johnson announced he was HIV-positive and his retirement from the NBA. Despite being HIV-positive, Johnson led the West to victory in that year’s NBA’s All-Star game and helped the US Olympic “Dream Team” win gold at the 1992 Olympic Games. He continued to play for the Lakers and retired at the end of the 1993-94 season.

In 1996-97, Johnson was nominated to the 50th Anniversary NBA All-Star Team and in 2002, was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Shortly after learning he was HIV positive in 1991, Johnson established the Magic Johnson Foundation (MJF) which actively seeks to raise funds to help community-based organisations in the United States to organise HIV/AIDS education and prevention programmes. The MJF has since expanded its focus to deal with various health, educational and social concerns of community-based organisations and the residents of inner-city communities.

Professor Bartholomew said Johnson’s visit to TT is being made possible through the assistance of a mutual friend, Dr Beny J Primm, Executive Director of the Addiction Research and Treatment Corporation of Brooklyn, New York. Hailing the former NBA player as “a great crusader for lifestyle change,” Bartholomew declared: “He (Johnson) has become a popular evangelist in this respect and what it may take the National AIDS Programme and the MRF years to achieve, he might be able to do in one visit.”