well you know you have to understand that he's a guy that loves to hug people and touch
people that's what he's about always has been about
he he embraces that %uh the public
whereas larry was always
well almost claustrophobic with the public
and I think it was very painful for earvin for not only strangers to all of the sudden not want
to touch him
or shake his hand
but his own teammates even some of his friends to really back off him he would
go to hug them and they would stiffen up and back away
so this was the kind of environment he was living in his own
teammates
wouldn't work out with him 'cause they were afraid to get their sweat on him
you know it just it became a really difficult time in his life
so he got used to
you know he would always show up in his practice gear because he just couldn't get basketball out of his system
one day he was working out down at the end of the court by himself
and he hears someone say hey magic you want to do a little one on one and he look down and he
couldn't believe it because no one would go near him
and it was rony seikaly the miami heat the young center from the miami heat
was working out and wanted a partner and said hey earvin you know magic come down here with me work
out with me
and rony seikaly had no way of knowing
how much
it meant to magic that this young player
was willing
to bang with him and to sweat with him
and to work with him
and and then the other of course was pat riley his old coach
who was the coach of the new York knicks
and
when they came to town
earvin was in town
and if you know riley he's
just an incredible stickler about
pre-game preparation
getting everything just right he spends hours before every game reviewing the film of the opponent and
everything
but on this day
he got changed into his practice gear
had earvin change into his practice gear and put him through one of the old-fashioned laker work outs
for about two hours before the game
pretty much ignoring his responsibilities
as the coach of the knicks for that one day
and then in the pre-game
as they were getting ready
he did a wonderful video tribute called do you believe in magic and played that music
for magic on the on the big screen
it was it was a great
gesture
from a man pat riley who usually doesn't
another guy very close to the vest more like larry then earvin really
%uh showing showing how much he cared about
his point guard
everybody knows
how during the career of magic and isaiah Thomas were such good friends
magic calls thomas'
reaction to his HIV announcement the biggest disappointment of his life why?
well I think it was just
devastating to him earvin and
isaiah were the best of friends %uh
when the pistons used to come to LA to play
if the lakers were out of town and and the pistons were coming to play the clippers
magic would leave him the keys to his house
when he built his mansion
he had a special room built called the isaiah room it was his guest room and it was for isaiah
they vacationed in the summers together
their wives were friends you know they were very very close
they shared all their dreams together
but so
for for when this HIV announcement came
as we just talked about
the reaction of all these people around him people that he thought were his friends
to back away and to shy away from him
and then to find out
that Isaiah Thomas the one guy he thought he was going to be able to count on through all this
to find out
that he was
questioning
earvin's sexuality how he got this disease
and questioning people about it
it was devastating to him
and %uh
I think you know when I talked to his wife cookie about it in particular she said
the hurt didn't go away from his face for a long long time
because at that point you're looking who are my real friends
who are the people
that are willing to have my back no matter what
and interestingly enough one of the biggest people was larry bird
how was he one of the biggest people well you know what
the minute he found out about the diagnosis
he wanted to talk to earvin everybody else was like oh this is terrible can I talk to him
well no he's busy
and larry said no no I need to speak with him 0:03:36.839,0:03:37.860 and he called him
you know wanted to talk to him
and of course earvin ended up cheering larry up 'cause larry was devastated by this diagnosis
and what he did was
very quietly
that's all larry does everything
during this time where people were really shying away from him
larry is the one that
sent him a little note
get a job or you know something a little funny like that
or make a phone call
or support him publicly by saying something nice about him in the papers
and it was they were subtle little things but they were things that
earvin desperately needed
how's he doing now
he's doing really really well there's no trace of the HIV virus in his system
which he is very excited about
but as he
cautions and and every time I talk about this he asks me to do the same
he still takes his medication
he's never stopped taking his medication and he said one of the big mistakes of the HIV
population is
they start feeling good they start feeling really good the medicine works
and there's some side effects from the medicine that aren't so great
so they think you know what
I'm just going to go off the medicine till I start feeling bad again
and that's a very dangerous thing to do
you need to stay on your medication
at all times
and because the relapse can be very serious and the last thing you want to do is
contract
the aids virus itself
HIV is very different than
the full-blown aids
but earvin is very smart about what he does he has a very
specific regiment work out
very specific diet
much to his dismay he can't eat a lot of what he used to eat he was never a drinker so that's not an issue
so he takes very good care of himself it's not by accident that he's got this great health
report because he takes it very seriously