COMMENTARY : Nation Stunned by Announcement

Excerpts from columns about Magic Johnson in Friday’s newspapers:

Jim Reeves, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram

AIDS came home to our neighborhood today. Mine and yours.

It pulled up a chair, sat down in our midst and began shaking hands, as if it belonged there, as if it wasn’t wearing the dark hood and death mask of the grim reaper. As if--and this is the scary part--it was an old friend, come to pay its respects.

Jackie MacMullan, Boston Globe

My job as a sportswriter is to remain impartial, objective, detached. Most of the time, this is not difficult.

Yesterday it was impossible. When news came across that Magic Johnson had contracted HIV and was retiring from basketball, I was sick to my stomach.

Mike Lupica, New York Daily News

There is a line I read once about Rock Hudson’s death from AIDS. I don’t remember who wrote it, or where it was, but the line went like this: Now everybody knows somebody with AIDS.

And now everybody knows someone who has tested positive. And maybe that was the only positive yesterday. Maybe the fight against AIDS puts a champion, as much champion as there has ever been in American sport, at the point now.

Tony Kornheiser, Washington Post

The first telephone call came around 4 p.m.

“Did you hear about Magic?” a friend asked.

“What about him?” I said.

“He has AIDS. He’s going to retire . . . “

I can’t recall the rest of the conversation, as I was no longer paying attention. I felt the same stunned reaction that I remembered having 28 years before, when I was in a seventh-period math class, and word of John Kennedy’s assassination spread throughout the school like a bad dream.

Stan Hochman, Philadelphia Daily News

Johnson was incredible yesterday, his poise breathtaking, his humor poignant, his message clear.

You can run but you cannot hide from this deadly killer. No one is immune, regardless of race, creed, bankroll, crammed trophy case.

It is winnin’ time, and we are lucky to have Magic Johnson on our side. May God bless him.

Jim Litke, Associated Press

The first reaction was to close your eyes and try to see its perfection one more time, to remember exactly how the smile looked before the light went out of it. Before Magic Johnson found out how much closer he is to the end than the beginning.

He was smiling bravely Thursday when he unburdened himself of that great and terrible secret of our times, and he was smiling again a few minutes later when someone asked him whether he was scared. It figured. But the confusion peeking out from behind the words he struggled to bring forth said otherwise.

Bob Gillespie, The State (Columbia, S.C.)

When the news comes, the first reaction is ridicule. Magic Johnson has the AIDS virus? Yeah, sure, and William Shakespeare was an illiterate. Tell me another good one.

I now have read The Associated Press wire, seen the report on CNN. I still have trouble believing it. No, not believing it, comprehending.

Michael Madden, Boston Globe

“No. No. No, no, no,” my insides wanted to shout. I didn’t want to hear a word of this. My heart hadn’t stopped pounding from the moment 45 minutes before, my stomach was in knots and my heart so heavy. No, no, no. My business is stories, but this is one story I did not want to hear.

Skip Bayless, Dallas Times Herald

. . . Thursday’s news was the most shocking and unsettling from the sports world in my lifetime. A friend called to say she’ll never forget where she was when she heard about Kennedy and about Magic. That’s how big Earvin Johnson is.

That’s how important he now can become.

David Casstevens, Arizona Republic

. . . But because of the virus that affects the immune system, he cannot continue to participate in exhausting physical exercise. Johnson has played his last game. We must be content with the memories he gave us, and the memories are too many to count.

Saying goodbye is hard to do. Some athletes can’t get the words out. The words back up in their throats. But Magic Johnson is unlike most athletes and said what others couldn’t.

Woody Paige, Denver Post

What Magic did for the rise of the NBA to prominence maybe he can do for the cure of AIDS. In his tragedy there could be light. As he said: “It can happen to anyone. It happened to me.”

There will be more concern, more funds, more understanding, more contemplation about AIDS and its ramifications. If it can happen to a sports megastar, it can happen to us.

Jerry Sullivan, Buffalo News

. . . For some reason, all I could think about was his smile. In a couple of hours, Magic would stand up at a nationally televised press conference, and I didn’t even want to watch. I was afraid the smile, Magic’s perpetual happy signature, wouldn’t be there anymore.

Mark Purdy, San Jose Mercury News

You know what I’ll miss the most? Seeing him with a basketball. The master at work. Running with those gimpy knees. Leading the fast break. Making the whole world look one way, then passing the other way. Magic Johnson. In control. Invincible.