That Magic moment

It doesn't seem like 15 years ago today when Magic Johnson sat at the Forum press conference with Jerry Buss, Jerry West and a bunch of other red-eyed Lakers officials and announced that after 12 seasons, he'd have to retire because he was HIV-positive.
And, by the way, that doctors told him he only had a couple of years to live.
The reason it doesn't seem like 15 years? Some will say it seems like it just happened yesterday. Maybe that's because he tried to make one comeback, then came back to coach, then really did come back for the last 32 games of the 1995-96 season before he really did stop.
To me, that retirement day of shock and tears seems like a lifetime ago.
With all that's happened since then, especially with AIDS education and treatment, it seems as if the disease is so common, so much an every-day part of society, that we've known about it, live with it, and have been dealing with it for much longer than 15 years.
"The real story is I've been living with HIV for 15 years," Johnson said today. "No, I'm not cured. And I think that I've just been blessed. I've been able to take my medicine, work out, and do the right things. And that's why I've been doing so well. But anyone can get this disease if they are not careful. People can't let their guard down. I can't stress that enough.''
Read some of the stories online about the advancement of AIDS care -- there are an estimated 1.1 million today who have either AIDS or HIV -- and how Magic is still coping with it.
-- Start with a visit to his foundation's website , where he lays out all his mission statements about wanting to better society through his initives.
--The November issue of GQ magazine is another interesting starting point, reliving those few days of when he found out, when he finally told his teammates, and how he finally went public.
--The Detroit News has a story about how Magic continues to go around the country lecturing kids on the dangers of AIDS and has opened four clinics in the area around his hometown of Lansing, Mich. -- but none in Detroit, where it's sorely needed.
--On the KNBC Channel 4 website, Dr. Bruce Hensel discusses how Johnson has survived the last 15 years and what progress has and hasn't been made. There's also a video clip of Magic's Forum press conference from that day.
--Elliott Kalb has a column on Fox Sports.com about how that press conference was a defining moment for his generation, when he watched that press conference 15 years ago having a flashback to Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig in "Pride of the Yankees" making his famous speech just before he died.
Magic didn't die. But we didn't know it at the time. Look how far we've all come.
So where were you and what were you doing on Nov. 7, 1991, when American sports stood still?