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But not too long after he made his announcement, the world focused its eyes on another face: a sweet, 7-year-old girl who had a hard time dealing with her HIV-positive status.

During a taping of a Nickelodeon AIDS Special that focused on informing youth that the virus can affect anyone, Hydeia Broadbent sat bravely near Johnson among a group of younger children sharing how hard it was for her to deal with negative perceptions of the virus and the teasing she experienced over it. But then she broke down and, fighting through her tears, told him, “I want people to know that we’re just normal people.”

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He put his massive hand on her tiny shoulder and told her, “Aww, you don’t have to cry. Because we are normal people. OK? We are.”

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Now, some 20 years later, Hydeia and Magic continue to be very powerful voices for people living with HIV, CNN reports. Magic became infected because he had unprotected sex. And Hydeia became a victim of the virus through her drug-using mother. Both reunited back in March during a Los Angeles screening of “The Announcement,” a documentary about the NBA legend coming forward about his HIV status. Hydeia’s tearful moment during the Nickelodeon special was replayed during the documentary.

WATCH Magic And Hydeia Talk About HIV 20 Years Ago (Timed at 8:22 in clip)

Magic recalls their first meeting some 20 years ago as a moment that further focused his commitment to HIV/AIDS awareness :

“Hydeia means the world to me,” Johnson said. “When I first met her 20 years ago and saw how emotional and devastated she was by the treatment she was getting from other people, it just broke my heart into pieces.

“That very moment was both sad and inspirational. It made me want to do more to bring awareness to the disease and educate people so that no one would have to feel the way she did that day.”

Hydeia, now 27, continues to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS. In addition to delivering lectures at universities and giving speeches at conferences, she says she is very straightforward when informing young people about how difficult it is to be HIV-positive. Hydeia says she is particularly troubled with today’s younger generation who she feels under-estimates the realities of being HIV-positive.

“I try to tell it as real as I can, that this isn’t a disease they want,” she said. “The current generation, they don’t know the reality of HIV/AIDS. They look at me and Magic Johnson and think you can pop a pill and be OK. They don’t know the seriousness of the disease. They don’t know the side effects of the medicine. They don’t know the financial realities of the situation.

“They really don’t know that you can die.”

Today, African-Americans are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Blacks account for just 14 percent of the U.S. population, but accounted for 44 percent of new HIV infections in 2009. Gay Black men are especially affected. Between 2006-2009, gay men accounted for more than 48 percent of new HIV infections. In 2009, 30 percent of Black women accounted for HIV infections among all Blacks. More than 85 percent of Black women acquired HIV through heterosexual sex.

While those living with HIV/AIDS no longer have to endure the same level of ignorance now as Magic and Hydeia had to deal with more than 20 years ago, numbers provided by the CDC clearly reveal that our community has work even harder to educate each other about HIV.

Hopefully, 20 years from now, neither Blacks nor any any other race of people will have to deal with the ugliness of this horrible virus that brought then seven-year-old Hydeia to tears.

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But Johnson’s involvement in the deal could possibly mean more than just the further diversification of the former NBA great’s business portfolio.

Johnson, who has already become the face of the organization, also has an opportunity to lend his star power to baseball, perhaps spurring the increased participation of African-American players and fans.

According to a Fox Sports report, Johnson has a stake in a sport in which the number of black players and fans has been its lowest numbers in several decades.

Sixty-five years after Jackie Robinson integrated baseball wearing a Dodgers uniform, African-Americans and baseball have an estranged relationship. For example, the percentage of African-Americans on Opening Day rosters has dropped from 18 percent of players in 1991 to 8.5 percent last year.

In addition, only nine percent of fans who attended a major league game last season were African-American, reported a Scarborough Research study. Meanwhile, only six percent of African-Americans consider baseball to be their favorite sport, according to a separate Harris Poll.

However, Tommy Hawkins, the Dodgers’ VP of communications from 1987 to 2005, said Johnson’s involvement in baseball is great news but admitted that one man couldn’t resuscitate African-American interest in the game alone.

Hawkins said:

“Magic will not be able to wave a magic wand over baseball and make that kind of meaningful impact. I think it’s great that he becomes a part-owner, but a lot of work needs to be done to reignite the black response.”

Currently, there are several outreach programs in urban areas that help generate interest in baseball including Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) initiative. New York Yankees pitcher C.C. Sabathia and Boston’s Carl Crawford both participated in RBI as young players.

For his part, Johnson is working with the Jackie Robinson Foundation. Robinson’s daughter, Sharon, is set to be an advisor and focus mostly on community outreach.

The 2012-2013 season has just started and Johnson wants show baseball he’s serious.

In attendance at the Dodger’s opening game last Thursday against the San Diego Padres, he told the San Jose Mercury News:

“When my group bought this team, I said I was going to be there with them, and for them. Today I wanted to show the players exactly what I meant.”

Let’s see if African-Americans respond to Magic’s presence on the baseball diamond like they did to his presence on the basketball court.

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Brett Johnson is a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based writer and the founder of the music and culture blog VeryArtistical.com.

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AFA Foods Inc., based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, operates seven facilities nationwide and supplies beef to such major vendors, such as Safeway, Wal-Mart Stores, Burger King, Jack in the Box, Carl’s Jr., and Wendy’s, has been negligent in paying its debts and is unable to secure bank loans.

Johnson, along with his partners, have filed bankruptcy with the courts because the company “faced with an immediate and unanticipated liquidity crisis.”  According to the company’s interim CEO Ron Allen, profits suddenly took a sharp dive due to “an unfounded public outcry over the use of boneless lean beef trimmings,” he told the Palm Beach Post.

Coupled with the bankruptcy filing comes the likelihood of a layoff of more than 850 employees, although a company spokesperson states that they plan on conducting a quick sale of its assets while keeping layoffs to a minimum.

Until recently, the lean, finely textured beef, known to critics as “pink slime,” was added to America’s fast food, school lunches, and 70 percent of all ground beef sold at grocery stores.  The outcry of pink slime came to a boiling point on March 7th, when the concoction was exposed on an ABC-TV World News report.

Although the beef filler is legal here in the States, it is not legal as a food additive in Canada or the United Kingdom.

Pink slime is actually a processing technique used to separate small amounts of muscle still attached to fatty tissue trimmed off meat.  The pink slime is heated in the separation process, then treated with a “puff” of ammonium hydroxide gas to kill bacteria like E.coli and Salmonella.  The technique has been around for eons and has been applied to some cheeses, puddings, chocolates and even baked products.  Don’t look for the word ammonia to be listed on the ingredients of a food product, though, because it is only a fleeting addition.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture sanctioned the additive as “safe” 20 years ago and in recent times as well.

Thus far, a total of three factories that made so-called “pink slime” beef filler have shut down since public outcry about the filler began.

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The agreement was announced Tuesday night by the team’s owner Frank McCourt who bought the team back in 2004 for $330 million.

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Johnson actually led a group of five other business partners who bid on the team and their offer came out on top in bankruptcy court.  McCourt placed the Dodgers in bankruptcy in order to stop Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig from gaining control of the team.  The L.A. team had accumulated a mountainous debt of more than $600 million, and on top of this, McCourt was in the throes of a bitter and costly divorce with an exorbitant settlement that would put him out of pocket $131 million.  Last December, a judge ruled that McCourt could not sell the team’s future media rights, which forced his hand to unload the franchise.

During the auction process, which was supervised by the courts, McCourt was allowed to select a winning bid.  Reportedly, the winning bid of $2 billion actually exceeds the appraised value of the team, which stands at $1.4 billion including all of its revenue.

The sale must be approved by the court in a hearing on April 13 and the transaction is set to close on April 30 which is the exact day that McCourt must pay his ex the hefty divorce settlement.

Meanwhile, Johnson is ecstatic about his pending major-league purchase.  “I am thrilled to be part of the historic Dodger franchise and intend to build on the fantastic foundation laid by Frank McCourt as we drive the Dodgers back to the front page of the sports section in our wonderful community of Los Angeles,” Johnson said in a statement.

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Magic and Cookie Johnson reflect on that faithful November day in 1991 when Magic revealed to her that he had contracted HIV. Rumor has it that Cookie smacked him when he told her. She remembers it more as a ‘love tap.’

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Several other former and current NBA players paid the $30,000 fee to attend the fundraiser along with Carter and Obama, including Magic Johnson, Chris Paul, and Alonzo Mourning. NBA commissioner David Stern and Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban.

USA Today reports:

“Alonzo (Mourning) and Tracy have been there for me every time I’ve come to Florida,” Obama said. “I could not be more grateful for that. Magic (Johnson) and Cookie, wherever I go in California they’re there for us. Chris (Paul) is helping out on our Fitness Council and allowed me to cross over on him when we played during my birthday.

“He insists that he could have stolen the ball at any time,” Obama said. “But I’m going to still claim it.”

Read More At USA Today

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The moment was a turning point in the history of the virus, bringing HIV to the forefront of the American consciousness and opening African-American eyes to what was then known at the time as a “gay/white” disease.

Twenty years later, Johnson sits down with L.A. Times columnist Bill Plaschke, admitting he is now healthy and how he regrets leaving the NBA.

Read more at Colorlines.

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A second tweet read, “Look forward to help putting people back to work in my home state.”

Read More At WchbnewsDetroit.com

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NEW YORK — The producers and playwright behind the Broadway play “Lombardi” aren’t done with sports just yet.

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They’re planning to go from football to basketball with “Magic/Bird,” a new play that will chronicle the lives of Hall of Famers Larry Bird and Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

“Lombardi” playwright Eric Simonson’s script will trace the two basketball stars’ rivalry and friendship from their days as rookies in the NBA to the Olympic Dream Team.

The six-character play is scheduled to debut on Broadway in 2012.

Like “Lombardi,” which benefited from endorsement by the National Football League, the new play about Bird and Magic will be produced in association with the National Basketball Association.

Producers Fran Kirmser and Tony Ponturo say Johnson and Bird will participate in the creative process.

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NEW YORK — Magic Johnson is set to play point again, this time as chairman of Vibe Holdings, the owner of the magazines Vibe and Uptown and the Soul Train TV show.

The former Los Angeles Lakers superstar will take on the role as part of a new investment by Magic Johnson Enterprises and Ron Burkle’s The Yucaipa Companies in Vibe Holdings, joining its existing owner, InterMedia Partners.

Johnson said Wednesday that his company aims to serve the underserved urban market and work with advertisers seeking to reach it.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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Los Angeles (NBCNews)–Magic Johnson had some advice from up and coming business owners at a conference in Los Angeles designed to bring together investors and business owners from the inner city. NBC Los Angeles reports:

“What you could do is rub elbows with them. Trade information. Tell them what you’re doing, what your business is, why you’re trying to get capital. Probably how much, what’s your business strategy. You can do everything in a day that I had to wait for years to do,” according to Johnson, keynote speaker.

The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) teamed up with the Small Business Administration, and Bank of America to invite than 100 growing inner city companies from around the nation to pitch their ideas to potential investors here in Los Angeles.

Read The Whole Story

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Every hoops fan dreams of that one special birthday when his pro-ball heroes gather on a court to see if he’s got game.

President Obama had that chance Sunday, assembling a virtual dream team of college and pro basketball players for a presidential pickup game in front of wounded veterans and participants in a White House mentoring program. Watch Obama play 3-on-3 here:

Obama, who turned 49 on Wednesday, took to the court for a game with a stunning list of all-stars, including Grant Hill, Shane Battier, Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Derek Fisher, LeBron James, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Maya Moore, Alonzo Mourning, Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, Bill Russell, Etan Thomas, Dwyane Wade and David West. The game was closed to the media.

Click here to read more at WashPost.com

Click here to see gallery of Obama from infancy to presidency

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FROM ESPN.com:

Add Magic Johnson’s voice to fellow Hall of Famer Michael Jordan’s: Neither ever thought of combining forces the way LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh did earlier this month with the Miami Heat.

“We didn’t think about it ’cause that’s not what we were about,” Johnson said at Baruch College in New York, according to Bloomberg News. “From college, I was trying to figure out how to beat Larry Bird.”

Click here to read more.

Click here to view photos:

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Wayne State University‘s Tom Adams Field was packed Wednesday morning to hear first lady’s speech on mentoring and the future of Detroit: the youth.

Obama pushed those in the audience, including more then 5,000 Detroit Public Schools students, to focus on their studies and make a difference in their lives. She used her life and that of her husband, President Barack Obama, as examples of how students can rise from modest upbringings to the highest office in the land.

Michelle Obama, wearing a hot pink, sleeveless dress, told students she was going to share a secret with them, the secret of success.

What was the secret?

“There is no secret,” she said. “It is your education. It is mastering math and science and learning how to write well … that’s what the difference is for so many people.”

WATCH highlights of her speech:

Previous to Michelle’s Speach, Hollywood director Spike Lee and basketball legend Magic Johnson along with a panel full of heavy hitters including former “American Idol” contestant Kimberly Locke. Several local officials joined forces with the first lady including Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Mayor Dave Bing, Congressman John Conyers and Denise Ilitch, whose family owns the Detroit Red Wings. The panel answered student questions and stressed the importance of being a mentor.

Michelle Obama was also accompanied by Michigan first gentleman Dan Mulhern, who actively promotes Mentor Michigan, which oversees more than 200 state mentoring programs, and Susan Cares, founder of the National CARES Mentoring Movement.

The White House said the event is “designed to engage, encourage and inspire.”

Michelle Obama is asking thousands of Detroit-area students to rise up and become the next great leaders of the city and the country.

Click here to view photos:

Obama says she and her husband, President Barack Obama, believe in them and says she knows they “can do this.”

Obama called on everyone to help others, every race, creed, black, white, Asian, Arab-American. And “both sides of Eight Mile,” she said. This quote in particular was a huge hit with the Detroit crowd.

WATCH full speech here:

The first Lady also held a special lunch afterwards with Detroit students.

The Detroit trip is part of Obama’s mentoring outreach. In March 2009, during Women’s History Month, she focused on young women, and paired up female high school students in the Washington, D.C., area with female staff in the White House.

Last year, 28,536 Michigan children were helped by 19,578 mentors, according to a survey of 161 of the Mentor Michigan-supported groups.

There are 238 organizations in the Mentor Michigan Registry.

Such programs have been found to help disadvantaged youths do better in school, have higher self-esteem and not fall into criminal behavior.

Contributing Sources:
Patrick Harris
detnews.com
Morris Davis

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett once said that he would never buy any newspaper for any price, since the industry has potential for unending losses.  Besides financial positions he holds in  a couple of media companies (for reasons that I won’t go into), Buffett avoids that industry like the plague.  Magazines aren’t much different from newspapers, since people just don’t have an appetite for paper anymore.  When the Internet stepped into media, the entire game changed, and I believe that it has changed for the better:  barriers to entry have been eliminated, and power is not concentrated to a select few, but shared in a more Democratic fashion.

Black America is no different from everyone else, as we’ve slowly put down our Ebonys and Jets, and are now getting our news with the click of a mouse.  We are more likely to read sites like NewsOne, TheGrio and Black Voices than we are to actually pay money to carry around a pile of paper with week old information.  The juggernauts of media are dying a slow death, as media has opened up in ways we never thought possible.

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By looking into the purchase of Ebony Magazine, Magic Johnson might be making a good move for himself and his company.  I have no idea how the negotiations are going behind closed doors, and I certainly applaud Magic for trying to save such an important institution within the black community.  I do wonder, however, why other companies have not come along and swooped up Ebony the same way that Essence Magazine was quickly eaten by the Viacom empire.  Is it because Ebony is a risky purchase?  Was the asking price too high?  Was the company insistent upon remaining black-owned?  Personally, I prefer to see Ebony Magazine remained black-owned, but new and creative management strategies are critical in order for the company to prosper.

RELATED: Magic Johnson In Talks To Buy Ebony

Ad revenue for Ebony has dropped to just $35 million per year, a 38 percent decline from a year before.  Ad space in Ebony Magazine was once cherished and valued in the tens of thousands of dollars per ad.  Now, the luster of appearing in their pages has diminished dramatically.  In order for Ebony to survive and prosper, Magic Johnson would have to find a way to utilize the Ebony brand name in a new and more creative business model.  I am not sure if Magic has the expertise to pull it off, but it will be interesting to see if he can.

I must confess, however, that Magic’s business relationships confuse me.  On one hand, I am excited about his commitment to creating economic establishments within African American neighborhoods that others are afraid to visit.  On the other hand, I become disheartened to see Magic doing commercials for companies like Rent-a-Center, where people in urban America are being continuously exploited (the Congressional Black Caucus is also supporting the rent-to-own industry, which is reason for us all to be concerned).   He, and other recognizable black male figures, such as Russell Simmons and Montel Williams are lending their names to companies that charge extraordinarily high fees to either loan you money or give you access to your own money.  Either way, there’s a problem.

RELATED: Report: Ebony Magazine Up For Sale

But the bottom line is that Magic is doing something special with his life.  He has transformed a sad ending to his basketball career into a celebrated revival that presents him as an empowered businessman who remains connected to his community.  The challenge Magic must overcome is making sure that he doesn’t simply become another slum lord, but instead becomes the kind of leader that the community needs in order to make a difference.  For that to occur, he can’t follow the model of Bob Johnson at BET, or that of his buddy Michael Jordan, men who simply waste their lives chasing money:  A more altruistic African American capitalist is someone who knows how to genuinely balance the bottom line with the fact that lifting a community doesn’t always mean making the highest profit you possibly can.  Giving back means more than financing two or three scholarships every year:  It means truly working to lift people out of poverty in a way that genuinely promotes productive behavior.  Productive behavior DOES NOT involve teaching people how to visit the local Rent-a-Center.

It is my hope that Ebony Magazine does indeed find a buyer.  Magic Johnson is as good as any at this point.  But the great challenge for Magic and everyone else involved is that no one knows how deep the rabbit hole goes when it comes to the massive losses in media.  That is going to make this an interesting story to follow.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Magic Johnson, the Hall of Fame basketball player, is in talks to purchase Johnson Publishing Co, the publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

Bloomberg cited Eric Holoman, president of Los Angeles-based Magic Johnson Enterprises, as saying “there have been discussions.” Holoman declined to comment further, Bloomberg said.

Text continues after gallery…
Celebrities Diagnosed With HIV

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Holoman could not immediately be reached by Reuters for comment.

Click here to read more.

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From Sports Illustrated:

When he heard the criticisms from his former friend Magic Johnson in a soon-to-be-released book, Isiah Thomas said he’d had enough. And so he began to fight back.

“I’m really hurt, and I really feel taken advantage of for all these years,” said Thomas, the Hall of Fame point guard and former NBA coach and executive, most recently with the Knicks. “I’m totally blindsided by this. Every time that I’ve seen Magic, he has been friendly with me. Whenever he came to a Knick game, he was standing in the tunnel [to the locker room] with me. He and [Knicks assistant coach] Herb [Williams] and I, we would go out to dinner in New York. I didn’t know he felt this way.”

The criticisms are made by Johnson in When The Game Was Ours, which he co-wrote with Larry Bird and author Jackie MacMullan. The book, to be released on Nov. 4, tells the inside story of the most important rivalry in basketball history.

Much of their story involves Thomas, who as captain of the Detroit Pistons served as a primary threat to the championship ambitions of Bird’s Celtics and Magic’s Lakers. The book offers revelations that have stunned Thomas. Magic addresses years of rumors by finally accusing Thomas of questioning his sexuality after Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in 1991. Magic also admits that he joined with Michael Jordan and other players in blackballing Thomas from the 1992 Olympic Dream Team, saying, “Isiah killed his own chances when it came to the Olympics. Nobody on that team wanted to play with him. … Michael didn’t want to play with him. Scottie [Pippen] wanted no part of him. Bird wasn’t pushing for him. Karl Malone didn’t want him. Who was saying, ‘We need this guy?’ Nobody.”

Click here to read more.

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