'Magic' Johnson denies donating blood to COVID patients

There was a story circling the internet that former Lakers player  Magic Johnson, who has HIV, was donating blood to patients with COVID 19. However, the Lakers Legend, came onto his Twitter account to shut this story down. It turns out the photo was over ten years old, and was taken out of context to create this narrative, which obviously created a lot of noise on social media, as most people believed that the story was true.

This story was probably created by people that wanted their accounts to grow. One of the accounts that shared the photo received more than 10,000 likes and more than 25,000 shares. Another account reposted the story with the caption "HE DONATED WHAT?!?,” receiving 38,000 retweets and 233,000 likes. This is why Magic Johnson decided to use his social media to put an end to the story of him donating blood.

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Magic used his Twitter account to share that he had never donated blood before, putting an end to the false rumors. In reality, the photo that shows Magic with a tourniquet around his arm, hooked up to a tube while a doctor obtains a blood sample, was from a 2012 documentary produced by PBS Frontline called “Endgame: AIDS in Black America.” It was captured during a scene that shows Johnson getting his blood drawn at a doctor’s appointment by his longtime physician, Dr. David Ho.

Magic Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in 1991. He decided to retire from basketball after that season. However, he did return to play the Olympic Games of Barcelona 1992 with the Dream Team, and then returned a second time in 1996 to play for the Lakers before retiring for good. "It proved to be the right decision," Johnson said. “It helped people who were living with not just HIV and AIDS, but with any disease, that you can live on, you can be—live a productive life.” commented Magic after his returns to basketball.

Magic Johnson, the best Laker ever

There could be a debate on who's the best Lakers player in history. You can make the argument that Kareem is the best player as he was the leading scorer for a long time. Or maybe Shaq or Kobe as they were part of the three-peat. But Magic Johnson stands above them as he won five NBA championships, three NBA finals MVPs and three regular season MVP. Magic is the number 1 Lakers player.