May 26th: Shawne Williams awed by PJ. "Magic still talks the talk on HIV, AIDS"

[Phil]

Williams headed to NBA
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By Gary Parrish
Contact
May 26, 2006
Shawne Williams spent Thursday at the Los Angeles Lakers' practice facility conducting his first private workout as a full-fledged professional. Everything was cool, until he looked up.

"I saw somebody in this room up top looking down, and then I knew it was Phil Jackson," Williams said by cell phone from L.A. "It was the weirdest thing ever in life. I just couldn't believe how this is really real."

Really real, and really official now that Williams has signed with Immortal Sports Agency. The byproduct is that the 6-9 forward no longer has the option of returning for his sophomore season at the University of Memphis, meaning those college classes have been substituted with a whirlwind tour of workouts that includes next week's evaluations for the Bulls, Knicks and Sixers.

"He's going to work out for teams as high as fifth or sixth in the draft and a good portion of the teams down to 15," said Happy Walters, who will represent Williams along with Bill McCandless. "He's definitely a first-round pick."

[Phil]

Magic still talks the talk on HIV, AIDS
By JEFFRY SCOTT
Cox News Service
Friday, May 26, 2006

ATLANTA — The man who has come to personify pharmaceuticals winning the war on AIDS, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, swung through Atlanta on Thursday as part of a 10-city tour promoting his new partnership with Abbott Laboratories and its anti-AIDS drug, Kaletra.

Looking robust and muscular in a red golf shirt and black slacks, the 6-foot-9 former Los Angeles Lakers guard told a crowd of about 100 at Grady High School Auditorium his good fortune and continued health in the 15 years since he was diagnosed with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has been both a "a blessing, and a curse."

"People look at me and say 'it's cool,' " not to worry about AIDS, he said. His prominence, and success as a businessman since retiring from the NBA 10 years ago, has spawned speculation that he has privileged access to treatment, he said.

"They say 'Magic' is on something magic. No. The same 26 drugs available to you are available to me."

During a question and answer period, audience member Bruce Stagner, 45, reiterated the point that Johnson's remarkable survival sends a mixed message. "I worry that people get the impresssion the disease can be managed like diabetes," he said. "I worry that people with HIV don't think they have to tell their partners that they have HIV."