Magic Johnson was forced to pay wife Cookie Johnson $1 million to touch a basketball again
Sarah Rodriguez Magic Johnson had to leave things unfinished when he tested positive for HIV out of the blue, so he tried making a comeback 4 years later.
Advertisement
After a team medical prior to the 1991-92 season, Magic Johnson terrified the whole nation, when he announced he had HIV while still carrying a smile that could stop wars.
HIV/AIDS was killing countless people around the world at the time and was seen as an epidemic without any cure. It was a death sentence.
Advertisement
And when one of the biggest superstars in the United States caught it, everyone started thinking they’ll get it too and when they do, they will succumb to it.
With his will and desire to live, not only did Johnson fight the deadly virus all too well, he kept it in such control that he made a comeback after four years into his retirement. But he didn’t please many people with that decision.
Magic Johnson had to pay a hefty sum to his wife to convince her for allowing him to play just one more season
Johnson was a tremendous source of strength to the world, which needed a whole lot of it, and was looking at him as the leader who will see them through this long and dark tunnel.
But even he required somebody to give him moral support following a life-changing event at just 32 years of age. And that somebody would certainly be his wife and the mother of his children – Cookie Johnson.
Advertisement
Even though Magic confessed his relationship with numerous women as the cause of his HIV infection, Cookie came around when she could have easily let go. But it was beyond her when Magic decided to go back to the NBA in 1995.
“My wife told me, ‘That’s it, one (season) and get out.’ Or she’ll leave me. Cookie always told me I was coming back: ‘No way you’re working out three times a day, and you’re not coming back, you can’t tell me.’ I said, you haven’t given me your OK yet. So I bribed her. I gave her a million dollars,” Johnson said, according to Los Angeles Times.
“It was a lot more than that,” cleared Cookie Johnson.
Paid a ‘lot’ more than a million to play basketball? Perks of having a fortune of more than $600 million, we suppose!
Advertisement
