Magic Johnson and Arthur Ashe have tested HIV positive. Mario Lemieux has Hodgkin’s disease although, unlike Johnson and Ashe, the Pittsburgh Penguins great will probably recover completely and play again.
These are or have been giants in their respective sports.
Johnson is one of the best to have ever played the game of basketball; Lemieux is among the greatest of all time in hockey – there is still a soft spot in the old ticker for Bobby Orr – and Ashe was one of the finest male American tennis players in his time in addition to being one of the few black tennis stars on the circuit.
You’re wondering if there is a message here.
Perhaps this is a mortality check. Perhaps we are being reminded that no matter who we are, our clock is ticking. Life is fragile and fleeting.
Here are two men who have been stricken by a fatal disease and another who might at least have had his career ended abruptly if his disease hadn’t been detected as early as it was.
Perhaps this is telling us to live each and every day as if it were our last and we need to take something positive from each one.
For some reason, we don’t expect people of this stature to be afflicted with these types of diseases.
They seem larger than life to us and, thus, beyond the realm of catastrophic disease.
Wrong.
Perhaps this is meant to put athletics into the proper perspective.
To see some of our sports heroes struck down in the prime of life sends a sharp jolt through our systems.
Maybe we take our sports too seriously. Maybe we lose sight of the fact that they are only games. Maybe we forget that there are other aspects of our lives that are much more important than the Red Sox pennant drive.
This is not to say we should take a casual, care-free approach to sports. Passion is healthy when put into the proper perspective.
Now, when you take a look at these three particular men, you ask yourself what do they have in common other than being such athletically gifted individuals?
More than you might think.
Magic Johnson and Mario Lemieux helped revolutionize their particular sports.
Johnson was the premier dominant all-purpose (passing, shooting and rebounding) point guard who controlled the tempo of the game and provided a creative flair that had been missing from his sport.
Lemieux completely shattered a long-standing stereotype in hockey that tagged virtually every forward above 6-foot-2 as a rough-and-tumble grinder whose penalty minutes would far exceed his number of points. Here was a creative 6-4, 210-pounder who could finesse the puck with the best of them, could score from anywhere and could beat defensemen by using his size, great reach and hockey sense.
Ashe won three Grand Slam events: Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open. His triumphs in the 1968 U.S. Open and the 1970 Australian Open interrupted the dominance of Australian tennis players at the time. His 1975 Wimbledon victory would be the last by an American until John McEnroe won in 1981. Swedish star Bjorn Borg won the five in between. And being a black man in a virtually all-white sport provided an inspiration to other minorities.
There is another common thread shared by Johnson, Ashe and Lemieux: a classy and well-respected demeanor off the field of battle.
All three have been very involved in charity work over the years and have been tremendous ambassadors for their respective sports.
Even though it has been a frustrating year for Lemieux with his back problem and now this, I’m sure he is counting his blessings right now.
The plights of Johnson and Ashe and the brave way they have handled their situations have really heightened AIDS awareness. Not to mention the millions of dollars they have helped raise for the cause.
I’m sure Lemieux’s illness will create more of an awareness of Hodgkin’s disease.
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