Isiah Thomas questioned Magic's sexuality

October 23, 9:57 PMBisexuality ExaminerMike Szymanski

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Magic and Isiah kissing in past games

Andrew D. Bernstein, Getty Images

When Magic Johnson first tested positive for HIV, it was fellow player and longtime friend Isiah Thomas who tried to find out if the legendary married basketball player was bisexual.

Those are the allegations in Johnson's upcoming book "When the Game Was Ours."

In the book, Johnson says his former friend kept spreading rumors about Johnson having sex with men. "Isiah kept questioning people about it," writes in the book, according to The New York Post. "I couldn't believe that. The one guy I could count on had all these doubts. It was like he kicked me in the stomach."

Thomas, a former Detroit Pistons player, who had a brother who died of AIDS, said he was insulted about the accusations by the former legendary L.A. Lakers star.

Johnson announced his was HIV positive in November of 1991. He fathered a son a decade before, and has since married another woman.

The two basketball players were incredible friends and even made news for kissing each other before a game, going as far back as 1988.

In 1992, a detective made news by deducing that Johnson contracted the disease because he was bisexual, saying that Johnson denied being gay, but never denied he was bisexual. The detective, Avinoam Sapir, who was also an Israeli police agent, said:

"He said, 'Look, I am not homosexual. The only thing I can tell you, I am not homosexual.' He can deny very firmly that he is homosexual, and he is truthful. However, he is not denying that he is bisexual."

For the record, Magic was reported as having more than 1,000 female sexual partners in his lifetime and he insists he contracted HIV from a woman.

(On a personal note, I was one of the writers and researchers of the Warner Bros. book "Space Jammin'—The Making of Space Jam" and got to hang out with Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas and many other great basketball players. They discussed bringing Magic in on the movie, but he couldn't work it out, but even during their raucous off-the-record card games in their trailer everyone seemed to only have kind things to say about Magic.)