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Lakers Trainer Gary Vitti: Magic’s HIV Reveal, Kobe’s Achilles & Shaq’s Wildest Pranks
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Eight rings. 32 years. The man who saw every Kobe Bryant practice and game finally sits down. Former Los Angeles Lakers head athletic trainer Gary Vitti opens up on November 7, 1991, the day he realized Magic Johnson was HIV positive before anyone told him. He also revisits the 1985 Memorial Day Massacre in Boston, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s accountability speech, and why HBO’s Winning Time got Jerry West and Dr. Jerry Buss wrong. He breaks down Pat Riley’s famous “12 + 2 + 1” inner circle and why Kareem still has the strongest GOAT case. Then come the Shaq stories: police academy frisking that broke Vitti’s pelvis, wild locker-room pranks, Kobe getting waterboarded by Navy SEALs, the Sacramento…