Julius Erving

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Julius Erving bigraphy, stories - American basketball player

Julius Erving : biography

February 22, 1950 –

Julius Winfield Erving II (born February 22, 1950), commonly known by the nickname Dr. J, is a retired American basketball player who helped launch a modern style of play that emphasizes leaping and play above the rim. Erving helped legitimize the American Basketball Association (ABA), and was the best-known player in that league when it merged with the National Basketball Association (NBA) after the 1975–76 season.

Erving won three championships, four Most Valuable Player Awards, and three scoring titles with the ABA’s Virginia Squires and New York Nets (now the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets) and the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers. He is the sixth-highest scorer in ABA/NBA history with 30,026 points (NBA and ABA combined). He was well known for slam dunking from the free throw line in Slam Dunk Contests and was the only player voted Most Valuable Player in both the American Basketball Association and the National Basketball Association.

Erving was inducted in 1993 into the Basketball Hall of Fame and was also named to the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time team. In 1994, Erving was named by Sports Illustrated as one of the 40 most important athletes of all time. In 2004, he was inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame. Most observers consider him one of history’s most talented players; he is also widely acknowledged one of the game’s best dunkers. While Connie Hawkins, "Jumping" Johnny Green, Elgin Baylor, and Gus Johnson performed spectacular dunks before Erving’s time, "Dr. J" brought the practice into the mainstream. His signature dunk was the "slam" dunk, since incorporated into the vernacular and basic skill set of the game in the same manner as the "cross-over" dribble and the "no look" pass. Before Julius Erving, dunking was a practice usually among big men to show their brutal strength. This was seen by many as style over substance and unsportsmanlike. Erving, however, changed that misconception and turned the dunk into the most qualitative shot in the game. The "slam dunk", as it is called, became an art form and came to help popularize the sport.

Influences

  • Glenn "Doc" Rivers got his nickname while at Marquette University for the "Dr. J" t-shirt he often wore to basketball practice.
  • Chicago Bears defensive end Julius Peppers was named after Erving.
  • Erving was U.S. President Barack Obama’s childhood sports hero; as a child, he had his posters in his room. "Barack Obama on sports talk radio, April 2, 2008"
  • Erving’s nickname "Dr. J" influenced the rapper Dr. Dre’s name
  • Erving helped influence Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins, and many other legends. Jordan wore his Converse basketball shoes during the 1982 NCAA Finals, where he made a winning shot.

Quotations

  • "As a basketball player, Julius was the first to actually take the torch and become the spokesman for the NBA. He understood what his role was and how important it was for him to conduct himself as a representative of the league. Julius was the first player I ever remember who transcended sports and was known by one name, Doctor". – his coach, Billy Cunningham.
  • "I saw that basketball could be my way out and I worked hard to make sure it was."
  • "Respect is a lot more important, and a lot greater, than popularity."
  • "Here I was, trying to win a championship, and my mouth just dropped open. He actually did that! I thought, ‘What should we do? Should we take the ball out, or should we give him the ball back and ask him to do it again?’ It’s still the greatest move I’ve ever seen in a basketball game, the all-time greatest." – Magic Johnson on the Baseline Move.
  • "We heard about Julius Erving and asked for a tape of him. We got this grainy black-and white film of the UMass-North Carolina game in the NIT. The quality was so bad that you could hardly tell what was going on, but we saw enough of Julius to sign him after his Junior year. Since we’d never seen him live before he wore a (Virginia) squires uniform, we thought he’d be able to help us on the boards and we hoped he’d be able to score some. We had no idea what he’d become." – Johnny "Red" Kerr
  • "….If you look at greatness there is one quality all these players have. They’re always striving for perfection even though they know they’ll never achieve that. Julius Erving was no different." – Billy Cunningham
  • "Julius Erving did more to popularize basketball than anybody else who’s ever played the game. I remember going to the schoolyard as a kid the day after one of his games would be on TV. Everybody there would be saying, ‘Did you see The Doctor?’ And we’d all start trying to do those moves." – Magic Johnson