MAY 11, 1980 JULIUS ERVING
When Julius Erving was in high school, he had a good friend he called “Professor.” This friend had earned his nickname because he liked to talk on and on about whatever subject they were discussing — a habit that reminded Erving of a professor giving a lecture. The friend didn’t mind the nickname but thought that Erving needed one, too. So he told Erving that if he was the Professor, then Erving must be the Doctor.
Erving’s nickname eventually evolved into the one basketball followers know him by: Dr. J.
Dr. J arrived on the professional basketball scene in 1971, a chaotic time in the sport’s history. Five years earlier, a new league, the American Basketball Association (ABA), had been created by businessmen hoping to establish lucrative franchises in places the NBA had not yet reached. Best known for its signature red, white, and blue basketball and its introduction of the three-point shot, the ABA promoted a flashy, acrobatic style of play — as well as flashy, acrobatic players.
Of all those players, none compared to Dr. J. A mediocre player who was not quite six feet tall as a freshman in high school, Erving grew tremendously in the years that followed. By the time he enrolled at the University of Massachusetts, he stood at nearly six feet seven inches tall. He had such enormous hands that a basketball held in his palm looked like an orange!
Erving had grown in skill as well as stature. Basketball scouts from both leagues watched him carefully. Then, in his junior year, the Virginia Squires of the ABA made him an offer. Erving accepted and left school to begin his professional career.
He made an immediate impact in the league. He could jump higher than the tallest player, hang in the air longer than seemed possible, and thread his way through the tightest defense. Every move he made was graceful, powerful, and controlled. While other players bulled to the basket and blindly stuffed the ball through the hoop, he floated above the rim, cradling the ball, and dunked it.
“When handling the ball,” he recalled in an interview once, “I always would look for daylight…. Sometimes there’s only a little bit of daylight between two players, and you’d find a way to get the ball between those two bodies and you make something happen.”
Erving made something happen nearly every time he touched the ball. But he didn’t just captivate people with his monstrous talent. He also impressed them with his dignified demeanor on and off the court. In a league where crazy antics and self-promotion were rampant, the Doctor kept his cool.
Erving played for the Squires for two seasons. Then, in 1973, he was traded to another ABA team, the New York Nets, where he played for another three years. Fans adored watching him play, but unfortunately, while he was soaring to ever greater heights with each passing year, the ABA was steadily losing ground to the NBA.
Unlike games in the NBA, ABA contests weren’t shown on national television. Some games didn’t even receive local coverage. That made it hard for the fledgling league to add to their already small fan base or to lure spectators away from the more easily accessible NBA. The ABA also had to battle the NBA for good players — and then, if they were lucky enough to get those players, they had to work hard to keep them. That became increasingly difficult as ticket sales dwindled and money grew tight.
Finally, in 1976, the ABA was left with two choices: fold completely or merge with the NBA. It chose to merge. The best players of the five lowest-ranking teams were cherry-picked for NBA teams. The remaining four teams — the Denver Nuggets, the New York Nets, the Indiana Pacers, and the San Antonio Spurs — became part of the NBA.
Erving was with the Nets at the time of the merger. The NBA and its fans were thrilled to have him in their league. In fact, some believe the NBA pushed for the merger for one simple reason: they wanted, perhaps even needed, Erving!
As it turned out, the NBA was not without its own troubles. Compared to the fast-action ABA games, NBA games were dull; compared to risk-taking ABA players, NBA players were cautious. Enthusiasm for the league, once so strong, had begun to fade.
All that changed in 1976. Before the start of the season, Erving was traded from the Nets to the Philadelphia 76ers. In no time at all, he charged the team with his special brand of energy, and dazzled players and fans alike with his gravity-defying moves and sharpshooting. Buoyed by Erving, the Sixers reached the Finals in 1977 for the first time in ten years. They were number one in the Atlantic Division again the following year, but made it only as far as the Eastern Conference finals. They made it farther in the playoffs in 1979 but lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
It had to have been frustrating for Erving and the Sixers to have come so close to the championship three years in a row. Yet Erving rarely showed any dismay or anger. Instead, he remained as dignified as ever, proving to basketball followers everywhere that a person could be a fierce competitor without losing control.
“Julius was the first to truly take the torch and become the spokesman for the NBA,” a former coach and longtime friend once said. “He understood what his role was and how important it was for him to conduct himself as a representative of the league.”
The 1979–80 season found the Sixers falling just short of the Celtics to take the second-place slot again. But they roared through the playoffs, winning ten out of twelve games, including four against Boston, to reach the Finals for the second time since Erving joined the team. There they would face the Los Angeles Lakers, a team loaded with incredible talent, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and rookie forward Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
The Lakers took the first game, 109–102. But the Sixers tied it up the next meeting, winning 107–104. Dr. J set the tone for that game by slamming down a dunk over Abdul-Jabbar in the first minutes. Unfortunately for Philadelphia, the Lakers stormed ahead three nights later, besting the Sixers 111–101, thanks in large part to the unstoppable Abdul-Jabbar, who scored 33 points and ripped down 14 rebounds.
Game four was also played in Philadelphia. The Spectrum Arena was packed with fans eager to see if their hometown heroes could knot the series at two games apiece. But that night, they got far more than they could have hoped for — they witnessed one of the greatest moves any basketball player has ever made.
The game was a hard-fought battle, and late in the fourth quarter, the score stood at 89–84 in favor of the Lakers. The Sixers got possession and fed the ball to Dr. J. He drove to the right baseline, beating defender Mark Landsberger as he did. Now he had a chance for a dunk or a layup. He leaped, ball palmed securely in his right hand, his left arm straight out to hold Landsberger at bay.
Suddenly, as Erving sailed above the baseline, Abdul-Jabbar jumped in front of him, arms high and ready to block the shot! In the blink of an eye, Dr. J shifted his trajectory—in midair—so that he sailed out of bounds with the ball an arm’s length behind the backboard.
“So now here he is, walking through the air,” said Magic Johnson, an on-the-floor eyewitness to the moment. “I’m thinking, ‘There’s no way Doc can float all the way from this side. We got him.’”
But they didn’t have him. When Dr. J couldn’t shoot from the right, he shot from the left — by swooping the ball under the hoop, past Abdul-Jabbar, and against the left side of the backboard for a reverse layup that gently banked through the net — all while he was gliding through the air!
The crowd exploded, roaring and cheering. The announcers bellowed in disbelief. Magic Johnson’s jaw dropped open. “I could not believe my eyes because of the move this man had just made,” he recalled later, his voice still full of amazement.
The Sixers won game four, 105–102, but in the end, the Lakers won the Finals. The sixth game is nearly as memorable, for that’s when rookie Magic Johnson stepped in for an injured Abdul-Jabbar and ended up with 42 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals. No doubt Magic was thrilled to have helped his team become the champions. Yet nothing compared to what he had witnessed Dr. J do two games earlier.
“It’s still the greatest move I’ve ever seen in basketball,” he once said. “The all-time greatest.”
Julius “Dr. J” Erving played for the Philadelphia 76ers until 1987. When he was on the team, the Sixers went to the playoffs every year, and in 1983, they beat the Lakers to win the championship title. Erving retired with an ABA-NBA career total of 30,026 points, 10,525 rebounds, and 5,176 assists.