Julius Erving

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

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 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 ABA and the NBA. The basketball slang of being posterized was coined to describe his moves. In 1980, Erving was honored as one of the league's greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA 35th Anniversary Team. In 1993, Erving was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. 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. In both 1996 and 2021, Erving was again honored as one of the league's greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA's 50th and 75th anniversary teams, respectively. Many consider him one of the most talented players in the history of the NBA; he is widely acknowledged as one of the game's best dunkers. While Connie Hawkins, "Jumping" Johnny Green, Elgin Baylor, Jim Pollard and Gus Johnson performed spectacular dunks before Erving's time, Erving brought the practice into the mainstream. His signature was the slam dunk, since incorporated into the vernacular and basic skill set of the game in the same manner as the crossover dribble and the no look pass. Before Erving, dunking was a practice most commonly used by the big men, usually standing close to the hoop, to show their brutal strength which was seen as style over substance, even unsportsmanlike, by many purists of the game; however, the way Erving utilized the dunk more as a high-percentage shot made at the end of maneuvers generally starting well away from the basket and not necessarily a show of force helped to make the shot an acceptable tactic, especially in trying to avoid a blocked shot. Although the slam dunk is still widely used as a show of power, a method of intimidation and a way to fire up a team and spectators, Erving demonstrated that there can be great artistry and grace in slamming the ball into the hoop, particularly after a launch several feet from that target.

In Their Own Story

Erving was born February 22, 1950, at Meadowbrook Hospital, East Meadow, on Long Island, and raised from the age of 13 in Roosevelt, New York. Prior to that, he lived in nearby Hempstead. He attended Roosevelt High School and played for its basketball team. He received the nickname "Doctor" or "Dr. J" from a high school friend named Leon Saunders. He explains: "I started calling [Saunders] 'the professor' and he started calling me 'the doctor'. So it was just between us...we were buddies, we had our nicknames and we would roll with the nicknames. ... And that's where it came from." Erving recalled that "later on, in the Rucker Park league in Harlem, when people started calling me 'Black Moses' and 'Houdini', I told them if they wanted to call me anything, call me 'Doctor'." Over time, the nickname evolved into "Dr. Julius" and finally "Dr. J." Erving was first called "Dr. J" by his friend and future teammate on the Nets and Squires, Willie Sojourner.

Reader's Guide

**College career:** Erving enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1968. In two varsity college basketball seasons, he averaged 26.3 points and 20.2 rebounds per game, becoming one of only six players to average more than 20 points and 20 rebounds per game in NCAA Men's Basketball. In 1968, the NCAA adopted a rule that prohibited dunking. Thus, Erving's dunking was only seen and known to teammates at practice. Fifteen years later, Erving fulfilled a promise he had made to his mother by earning a bachelor's degree in creative leadership and administration from the school through the University Without Walls program. Erving also holds an honorary doctorate from UMass. In September 2021, Massachusetts honored Erving by unveiling a statue outside the Mullins Center on the university's campus. In the year 1970, Erving also played for the United States Olympic Development Team as an aim to qualify for the Olympic team in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. Erving, wearing the jersey number six, played power forward and was recruited to be the team's top rebounder. He ended up being the top vote-getter for Most Valuable Player or MVP, a top scorer for Team USA, and successfully competed against adult professional players from the Soviet Union, Finland, and other European countries alongside teammates Bob Nash and Paul Westphal. It was around this time Erving started hearing talks among his teammates of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and its novel goal to recruit undergraduates as a plan to compete with the National Basketball Association. After a meeting with ABA general manager Johnny "Red" Kerr and future coach Al Bianchi, he then decided to inform his mother that he will join the ABA in late 1971 while staying in a hotel in Philadelphia talking with a double agent named Steve Arnold. This became a subject of litigation for Erving's NBA rights to play for the Atlanta Hawks in the next year. **Professional career:** Although NBA rules at the time did not allow teams to draft players who were fewer than four years removed from high school, the ABA instituted a "hardship" rule that would allow players to leave college early. Erving took advantage of the rule change and left Massachusetts after his junior year to sign a four-year contract worth $500,000 spread over seven years with the Virginia Squires. He scored 27.3 points per game as a rookie, was selected to the All-ABA Second Team, made the ABA All-Rookie Team, led the ABA in offensive rebounds and finished second to Artis Gilmore for the ABA Rookie of the Year Award. He led the Squires into the Eastern Division Finals, where they lost to the Rick Barry-led New York Nets in seven games. Under NBA rules, he became eligible for the 1972 NBA draft and the Milwaukee Bucks picked him in the first round (12th overall). Prior to the draft, he signed a contract with the Atlanta Hawks worth more than $1 million with a $250,000 bonus. He played two exhibition games with the Hawks until NBA Commissioner J. Walter Kennedy ruled that the Bucks owned Erving's rights via the draft. On October 2, Judge Edward Neaher issued an injunction that prohibited him from playing for any team other than the Squires. Back in the ABA, his game flourished and he achieved a career-best 31.9 points per game in the 1972–1973 season. The following year, the cash-strapped Squires sold his contract to the New York Nets. Erving signed an eight-year deal worth a reported $350,000 per year. Erving went on to lead the Nets to their first ABA title in 1973–1974, defeating the Utah Stars.

Did You Know?

• Erving was born February 22, 1950, at Meadowbrook Hospital, East Meadow, on Long Island.
• He received the nickname "Doctor" from a high school friend named Leon Saunders.
• In 1968, the NCAA adopted a rule that prohibited dunking, so Erving's dunking was only seen and known to teammates at practice.
• In the year 1970, Erving played for the United States Olympic Development Team, wearing jersey number six, as an aim to qualify for the 1972 Summer Olympics.
• Erving is the only player voted Most Valuable Player in both the ABA and the NBA.