Image via Complex Original
Last weekend's Slam Dunk Competition was crazy for two reasons. For one: Wow, that Zach LaVine guy really is something, huh? Secondly: Oh shit LaVine almost killed Julius Erving! Look at his reaction to one of Zach's dunks:
Shocking, but imagine how shocking it must've been for those watching Erving play in the late '70s/80s. Some love sports for the thrill, while others partake because it's the physical expression of human drama. Erving didn't just put up the numbers; he was special in how he transformed the game into an art form. That goes for many aspects of the game—from dunking to sportsmanship.
Erving's accolades are plenty: two ABA championships, an NBA championship, a spot on the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team, 11 NBA All-Star appearances, and plenty more. However, it's important to note that much of his greatness lied in simply watching him play. Many people regularly looked at Julius Erving with the same dumbfounded face that he had after the Zach LaVine dunk.
Anyway, the basketball legend turns 65 today and we're celebrating him by uncovering the crevices of his life, both the tragedies and forgotten achievements. These are 25 Things You Didn't Know About Julius Erving.
He planned on becoming a doctor.
Erving was called “Black Moses” (a much cooler nickname) before fully owning Dr. J—a name originally given to him by high school friend. In 1986, Erving fulfilled a promise to his mother by finishing his degree at University of Massachusetts Amherst. He later got an honorary doctorate from the university. But before the legend and the accomplishments, Erving was just a boy who announced to his grade school class that he wanted to be a real doctor. It's the circle of life…or something.
He fathered a top 20 tennis player...because the mother was wearing braces and couldn't give oral sex.
You may not have heard of Alexandra Stevenson (just like all tennis players except maybe around 10 of them), but she wasn't half bad in her heyday. Stevenson was once a top-20 player in the world. Erving and Stevenson didn't meet until 27 years after her birth. Also worth noting: she was conceived because of braces.
He starred in sports comedy film The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh.
Marv Albert was also in the movie. But despite the star power, the 1979 movie didn't achieve much outside of a cult following.
When he was 19, the doctor lost his younger brother Marvin to lupus erythematosus. When he was 34, he lost his older sister Alexis to colon cancer.
He recounted the painful experiences in his autobiography Dr. J.
His youngest son Corey accidentally drowned in 2000.
At 19, Cory was working toward a high school diploma after a battle with substance abuse. His body was found weeks later after he accidentally drove into a pond while taking a shortcut home.
He holds the Nets' franchise-record for most points in a game with 63.
Some outlets reported Deron Williams had the record after putting up 57 points in a 2012 game against the Bobcats. Not true, but good job, Deron.
Julius Erving nearly destroyed his knee when he was a kid.
He was playing football in the sandlot when he slipped and dragged his knee across broken glass. We'll let Dr. J take it from here:
“I sit up and look at my knee and I can see, through the pulses of blood, something aspirin white.”
The white is called bone in most circles. Erving tore his ligaments so bad he had to work months until he returned to full athletic strength.
[from Dr. J]
He was the ABA's final playoff MVP.
Erving averaged 34.7 points to push his Nets to win the league's final championship.
He's the only player to win an ABA and NBA MVP.
Michael Jordan won six, but not a single ABA MVP? FOH.
He appeared in Philadelphia.
At 63, Julius Erving could still dunk.
Michael Jordan dunked at 50. Suge Knight is still alive somehow. Anything is possible.
Erving won the first Slam Dunk Competition.
The first (and only) one held by the ABA in 1976. Erving won over greats George Gervin, David Thompson, and Artis Gilmore. So to circle back to the intro, we almost literally saw the beginning and the end at this year's edition.
He once got cockblocked badly by his high school coach.
Fourty-five minutes before a practice session, Erving decided to start getting it on with a girl in his friend's whip. It was working out…until his coach arrived and started yelling at him from the parking lot they were in. “JULIUS? TOO MUCH KISSING LEADS TO BABIES,” he said.
But the makeout session didn't stop because Erving didn't want to be a young baby daddy; it was because, “Coach says so.”
[from Dr. J]
When he owned a stake of Philadelphia Coca-Cola, it brought in $540 million in annual revenue and was one of the largest coke bottlers in the nations.
It was raining kidney stones in Philly.
He's one of only a few players (Charles Barkley, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar) to get his number retired by two franchises.
That's No. 6 with the Sixers and No. 32 with the Nets.
Guess how much Converses were when Erving asked his mother to buy them?
A whole fortune of $3.95. If you left the house in New York with only $3.95, you probably literally can't afford to come home.
Erving, Moses Malone, and Maurice Cheeks all started in the All-Star Game in 1983, marking the first time in history three players from the same team did so.
Of course, Erving won the MVP that game with his 25-point, six-rebound performance.
He's one of Barack Obama's idols.
Obama was a member of his varsity team during his high school year. This would be in the late '70s—around Erving's highlight reel heyday. Obama couldn't live up to Erving's standard, though, so he settled for POTUS.
Served as an in-studio analyst for NBC in the early '90s.
But don't expect him to make a return, though. In his book, Dr. J explained that he felt that he couldn't describe the art of basketball through analysis. “You can give a feeling of the work, or compare it to something else, but you can't re-create the actual feeling of being on the court, or making that move, of imposing your will, of the precise moment that you realize you can reach the front of the rim,” he writes.
He once said Michael Jordan wasn't one of the top five players of all time.
It's blasphemy, as Stephen A. Smith calls it in this clip. But Julius Erving did squeeze out a logical explanation during his First Take appearance. His all-time top five? Elgin Baylor, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and Jerry West. Those were his top five when he was a teenager.
Defensive end Julius Peppers was named after Julius Erving.
That's how big of a fan his father was. He was also a big Walt Frazier fan; Julius Frazier Peppers is his full name.
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He blames mascots for ruining the slam dunk contest.
“It was great seeing regular human beings, even though they were 6-foot-6, 250 pounds, running and dunking a basketball,” he said. “When mascots started doing it with all the trampolines and all the crazy stuff and falling on the floor, then it became more like the X Games. The players can’t live up to that.” Why'd he have to shit on the X Games, though?
After their fight in 1984, Julius Erving and Larry Bird became cool enough to appear in a Converse commercial together.
It's a Converse commercial that features them arguing over the sneakers. Magic Johnson was in this commercial, too, but Magic was in everything in the '80s. Interpret that how you'd like.
He made a weird cameo in The Shining.
Only in a Stanley Kubrick movie would you get a random picture of Julius Erving with skis.
He claims Converse still owes him money from his first sneaker deal.
Erving's first sneaker deal was worth $15,000-$25,000. It's a small amount compared to today, but he apparently still didn't get paid in full.
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