Up, up, and Away with Dr. J, Julius Erving

Slammin' Sam on Sports Media

Before there was Jordan, there was Julius. Julius Erving picked up the nickname “Doctor” not from his ability to surgically knife through defenses on the hardwood, but from the everyday conversations that mark adolescent dreams. His friend would be a professor, Erving would be a doctor. Years later, that label fits better in the figurative sense, as plenty of opponents still bear scars from his incisions.

Account after account in Vincent Mallozzi’s book proves Erving to be the classiest of performers. A showman without being gaudy. In the midst of an exodus from the ABA to the NBA, Dr. J told veteran beat writer Dave Anderson that he had no doubt that he could make the transition between leagues. He didn’t need to provide reasons, a simple yes sufficed.

Having landed on the radar of public consciousness for the first time in the NBA (its counterpart was often brushed aside as a wild, no holds-barred collection of freewheeling talent), “[Erving] was a bridge between the early high fliers like Elgin Baylor and Connie Hawkins [and] today’s star trekker, Michael Jordan,” New York Times columnist Harvey Araton wrote. (Doc, xv)