Julius Erving

Julius Winfield Erving II (born February 22, 1950), commonly known by the nickname Dr. J, is an American former professional basketball player.

Erving was born February 22, 1950, in 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.

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.

He then sought “hardship” entry into professional basketball in 1971.

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.

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.

Erving quickly established himself as a force and gained a reputation for hard and ruthless dunking.

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.

The Nets would eventually go to the finals, losing to the star-studded Indiana Pacers team.

Under NBA rules, he became eligible for the 1972 NBA draft and the Milwaukee Bucks picked him in the first round (12th overall), a move that would have brought him together with Oscar Robertson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Prior to the draft, he signed a contract with the Atlanta Hawks worth more than $1 million with a $250,000 bonus.

Erving helped legitimize the American Basketball Association (ABA), and he was the best-known player in that league when it merged into the National Basketball Association (NBA) after the 1975–1976 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.

During his 16 seasons as a player, none of his teams ever missed the postseason.

He is the eighth-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 ABA and the NBA.

The basketball slang of being posterized was first 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 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 2004, he was inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame.