Julius Erving
Julius Erving
Julius Winfield Erving II, commonly known by the nickname Dr. J, is an American retired basketball player who helped popularize a modern style of play that emphasizes leaping and playing above the rim. Erving helped legitimize the American Basketball Associationand was the best-known player in that league when it merged with the National Basketball Associationafter the 1975–76 season...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth22 February 1950
CityRoosevelt, NY
CountryUnited States of America
If you get depressed about being the second-best team in the world, then you've got a problem.
I started playing professional basketball in 1971, and I played professionally for five seasons before going to Philadelphia.
I didn't want to become a reserve player, or a bench player, and it was time to move on and take on another challenge.
I came from a broken home, so my mom was a major influence in my life.
I think I was chosen by basketball, although I never really physically got drafted to any team that I played for.
I think that my God-given physical attributes, big hands, and big feet, the way that I'm built, proportion-wise, just made basketball the most inviting sport for me to play.
The first professional game that I ever played remains, to me, the most exciting moment of my professional career.
If you do things with a certain type of result and cause a certain type of reaction or effect, then you increase your market value. It's very much a competition for the entertainment dollar, and that's never been more clearly evident than in today's NBA game.
In a lot of areas of my life, particularly in my teenage years, I began to think about the world, and to think about the universe as being a part of my conscious everyday life.
My role models in the business were the older guys on my team when I first got there: Gray Scott, Adrian Smith, Roland Taylor. These were the guys who took me under their wing, and really schooled me in terms of what the business was about.
One of the things in the back of my mind is that, after my sports experience, I never want to be, totally consumed by any one endeavor, other than my family life.
When I went to Philadelphia I was 26 years old and really sitting on top of the world. Family life, a professional career, plenty of friends and associates, and a good reputation, a wish list that could be the envy of many.
And from the first time I picked up a basketball at age eight - I had a lot of difficulty when I first picked up a basketball, because I was a scrub - there were things that I liked about it.
When handling the ball, I always would look for daylight, wherever there was daylight.