25 Things You Didn't Know About Julius Erving

Image via Complex Original

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.

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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.

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Marv Albert was also in the movie. But despite the star power, the 1979 movie didn't achieve much outside of a cult following.

He recounted the painful experiences in his autobiography Dr. J.

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.

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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.

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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]

Erving averaged 34.7 points to push his Nets to win the league's final championship.

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Michael Jordan won six, but not a single ABA MVP? FOH.

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...The movie.

Spoiler alert: he couldn't save Tom Hanks' character from dying. Damn shame.

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Michael Jordan dunked at 50. Suge Knight is still alive somehow. Anything is possible.

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.

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]

It was raining kidney stones in Philly.

That's No. 6 with the Sixers and No. 32 with the Nets.

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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.

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Of course, Erving won the MVP that game with his 25-point, six-rebound performance.

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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.

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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.

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.

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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“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?

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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.

Only in a Stanley Kubrick movie would you get a random picture of Julius Erving with skis.

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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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