NBA TV's latest documentary explores the legend of 'Dr J.'
theGRIO REPORT - NBA TV's new documentary The Doctor overflows with incredible adjectives, stories and highlights of the Hall-of-Fame basketball career of Julius 'Dr. J' Erving...
3) Dr J’s dunk victims speak
The highlights looked painful. Not for Erving, of course – but all the players he put on posters during his career. Fortunately for viewers, The Doctor tells the victims’ side of the story.
My father always talked about that dunk in ’83 where Erving grabbed a loose ball, drove the length of the court and cuff cradled a monster slam over the Lakers’ Michael Cooper:
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It didn’t look fair and you couldn’t help but feel for Cooper as he ducked his head as Doc soared seemingly to the heavens.
“When Doctor J broke down the sideline, I was like ‘Ok this is my chance to make a great play against a great player,’” Cooper recalls colorfully. “But that didn’t happen so I just said, ‘You know what? Let me just duck my head and get out of the way.’ The greatest dunk of all-time. You know what? If you’re going to get dunked on by anyone, why not let it be the best in the game?”
Another staple highlight in Erving’s storied career is his monster dunk on Portland center Bill Walton in Game 6 of the 1977 NBA Finals. Walton remembers a relentless Erving who finished the contest with a game-high 40 points.
“He never stopped coming at ya,” Walton said. “And there was this one moment where…I thought I had him.”
He certainly did not:
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What’s also great about the film is that we learn about the basketball stories before Erving’s ABA and NBA days. Enter New York City’s famous Rucker Park.
Erving began playing there as a teenager and his array of moves and dunks brought record-breaking crowds in the summer. One game, he had an up close and personal encounter with Tom Hoover, who played forward for teams in both the ABA and NBA.
“He came down one time, I had the angle on him,” Hoover describes. “He dunked the ball so bad, the ball hit me on top of the head. My teeth fell down on the ground. The crowd roared. I had scrambled to grab [my teeth] off the ground to put them back in my mouth. That helped build his reputation.”
We can neither confirm nor deny Hoover’s version of the events. But with all of Erving’s Rucker Park feats, we tend to believe a lost tooth or two isn’t out of the question.
4) Erving inspired one of Jordan’s most famous moments
The video of Michael Jordan taking off from the free throw line during the 1988 Slam Dunk Contest in Chicago is one of his career’s signature moments. It’s a dunk that he had attempted and made twice before in the ’85 and ’87 contests.
But the ’88 contest was special. It was on Jordan’s home court and the originator of the free throw line jam was in the audience. Erving looked on as Jordan wondered what dunk he would attempt, trailing his dunk nemesis Dominique Wilkins 145-97 in the final round. The dunk had to be special.
It had to show what made ‘Air’ Jordan. And then MJ took flight.
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“I didn’t know what to do, then all of a sudden, I found the guy who started it all,” Jordan says in a television interview following his free throw line dunk. “He was looking at me and he pointed [to the backcourt].”
The judges awarded Jordan a perfect ’50,’ which propelled him to a victory over Wilkins. There’s no doubt that parts of Dr. J’s aerial wizardry had found its way to number 23.
“When he left the game, he left with a lot of class and a lot of dignity,” Jordan says of Erving in an interview that same year. “That’s something that, if I don’t even win a world championship or MVP award ever, that is something I would love to walk away from the game and have.”
And we all know what happened next.
5) Don’t forget Erving’s ABA days
Sure, it wasn’t the NBA. But there are reasons the NBA plucked the best that league had to offer and incorporated them into their league. In five seasons, Erving won two titles, scored more than 4,500 points, won three scoring titles and collected three MVPs.
Simply put, he was the league.
When the league folded/merged in 1976, so did the achievements of many of its future NBA stars. The statistical dilemma will remind some of the achievements of NFL quarterback Warren Moon. Moon spent six seasons in the Canadian Football League before making his NFL debut in 1984.
“I think that’s a little unfair,” Erving told CBS Sports’ Ken Berger when asked why NBA record books don’t honor ABA stats. “There are guys who played professional basketball for five years, seven years, eight years, and it’s like they never existed. So I feel more for them.”
Leave it to Erving to again put his fellow superstars before himself. That’s why he is revered. That’s why he is ‘The Doctor.’
‘The Doctor’ premieres tonight at 9 p.m. ET on NBA TV.
Follow theGrio’s Todd Johnson on Twitter @rantoddj
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