Julius Erving: Dr. J above the rim
With soaring grace and a showman's imagination, Julius Erving lifted basketball into the air, popularised the dunk as art and helped carry the sport into its modern, high-flying era.
A new way to play
Julius Erving, universally known as Dr. J, changed what basketball could look like. Where others played a game rooted on the floor, Erving played it in the air, gliding toward the basket with the ball held aloft in one enormous hand and finishing with a flourish. Tall, elegant and blessed with huge hands and extraordinary hang time, he made the spectacular routine. He did not invent the dunk, but more than anyone he turned it into an expression of creativity and style rather than mere power.
The ABA years
Erving first became a star not in the NBA but in the rival American Basketball Association, where his flair fit the league's freewheeling spirit perfectly. He led his teams to two ABA championships and became the face of the entire league, his afro and his acrobatic finishes turning him into a genuine phenomenon. When the ABA folded and merged into the NBA, Erving was its brightest export — living proof of a more imaginative, airborne style that the older league had yet to fully embrace.
A title in Philadelphia
In the NBA, Erving became the star of the Philadelphia 76ers, carrying them to the brink of a title several times before finally breaking through. He won the championship with Philadelphia in 1983, the crowning achievement of his professional career, and was named a league Most Valuable Player. By then he was a revered elder statesman as much as a highlight machine, respected across the sport for his dignity as well as his brilliance in the air.
The bridge to the modern game
Erving's influence runs far beyond his own statistics. He was the crucial link between eras — the player who made above-the-rim basketball glamorous and commercial, paving the way for the marketing and spectacle that would define the game in the decades that followed. Every dunk-contest showstopper and every soaring highlight owes something to him. When people speak of basketball as an art form played in the air, they are describing a game that Dr. J, more than anyone, helped to create.