Julius Erving

Julius Winfield Erving II (born February 22, 1950), commonly known by the nickname "Dr. J", is an American former professional basketball player. He helped legitimize the American Basketball Association (ABA), and was the best-known player in the 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 ninth-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 2004, he was inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame. 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.