Julius Erving draws comparrision to the all-time great players in basketball history. Although a bit of a showman with outstanding movement thru the air (all-the-way from-the free throw line) and dunks with a flair, he was above all a team player and a winner.

As a rookie in training camp in 1971 with the Virginia Squires of the American Basketball Association, Julius Erving first picked up his nickname of Dr J when former teammate Willie Sojourner would declare, "There's the doctor digging into his bag again," whenever Julius would come up with a new dunk.

As a rookie Julius Erving scored a resounding 27.3 points per game and gathered 16 rebounds per game, and posted a torrid 32 points per, 20 rebounds per and 7 assists per game in the playoffs. As a sophomore he led the ABA with 31.9 points per game average.

Unhappy with his contract, which deferred a lot of money, Erving demanded and was traded to the New York Nets, ABA, prior to the 1973-74 season. During his tenure in the ABA, Julius Erving helped his teams win two (2) ABA Championships, won 3 scoring titles and was voted twice the ABA's Most Valuable Player, MVP.

When the ABA merged into the NBA in 1975-1976, Julius signed with the Philadelphia 76ers. In his first NBA season, he averaged a splendid 27 ppg, scored 30 points in the All-Star Game, and was voted the MVP.

In 1982-83, Julius Erving along with Moses Malone and their teammates led the 76ers to a 65 win regular season record, then went 12-1 in the playoffs to win the NBA Title.

Julius Erving career scoring in the NBA, he notched 24 ppg, 8 rebounds pg, and 4 assists. Combining the ABA and NBA, he compiled 30,026 points, making him at his retirement the highest scoring forward in pro basketball history.

Sports editor Joe Balazs contributed to this bio.