Doctor MJ wrote:In the '75-76 ABA season, Julius Erving led his team to the title. In doing so, he led his team in points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals, making him the only player in history to do this while winning a title (LeBron would have been the 2nd if his team had won in '08-09). Also of interest, he did this while being arguably the most graceful player in history, winning the inaugural slam dunk contest, becoming known as "the League" for his combination of talent, grace, and universal leadership he displayed.
In the finals, he went for 37 & 14 while being the focus of the opponent's defense, and especially of all-world defender Bobby Jones. It might be the most impressive "biggest stage" performance in history.
Game 1 @ Denver: New York 120, Denver 118Associated Press wrote:Nets’ Erving Is A One-Man Show
DENVER (AP)—“The Doctor was great,” said Denver Nugget Coach Larry Brown, licking his wounds after Julius “Dr. J” Erving almost single-handedly whipped his club.
“I’ve never seen him play better,” said Nugget forward Bobby Jones, a bit baffled at the ineffectiveness of his defensive efforts against Erving.
“The Doc is the greatest player in the world,” said New York Nets Coach Kevin Loughery, whose team rallied behind Erving to take a 1-0 edge in the best-of-seven American Basketball Association championship series.
The 6-foot-7 Erving scored 45 points, many of them on the incredible variety of shots that only he can make. But the most important points came on a 20-foot baseline jumper at the buzzer that gave the Nets a 120-118 triumph Saturday night before a league-record crowd of 19,034.
The Nuggets’ task in Game Two, scheduled here Tuesday night, is obvious: stop Erving.
Associated Press wrote:Nuggets’ Big Task - Halt Erving
Denver, Colo.—AP—Second shots, rhythm and Julius Erving, not necessarily in that order, put the New York Nets in command, for now at least, of the American Basketball Association championship playoffs.
Now you can add Nets momentum to that list of problems the regular season champion Denver Nuggets must solve Tuesday night to get back in the title picture.
“We must do a better job on Julius,” said Larry Brown, the Nuggets’ coach, as he tried to analyze what went wrong in Saturday night’s 120-118 Net victory that gave New York a 1-0 lead in the best of seven series.
It was an understatement.
Scored 45 Points
“When the rhythm got going, I just kept it up,” said Dr. J, who scored 45 points, including 10 of the Nets’ last 11 and the last two on a 15 foot baseline jumper at the buzzer.
He tried 36 shots from the field and the free throw line, scoring on 28. He had 12 rebounds and four assists. And he forced Bobby Jones, the Denver forward who’s acknowledged among the best defensive players in the ABA, into six fouls.
In addition, he was a demon under the Nets’ offensive boards. In a span of four minutes of the final quarter he rebounded four shots into the basket.
Starred Inside
“I started out trying to play an inside game, posting up with my back to the basket, 15 feet in,” Erving said. “I had some success with it, and they had some people in foul trouble.”
Erving said he was concerned over a possible overtime when 7 foot 1 Nugget rookie Marvin Webster stuffed a rebound with four seconds to go to tie the score. “I thought about it for a split second, and obviously they were negative thoughts,” Erving said. “If we had to play five more minutes, I would have just had to reach back for more.”
Game 2 @ Denver: Denver 127, New York 121Associated Press wrote:Dr. J on Target, But Nuggets Triumph
DENVER (AP) — Denver Nuggets Coach Larry Brown insisted his team “learned a lot of things” after dropping the opening game of its American Basketball Association championship series with the New York Nets.
One of the lessons, obviously, was how to beat the Nets. Denver got its fast-break offense rolling in the second half and got better inside penetration with the ball to post a 127-121 victory last night and square the best-of-seven series at 1-1. Game Three will be played Thursday night in New York.
Some remedial work, however, will be necessary on how to stop New York forward Julius “Dr. J” Erving.
Erving, who scored 45 points in the opener, tossed in 48 last night. As in the first game, Erving did pretty much what he wanted.
His 25 points in the fourth quarter set a pro basketball playoff-game record for scoring in a period, and his 37 points in the second half likewise set a pro playoff mark.
“The way he’s playing now it’s incredible,” said Denver forward Bobby Jones, who has the unenviable task of defending Erving.
“We’ve tried to keep him outside, away from the basket,” Jones said. “And we have to deny him the ball as much as possible. But it’s tough, and he’s really shooting well besides.”
Erving connected on 15 of 23 two-point field goal attempts, a pair of three-pointers, and 12 of 16 foul shots. He added 14 rebounds, eight assists, three steals and a blocked shot.
But Erving’s efforts were in vain as Denver’s balanced scoring attack prevailed before an ABA record crowd of 19,107.
Guard Ralph Simpson, forced to play all but two minutes of the game because of a shortage of backcourt performers, had 25 points. Forwards Jones and David Thompson and center Dan Issel each scored 24.
Jones and Thompson both scored 12 points in the third period as the Nuggets surged to a 12-point lead.
After the Nets pulled within two points early in the fourth quarter, Issel hit five quick baskets, helping Denver take a 101-92 edge with 7:27 remaining.
But the Nuggets still had Erving to contend with. A flurry of steals that produced baskets and Erving’s three-point goal pulled the Nets within four points with 1:26 left.
The Nets were to get no closer, as Simpson promptly scored on a three-point play and Jones added a field goal for a 126-117 lead.
Game 3 @ New York: New York 117, Denver 111Associated Press wrote: UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) New York’s Julius Erving played it low key as usual, but Denver Coach Larry Brown and rookie David Thompson were visibly upset after the Nets had beaten the Nuggets 117-111 Thursday night in the third game of their American Basketball Association championship series.
Erving’ the Nets’ star for the third consecutive game, scored his team’s final eight points and blocked two shots in the closing two minutes. Afterward, he said confidently, but not boastfully, “I can make any (offensive) play I want in any given situation.”
He had broken loose in the closing minutes after playing a sub-par game for him until then. After having gone wild in the first two games, with 45 points and 48, respectively, he was forced to be more reserved this time because of five early personal fouls.
“It was good, I thought, for the rest of the team to be put in the position of having to play so long without me,” said Erving, who was limited to 35 minutes after averaging 44 in the opening two games of the series.
“But I wasn’t worried,” he continued. “I thought when I got back in, I would be a lot stronger. However, I didn’t want to disrupt the team because John (Williamson) was shooting so well. I knew my shots would come.”
They did.
Emergency surgery lifts Nets
UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Now, about Dr. J.
Julius Erving carries that affectionate nickname because of the way he operates on the basketball court. The Denver Nuggets can understand that.
The New York Nets hold a 2-1 edge over the Nuggets in the American Basketball Association championship playoff mostly because of the Doctor’s operations. Game Four is scheduled tonight.
Shackled by five personal fouls, Erving was limited to only 35 minutes of action. He came off the bench in the last 65 seconds with New York leading by a single point.
FIRST, Dr. J scored on a drive, giving New York a three-point lead. Then he blocked shots by Bobby Jones and Chuck Williams, the latter in a 3-on-1 situation.
Denver’s David Thompson tied the score with a three-point play. But with 31 seconds left, Erving connected on a reverse, left-handed layup, breaking the 111-tie. Then he came up with a loose ball and converted two free throws. And finally he pulled down the rebound on Denver’s last shot and drove the length of the court for a soaring stuff shot that almost defied description.
Erving finished with 31 points — eight of them in that final, frantic minute. That followed 45 points in the first game, won by the Nets, and 48 in the second, taken by Denver.
“It was a good win, but not a good game for me,” said Erving, who picked up three of his fouls in the first period and then two more at the start of the third.
Game 4 @ New York: New York 121, Denver 112Associated Press wrote: UNIONDALE — Julius Erving put on another one-man show with 34 points and 16 rebounds and the New York Nets capitalized on excellent team defense to move within one victory of their second ABA championship in the last three years with a 121-112 triumph over the sagging Denver Nuggets Saturday night.
Erving ran his four-game total in the championship series to 158 as he combined with reserve center Jim Eakins to dominate the Nuggets completely in the second half.
Denver, trailing in all but the first period, now takes a three-games-to-one-disadvantage back home for the fifth game Tuesday night.
Eakins came off the bench to score 13 of his 17 points in the second half. Neither Dan Issel nor rookie reserve Marvin Webster could keep Eakins from laying in easy taps and grabbing rebounds in the final period.
Issel led Denver with 26 points and 15 rebounds, while David Thompson, playing with a sore leg, scored 23. John Williamson notched 24 for New York and backcourt mate Brian Taylor had 23.
Leading, 89-82, after three quarters, the Nets kept the pressure on at both ends to stretch it to 95-84 in only 90 seconds. Spearheaded by Erving and Eakins, the Nets increased the bulge to 116-97 with three minutes left in the game, then coasted to the final buzzer.
Denver ran out to a 12-4 lead as the Nets started the game cold from the floor. New York fell behind, 22-11, before putting together any semblance of an attack. A brief surge by Erving and Williamson helped the Nets close to 34-29 by the end of the first period.
The Nets clamped down on defense in the second quarter, holding Denver to only eight points in the first 6½ minutes, while scoring 14 and taking a 61-57 lead at the half.
Williamson notched 18 points in the first half, while Erving added 13 points and nine rebounds. Issel had 15 points and nine rebounds for Denver.
New York benefitted from its continued strong defense in the third quarter when they began to run and shoot better. Taylor hit an 18-footer, blocked a shot and hit another 18-footer to give the Nets their biggest lead to that point, 85-75, with three minutes to go in the period.
While the Nets celebrated loudly with beer, the Nuggets were extremely quiet.
“I don’t think I’m trying to win it all by myself,” Erving said. “It was simply that (Rich) Jones got into foul trouble and I had to help out on rebounds. Eakins had a great game and he would be starting on most other clubs.
“I don’t think it’s all over, but we’re confident,” Net coach Kevin Loughery said.
“Without him,” says Joe Mullaney, who coached the Spirits of St. Louis this season and who once coached the Los Angeles Lakers, “the Nets would be a mediocre team.”
With him, the Nets probably will win the ABA championship for the second time in three seasons since he was obtained from the Virginia Squires, the latest ABA team to go bankrupt.
Game 5 @ Denver: Denver 118, New York 110Denver stymies Nets despite Dr. J’s 37
DENVER — Veteran guard Chuck Williams teamed with rookie forward David Thompson to direct a 42-point third-quarter rally Tuesday night, giving Denver a 118-110 win over the New York Nets and keeping alive the Nuggets’ hopes of winning the American Basketball Association championship.
The loss left the Nets with a 3-2 advantage in the best-of-seven title series, with the sixth game scheduled Thursday night at Nassau Coliseum in New York and the seventh, if necessary, on Sunday in Denver.
WILLIAMS, WHO averaged only 11 points per game in the regular season, scored 20 points, including 10 in the third quarter as Denver jumped to a lead of as much as 16 points. Thompson, ABA Rookie of the Year, had nine points in the third quarter and finished with 19.
Nets forward Julius Erving, the league’s Most Valuable Player, again dominated the game with 37 points, but it wasn’t enough to stop Denver’s more balanced attack. In the first four games of the series, Erving hit 158 points in 168 minutes of play.
The Nuggets, making their first appearance in a title playoff series, trailed by as many as 16 points in the second period but rallied to trail New York by only six, 53-47, at halftime.
DENVER, WHICH has been an explosive third-quarter team all year, outscored New York 10-2 in the opening minutes of the period and led 89-73 going into the final period.
John Williamson scored 24 points for New York, 18 in the final quarter, while teammate Al Skinner had 17 and Brian Taylor finished with 13. Taylor was ejected from the game early in the fourth quarter after getting into a fight with Denver guard Monte Towe.
Guard Ralph Simpson, who engineers Denver’s fast-break attack, and center Dan Issel finished with 21 points each. Bobby Jones added 17 and Gus Gerard 12.
Game 6 @ New York: New York 112, Denver 106
** Nets win ABA Title, 4 games to 2**Erving, Nets Finish Off Nuggets
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) — “I don’t ever expect to see this team give up,” said New York Coach Kevin Loughery, his clothes dripping with the joy of champagne. “They have too much confidence in themselves to do that.”
Thursday night, the Nets, despite falling 22 points behind Denver in the third quarter, didn’t give up. Combining the scoring of John Williamson and Julius Erving with a full-court pressure defense in the last quarter, they stormed back and overtook the Nuggets 112-106 to win the American Basketball Association championship.
Erving, the ABA’s Most Valuable Player for the third consecutive years, scored 31 points in the dramatic finale. Williamson, a confident but unheralded guard, was the catalyst in the fourth quarter, firing in 16 of New York’s 34 points. And the Nets’ defense, the best in the league throughout the regular season but porous early in the final game, finally asserted itself, limiting Denver to 14 points.
The tremendous comeback gave the Nets the best-of-seven series 4-2 and their second league championship in three years.
“You can only make a comeback like that when you have the guys who can play pressure defense,” said the joyous Loughery. “And we have them.
“Coming out on top was much tougher this year because no one outside our organization expected it,” he added. “Before the season, Denver, San Antonio, Kentucky and even St. Louis were picked to finish ahead of us.
“But when we went to training camp on Sept. 15 we had only one goal in mind—and that was to win the championship.
“And we did it.”
Like their coach, most of the Nets’ players said they were not worried when the team fell behind by 22 points. The word they used was “concerned.”
“I never had any doubts we could come back,” said Jim Eakins, forced into the starting lineup because of any ankle injury that kept No. 1 center Kim Hughes on the bench. “I felt we could still win. But I felt we had to get moving right then. And fortunately we did.”
And this came after averaging 31.3 against San Antonio:
Game 1: New York 116, San Antonio 101 - Erving scores game-high 31.
Game 2: San Antonio 105, New York 79 - Erving lead the Nets with 27.
Game 3 @ SA: San Antonio 111, New York 103 - Erving scored a game-high 31.
Game 4 @ SA: New York 110, San Antonio 108 - Erving scored a game-high 35 points, and his dunk with time running out "put New York in the lead for the first time since early in the opening quarter."
Game 5: New York 110, San Antonio 108 - Erving had 32 points, 10 rebounds, six assists.
Game 6 @ SA: San Antonio 106, New York 105 - Erving had a game-high 35 points, 10 rebounds.
Game 7: New York 121, San Antonio 114 - Erving had 28 points, 18 rebounds and eight assists, which “were the critical ingredients that kept New York in the game most of the way.”
Doctor MJ wrote:The following year, as part of the merger that Erving's existence forced to happen, an existing NBA team got to have Erving. So he went from the Nets to the 76ers. Briefly, his year with the 76ers was quite good, however it differed first and foremost because on the 76ers the team already had their version of Erving in George McGinnis (who probably was the closest in build to LeBron we've ever seen), which gave us what is now a classic recipe for redundancy. Both players compromised, but especially the genial Erving who let McGinnis be ever so slightly the team's greater focal point (more shots, rebounds, assists). However, Erving obviously outperformed McGinnis (still ended up lead scorer on vastly superior efficiency, and led in modern advanced stats), and the eventually the team traded McGinnis.
People cite the '76-77 season and his reduced scoring average against Erving, but as is often the case, that's superficial "analysis" without acting looking deeply into the matter. The real problems here were bad fit and selfish teammates:
Although his teammates were in awe of his great athletic abilities, proven scorers like Doug Collins and Lloyd Free were not about to sacrifice any of their offensive game to appease the good Doctor. … “Here was the problem,” said Free, a rookie that season who now works in the 76ers’ community relations office. “A lot of us were young and wanted to make a name for ourselves; we had pretty big egos, and we wanted some of the accolades, too, so we went out there and did our thing. Sometimes, looking back on it, maybe we didn’t always get the ball to Doc when we should have gotten it to him. I think there was a lot of ego involved. We wanted to show the organization and our fans that we could play some ball as well. We wanted some of the respect that Doc always got.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is that Doc was our leader; he knew how to lead, but we didn’t know how to follow. I went out there and took all my shots. [Doug] Collins was off doing his own thing, Darryl [Dawkins] was just trying to rip down as many backboards as he could, and Joe Bryant was out there putting the ball between his legs and doing all this fancy stuff. Doc did get frustrated at times, and I can’t blame him. He had a lot of meetings with the veteran guys like Billy Cunningham and George McGinnis and Steve Mix, but the guards just kind of stayed away from all that talk. We let the older, bigger guys try to hash it out, but it never really got resolved. That’s why it’s not always such a good thing when your team is as loaded [with big-name players] as we were, because you can just lose your way.”
(Emphasized for the
NBA 2K-minded GMs who think you build a team by just throwing talent together.)
“Doug Collins was a 20-point scorer per game, and he always needed somebody to throw the ball to him. Lloyd would come off the bench and shoot from everywhere—there was a lot of ego conflict going on there. The bottom line is that the 76ers were a pretty wild team in terms of shot selection and playing together out on the floor. They were a bunch of talented guys, but they were a little crazy, a little wild, and there was always a lot of competition for the ball.”
That explains the regular season drop. Then once they got in the playoffs, Rick Barry prior to the Finals against Portland
suggested that the 76ers haven’t gotten the most out of Erving this season.
“Maybe they missed the boat trying to share the responsibilities between Julius and George,” Barry said, referring to the Sixers’ other all-star forward, George McGinnis. “This is not a knock on George, don’t get me wrong. But they seem to be better off when Julius takes command.
“Look at the playoffs. With George suffering from a groin injury, Julius has taken over and the team has played better. When you have too many offensive weapons, you don’t know which one to go to. It’s hard to find the right chemistry.”
In the Finals against Portland, Erving averaged 30.3 points on 54.3 percent shooting from the floor, 85.7 percent shooting from the line and 60.4 percent true shooting, 6.8 rebounds, 5 assists and 2.67 steals.
Julius Erving was magnificent in defeat, twice scoring 40 points and showing why he is regarded by his peers as the most dynamic player in the game.
But he received little help.
George McGinnis was embarrassingly inept for five of the six games of the final series and Doug Collins started quickly but fizzled in the last two games.
The other Sixers contributed little. So the series often seemed like a game of five-on-one, and Portland’s team concept overcame the individual brilliance of Erving.
The recently concluded National Basketball Association season will be best remembered for two significant events: the emergence of Bill Walton as one of the game’s dominant centers, and the proof that Julius Erving could play the game of basketball as well as anyone who had ever played before him.
There was no doubt in anyone's mind after the Finals that Erving was everything he was said to be.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — “I still think we have a championship team,” said Philadelphia superstar Julius Erving, the consummate court artisan. “We have a better team than Portland. We have more talent and more depth.”
But the Portland Trail Blazers – not the Philadelphia 76ers – are the National Basketball Association champions, and Erving knows why.
“They are cohesive,” he said. “They help each other better than we do. Their consistency enabled them to win.
“They have mental conditioning that they’ve developed in practices all year. They stuck with their basic game plan, the one they had been successful with all year.
“We attack defenses and try to create things. It was a matchup of opposing styles, and theirs won out.”
The Blazers won because, for all his individual brilliance, Erving could not offset the spotty play of his teammates.
George McGinnis was in a woeful slump which did not end until Sunday’s final game of the best-of-seven series, won by Portland 109-107 to give the Blazers the title four games to two.
Doug Collins played well until the last two games, when he tailed off badly. Centers Caldwell Jones and Darryl Dawkins were inconsistent, key reserves Lloyd Free and Steve Mix were hampered by injuries and playmaker Henry Bibby had trouble keeping pace with Portland’s speedier guards.
So, the team which had been conceded the championship by some people back in October, when Erving was purchased from the New York Nets, came up two victories short.
And the man who will take most of the heat for that shortcoming is Coach Gene Shue, who all along warned against expecting too much too soon.
“It takes time to mold a winning team,” said Shue over and over. “The players have to know each others’ moves and styles. It doesn’t happen overnight.”
And at least partly because of the undisciplined, free-spirited nature of the players Shue had to work with, the 76ers never did develop the cohesiveness that was so much a part of the Blazers’ victory plan.
“My philosophy is to play classic basketball, with great passes and great defense,” said Shue, describing concisely the game played by Portland. “But you have to coach the players you end up with.
“Naturally I would love to have a Bill Walton,” Shue said of the versatile Portland center. “Then we would play a classic style.
“But my job is to get the most out of the players I have. I don’t necessarily like the styles we use, but we win.”
But the fact remains, the 76ers did not win it all. Should Shue have tried to apply more of a disciplined approach to the group Erving described as “outlaws” and “a bunch of renegades?”
Shue said he felt the discipline had to come from the players themselves.
“I’m a strong believer in players learning to accept responsibility, learning how to handle themselves,” he said.
Last week, when the series was tied 2-2 and it looked like it could go either way, Shue was asked whether all the aggravation and intra-squad bickering he has had to cope with this season was worth it.
He paused for a moment before replying.
“If think if winning the championship were the goal, and it was possible that it could be accomplished, I would go through anything,” he said. “That’s the way I feel about this team.”
“The 76ers,” agreed Jack Ramsey, “have a lot of individual talent, but you need more than that.”
Not that Julius Erving did not show he has worth every penny of his 6 million cost - $3 million to the New York Nets, $3 million in his contract. But until the final game, George McGinnis was not worth much. And when George McGinnis finally started scoring, Doug Collins stopped. In the end, the 76ers lacked what the Trail Blazers had - balance and teamwork. Too often the 76ers were not willing to play together. Unless that problem is solved by a change in personnel, Julius Erving sooner or later will decide that he no longer wants to play in that atmosphere. He’ll ask to be traded, probably to Knicks who can afford him.
He could have been doing that before if not for his selfish teammates and him trying to blend in and make it work.
NEW YORK — The season of struggle ended yesterday in Portland, Ore., for the team of turmoil.
The Philadelphia 76ers, the best team money could buy, lost the National Basketball Association championship they were supposed to win, 109-107, to the Portland Trail Blazers.
In the 31-year existence of the NBA, there probably never has been a team like the 76ers and there may never again be another like it. They were a team of players with exaggerated egos in a season of exaggerated hopes, magic moments, inflamed temperaments, discontent and divisive public utterances.
The 76ers were at their best before the start of a game. They were a combination of cheerleaders and showmen. They sold out arenas and excited crowds in the Spectrum, their home arena, and in the other 21 league cities with their dunk drills and one-on-one moves that brought the crowds to their feet.
Most of their practice sessions had the appearance of a schoolyard get-together, where players had to win to keep possession of the basketball court. In essence, that was what the 76ers were all about — a collection of talented schoolyard and playground players whose egos came before team play.
After all, Lloyd Free, the backcourt man from the streets of Brooklyn, relished the name of “all world” that he picked up in the Brownsville playgrounds.
Darryl Dawkins, the 20-year-old, 6-foot-11-inch, 260-pound center, enjoyed bragging about the dunk shots he had not yet shown off. In the end, it was that schoolyard one-on-one play, and their lapses on defense, that did the 76ers in against the Trail Blazers, a team basketball textbooks could be written about.
The finishing touch for assembling the best team money could buy and then just awaiting the delivery of the championship came last October with the purchase for almost $3 million of Julius Erving from the New York Nets. It was made by the 76ers’ new millionaire owner, F. Eugene Dixon, despite the rather cool interest at first expressed by the 76ers’ coach, Gene Shue. Shue was not interested in adding another forward, even if that forward was Erving, the game’s most exciting player.
Shue recently explained that reasoning to a Philadelphia newsman.
“The reason was,” said Shue, “I didn’t know if he could strengthen our team. That sounds ridiculous, but the strength of our team was already in our forwards. I also told the owner there was no way I was going to guarantee we would win a championship just because we got Dr. J. If it would have been Bill Walton (the Trail Blazer center), I would have said something different.”
The 76ers were already set at forward, which resulted in the problems that occurred.
With the New York Nets Erving was the most explosive and exciting player in basketball. With Philadelphia he modified his game to blend in with his teammates. The result has been enough to take the Sixers to the NBA finals. All year long people have criticized Dr. J for keeping so much of his talent under wraps—but an NBA title would prove he was right.
But Erving's performance in the '77 Finals in the NBA after his performance in the '76 Finals in the ABA against Bobby Jones, who we know is one of the greatest defenders ever, validates his season.
This is why it irks me when people are so lazy they just spout informed statements without looking into the matter.
You can either take it as some sort of an empty attack, or think about what I'm telling you...what you've outlined there in front of me for why you aren't voting for Shaq, it doesn't make much sense. 
