Julius Erving - Quotations

Quotations

• "As a basketball player, Julius was the first to actually take the torch and become the spokesman for the NBA. He understood what his role was and how important it was for him to conduct himself as a representative of the league. Julius was the first player I ever remember who transcended sports and was known by one name, Doctor". – his coach, Billy Cunningham.
• "I saw that basketball could be my way out and I worked hard to make sure it was."
• "Respect is a lot more important, and a lot greater, than popularity."
• "Here I was, trying to win a championship, and my mouth just dropped open. He actually did that! I thought, 'What should we do? Should we take the ball out, or should we give him the ball back and ask him to do it again?' It's still the greatest move I've ever seen in a basketball game, the all-time greatest." – Magic Johnson on the Baseline Move.
• "We heard about Julius Erving and asked for a tape of him. We got this grainy black-and white film of the UMass-North Carolina game in the NIT. The quality was so bad that you could hardly tell what was going on, but we saw enough of Julius to sign him after his Junior year. Since we'd never seen him live before he wore a (Virginia) squires uniform, we thought he'd be able to help us on the boards and we hoped he'd be able to score some. We had no idea what he's become." – Johnny "Red" Kerr
• "....If you look at greatness there is one quality all these players have. They're always striving for perfection even though they know they'll never achieve that. Julius Erving was no different." – Billy Cunningham
• "Julius Erving did more to popularize basketball than anybody else who's ever played the game. I remember going to the schoolyard as a kid the day after one of his games would be on TV. Everybody there would be saying, 'Did you see The Doctor?' And we'd all start trying to do those moves." - Magic Johnson