Julius Erving
Professional basketball in the United States developed into a sport with a rich culture of individual honors and community recognition over the decades following the mid-twentieth century. Julius Erving came up through that environment as a basketball player whose career drew formal acknowledgment from the league on multiple fronts.
Born on February 22, 1950, in East Meadow, Erving attended Roosevelt High School before going on to study at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His professional life extended beyond the basketball court as well — he worked as an actor and in a business capacity, making him someone whose career touched more than one field. He is a citizen of the United States and has worked in English throughout his professional life.
Within basketball, Erving earned some of the sport's most competitive individual distinctions. He received the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, which reflects a player's performance across an entire season as judged within the league. He was also named to the All-NBA Team, a yearly honor given to the top players at their positions, and he received the NBA All-Star Game Kobe Bryant Most Valuable Player Award, recognizing strong performance on one of the sport's most prominent showcase stages.
Alongside those performance-based honors, Erving received the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award, which the NBA grants to a player, coach, or trainer for outstanding service and dedication to the community. That award places him among a relatively small group of players recognized for contributions that went beyond what happened during games. For someone who also worked as an actor and in business, the Citizenship Award stands as a concrete marker of how his public profile was acknowledged across more than one area of his career.
Quotes by Julius Erving
Julius Erving's insights on:
Many people think sports are totally physical, that you don’t have to think, everything is done for you and you’re catered to, I found that to be so far removed from the truth that it’s almost a joke. The ones who become stars are the ones who have a head on their shoulders and know how to use it.
That was just my own personal program: I didn’t want to get too high over the good moments because I didn’t want to be saddened and depressed when things didn’t go as I had planned.
I think that my God-given physical attributes, big hands, and big feet, the way that I’m built, proportion-wise, just made basketball the most inviting sport for me to play.
I’ve always tried to tell myself that the work itself is the thing, that win, lose, or draw, the work is really what counts.
You know, we always tried to rationalize by saying you take the good, you take the upside, you got to deal with the downside, you’ve to take the downside.
If you’ve experienced having control, you don’t want to be moved to a subordinate position, if you have your druthers.
But you know, we have a very normal family. We’ve had our ups and downs. You know, we’ve had our issues, but we’ve had great cause for celebration.
My mom is one of 14 children. She’s a great lady. She’s a Taurus. Has been a profound influence in my life, still is to this day. Born in meager surroundings in rural South Carolina.