This story, by Dick Weiss, first appeared in the April 25, 1981, issue of The Sporting News, under the headline, “NBA Players Hail Dr. J as No. 1”. Julius Erving, TSN’s 1980-81 Player of the Year, as voted on by his fellow players, would go on to win the 1981 MVP award, his first in the NBA after having been the ABA MVP three times. As this story hinted, though, Erving’s Sixers would face a playoff hurdle in young Larry Bird’s Celtics. Philly fell to Boston in an Eastern Conference Finals that went seven games.
PHILADELPHIA — By now, Julius Erving should be used to playing in a ghost town.
The Doctor may have re-emerged as one of the most brilliant figures in pro basketball the past two years, but the crowds at the Spectrum have not always reflected his meteoric return to super stardom.
Only 7,200 — the smallest crowd to attend a National Basketball Association playoff game in the last 12 years — filtered into the arena to watch the Philadelphia 76ers' All-Pro forward score 32 points and contribute nine rebounds, nine assists and a pair of blocked shots during a 124-105 victory over Indiana in the first game of an Eastern Conference miniseries.
Five days later, Erving scored 30 points, 15 of them in the fourth quarter, as the Sixers outran the Milwaukee Bucks, 125-122, in the opening game of the Eastern semifinals. But only 9,127 witnessed that nuclear explosion.
It is sad to think the fans in this town may be passing up the opportunity to watch a legend in the making. Erving has only played in the NBA for five years, but he has already left his mark. Just last summer, the NBA Writers Association voted him to a spot on the league's all-time All-Star team.
Now, the NBA players have shown a further appreciation of art by selecting Erving as The Sporting News NBA Player of the Year. Erving was the overwhelming choice of his peers, receiving 125 votes of 167 cast. Only one other player, Los Angeles Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (41), received more than six ballots.
TSN ARCHIVES: Allen Iverson, the mercurial Sixers star in two columns
Erving (147) was also the leading vote-getter on The Sporting News All-Pro team. He is joined on the first team by Abdul-Jabbar (128), George Gervin of San Antonio (119), Larry Bird of Boston (57) and Dennis Johnson of Phoenix (45).
Members of the second team are Marques Johnson of Milwaukee (51), Otis Birdsong of Kansas City (33), Tiny Archibald of Boston (30) and Jamaal Wilkes of the Lakers (27). Tied for second-team center with 18 votes each were Moses Malone of Houston and Robert Parish of the Celtics.
To no one's great surprise, Utah Jazz guard Darrell Griffith, who led Louisville to the NCAA championship in 1980, was the players' choice for Rookie of the Year, receiving 82 votes. Only one other player, Golden State center Joe Barry Carroli (31) received more than 10 ballots.
After Erving came out of the woodwork in 1979-80 to average 25.4 points for a team that reached the championship series, it was hard to imagine what he would do for an encore. But the 6-7 flying machine spread his wings again, averaging 24.6 points, 8.0 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.1 steals while leading the Sixers to a 62-20 record. Erving shot a crisp 52 percent and, for those with an appreciation of the spectacular, finished with an all-time high 189 dunks
"As far as we're concerned,” said Sixers General Manager Pat Willams, “Julius has had bookend seasons for us. Ask me to choose which I think was better and that would be like choosing between a Mercedes and Rolls-Royce."
Sixers Coach Billy Cunningham is not about to quibble over degrees of excellence, but he does feel Erving may be one player who gets better with age.
TSN ARCHIVES: Nobody Did It Better; Schmidt Selected TSN Player of Decade (Jan. 29, 1990)
"I'll be very disappointed if he's not MVP this year,” Cunningham said. “I just can't imagine anyone being voted that honor over him. I think he's had a better season this year than last. It's just been a more consistent thing in certain areas. He's been a more consistent offensive rebounder for one thing
"It's just been a different year for him. We've asked him to post up more. We don't have him out on the wing us much. We've expected him to play better defense. His game is just better. Hopefully, he's a player just like John Havlicek, and will be reaching his prime at age 33, 34.”
Erving has just turned 31. After signing a three-year contract extension last fall that will keep him in a 76ers uniform until age 35, he finally seems at peace with himself. Erving is planning to settle permanently in Philadelphia next year and has started exploring new horizons in the business world by opening an exclusive shoe salon in the city's Society Hill section.
He is a success on and off the court.
"I think the strain this year was tougher than last,” Erving admitted. “And that's because of my own desire to strive for excellence. I probably went through less change last year and will go through less next year than I did this year.
"I do feel complete, I felt complete last year in my contributions and I felt complete this year.".
The one thing Erving lacks is an NBA championship ring. Whether he gets one this year will be determined by the performance of Bird, the other forward on TSN's first team. The 6-9 Bird is only in his second year as a pro but already he is making the fans in Boston forget about Havlicek.
Bird averaged 21.2 points with 10.9 rebounds as the Celtics came on strong the second part of the year to finish with 62 wins and edge the Sixers for the Atlantic Division championship because of a tie-breaker — best record against division opponents.
TSN ARCHIVES: Philadelphia’s Bobby Clarke, the modest Flyer with firepower (March 10, 1973)
"I think you can look at the Celtics' past as several different eras," Boston Coach Bill Fitch said. “I think I would call this one the Bird era."
Abdul-Jabbar, a six-time winner of the league's Most Valuable Player trophy. was once again selected The Sporting News’ first-team center. The Lakers’ 7-2 star was forced to play a more dominant role after Magic Johnson's early-season knee injury and responded by averaging 26.2 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.85 blocked shots. He was fourth in the league in field-goal percentage (574) and kept the Lakers competitive with Phoenix for 45 games until Johnson returned in March.
Abdul-Jabbar reached a personal milestone when he became the fifth player in NBA history to surpass 25,000 points.
Gervin, one of the guards of the first team, showed a rare ability to subvert his growing ego by helping San Antonio win 52 games and coast to the Midwest Division championship. The Iceman, a three-time NBA scoring champion, still averaged a cool 27.1 points despite shooting less and passing off more.
"I've changed,” Gervin said, “and that's because the team has improved. In the past, I realized that in order for us to be tough, I had to score as much as I did. This year, I wasn't concerned with points.”
Dennis Johnson, the other member of the first team backcourt, went to Phoenix from Seattle last summer in the highly publicized trade for Paul Westphal. The 6-4 guard blossomed in the desert, averaging 18.8 points and serving as the defensive catalyst for the Suns, who rose to capture the Pacific Division.
The 6-4 Griffith, TSN's Rookie of the Year, averaged 20.6 points for the Jazz as Utah continued its reconstruction. He joins Geoff Petrie of Portland (1970-71) and Pete Maravich of Atlanta (1970-71) as the third rookie guard in the past 10 years to crack the 20-points-per-game circle.
"Now that he's been around the league once," Utah Coach Tom Nissalke said. "He should even be better the second time around.”