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Dr. J’s house call to Tucson for African-American Museum of Southern Arizona meaningful



Julius Erving and Bob Elliott share a laugh during their fireside chat that benefited the African-American Museum of Southern Arizona on Thursday night (Andy Morales/AllSportsTucson.com)

The play on words for a doctor in the old days making a “house call” came to life at Palo Verde High School’s auditorium on Thursday night with the Doctor, Julius Erving, doing that duty for Tucson and the African-American Museum of Southern Arizona.

Erving, affectionately known as Dr. J, took part in a fireside chat with Arizona legend Bob “Big Bird” Elliott, the co-founder of the museum along with his wife Beverely, for about 90 minutes at Palo Verde’s auditorium in front of a large contingent that included young and old fans alike.

Erving’s appearance was a fundraiser for the museum with most of those in attendance gaining admission by making generous donations.

“Bob has informed me they’ve had more than 7,000 visitors,” Erving said of the museum, which recently celebrated its second anniversary of opening its doors on Jan. 14, 2023. “Maybe with me coming here, it will bring a little more attention to it. Maybe that number will increase. If it increases, the economic piece of it will be better. It will be put back into the community.”

Erving has helped a good cause in Tucson before, in 1993 (the year he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame). He took part in the John Denver Celebrity Pro-Am, which funded local charities, preceding the Northern Telecom Open at Tucson National. Thursday night was his first public appearance in Tucson since that event.

Please make a donation to the African-American Museum of Southern Arizona by clicking here.

Arizona Daily Star clipping in 1993

Elliott discussed with Erving, 74, the Doctor’s family background in the projects of Hempstead, N.Y., in Nassau County on Long Island and ascension in basketball from the Salvation Army youth basketball team, Roosevelt High on Long Island, UMass, the ABA and then the NBA with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Some highlights of their discussion:

His admiration for his late mother Callie Mae Lindsey

“We were a family of five. My mom and dad split up so she was doing the lion’s share work. The interesting thing about it is the way our country worked back then, and this is the ’50s and the ’60s and ’40s, in South Carolina. She went to a junior college, and she was able to get a teaching certificate, so she was always into education. When she got to New York, they wouldn’t allow her to teach. So she did domestic work, and she (worked at) a dentist office and did what she had to do to get by, which is kind of a sad commentary on the nation because there’s so many people who are victims of injustice and prejudice. My mom was my hero. She was the most determined person. She went and got a license as a hairdresser, and she started out doing the hairdressing and curling for all little girls in the projects. She said, ‘I can do this as a profession.’ She got a booth. Next thing you know, she’s got customers coming in. … She was my hero. She was the rock. She continues to be the rock. She passed away at 80. She was born the same year as Jimmy Carter in 1924.”

His close relationship with his brother Marvin, who passed away at age 16 from lupus when Julius was 19 and a freshman at UMass —

“My mom, my grandfather and my grandmother, they were very religious, very serious members of the Baptist church. So I was baptized in my first 10 years. That made a huge difference to me because I felt as though it was my decision. My brother and I, Marvin, we went at the same time. So I was like nine, and he was like six. And the pastor, Reverend C. Evans, called, ‘Anybody coming to the Lord’s house? Just don’t sit there, come on up.’ He (Marvin) stood up. I was like, ‘He ain’t going up there without me.’ (drawing laughter from the crowd). He got up there and I was right behind him. Big brother is right here … He was my best friend and we unfortunately lost him in the second decade of my life.”

What the spirit of his father (Julius Sr.) and brother meant to him at such a young age (his dad passed away when Julius was 7) —

“I lost my brother my freshman year (at UMass) and my father had already passed. So it made me feel like with my mom and my sisters I had an additional responsibility to them being the man of house to do something. … I always said, and I still say it today that my father’s spirit — even though he wasn’t in my life when he passed — and my brother’s spirit were a part of me. Any time I went mano-a-mano with anybody, it was three against one.”

Photos from the Salvation Army Hempstead (N.Y.) team in 1962 with Julius Erving as one of the players at age 12

His affinity for the Salvation Army, particularly playing for the Salvation Army Center of Hempstead (N.Y.) youth team when he was 12 in 1962 as one of two African-Americans (Archie Rogers the other) on a team with 10 white kids —

“Arch and I, we played with the school team at Prospect Elementary School (in Hempstead). And there were six of us, six schools in our district. We just competed against them and everything was within the district. We had this experience at the Salvation Army in which we played in New Jersey, Long Island, New York City … we even went to Pennsylvania. They had traveling teams. … Once you got out and you start competing against youth from other counties, other states, whatever, you got a perspective about how good you were or how good you weren’t. (Laughter from the crowd). You can find out both ways. … In the Salvation Army, we went by station wagon. All I remember is there were 12 of us and one driver. We might have been breaking the law, but we got to those games on time. One reason why the Salvation Army is so close to my heart today is the motto they had was, ‘Not for ourselves, but for others.’ That was the motto they had back in 1962. It was also, ‘Carry the books and the ball.’ … If you didn’t get good grades, you couldn’t play. … I carried the Salvation Army all the way through college, all the way to the Hall of Fame. I had a banner put up behind me when I was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame that had ‘Salvation Army’ on it because they meant that much to me. They still mean that much to me today.”

On his attempt to play baseball and football in addition to basketball at Roosevelt High School —

“I was pretty dedicated to basketball. I played football and baseball. I batted about .180 in baseball. … So, I had to let that go. I was just trying to be out there with my friends, and it was kind of embarrassing. So with football, Roosevelt had a really good football team. They won 49 straight games. I tried to hang with them and be a part of all that glory. That was the idea. … I realized when I played football the cleats were heavy. After football season, I couldn’t jump. Black man can’t jump, that’s a problem (more laughter from the crowd). I gave up the cleats and football, and I got my jumper back. My junior year, I was most improved player in my county. In my senior year, I was an all-county player. I was 6-3 1/2, 170 pounds. I was just a shadow of what I became (6-7 and 210 in the ABA and NBA).”

Newsday clipping in 1968

His dislike for how the game is evolving in the NBA —

“For the youth in the audience now, the game is continuously evolving. They’re always looking for ways to make it more exciting. They want more fan appeal. They want to make it more marketable to the sponsors. The last part of that should be more challenging to the players. But honestly speaking, I think it’s less challenging. I see some guys, they act like they don’t even want to be out there. You’re not playing at the highest level because you have to be there. You worked very hard. You paid the price to get that opportunity. Now that you got that opportunity, you have to challenge yourself to be the best that you can do. Challenge the records and the standards that came before you. … (NBA commissioner) Adam Silver, he asked me, Larry Bird and one other guy, can’t remember who it is, to go in and talk to both teams before last year’s All-Star Game. We did that and the guys said, ‘We’re going to play hard. We’ll put on a good show. We’re going to play hard … You don’t have to tell us that.’ Man, it was like a walk in the park. I was so sad. … The people who came from around the world, they paid good money to be in that stadium. Adam needs to fix it. Somebody needs to fix it somehow. It’s like practice. … One guy came over to me. I was sitting courtside. He came over to me and asked, ‘Did I play hard enough?’ You know who it was? (Giannis) Antetokounmpo. He was trying to roll them out of there. I don’t think he knows how to not play hard because he’s a truly great player. He came over and I said, ‘Bro, I’m proud of you. But the other guys …’ (laughter from the crowd).”

Julius Erving with Bob Elliott (far left), Lafayette “Fat” Lever (to Erving’s left), Eric Money (to Lever’s left) and Reggie Geary (far right) (Andy Morales/AllSportsTucson.com)

His allegiance to the ABA after signing with the Virginia Squires following his junior season at UMass for $500,000 spread over seven years, which back then in 1971, was big money, winning the ABA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest in 1976 taking off from the free-throw line for one dunk and winning the title with the New York Nets later that year against the Denver Nuggets —

“We’ve got to get some ABA players in the Hall of Fame. Now I’m Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors for the Hall of Fame (since September). I’m going to focus on getting ABA players into the Hall of Fame.”

Note: The last game of the ABA era was when the Nets defeated the Nuggets on June 17, 1976 at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y. The ABA merged with the NBA after that season and Erving was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers as part of a $6 million deal, with the Nets receiving $3 million and Erving receiving the remaining $3 million in a new contract. The Nets dealt him because they couldn’t afford him. Erving was largely considered the reason why the NBA and ABA merged that season.

His message to the youth about making choices in their lives —

“For all young people, once again, the only wrong decision is no decision. Every time you walk out of your house and you walk to your school or to the park, or whatever, you have the responsibility of deciding what’s going to happen to you. No decisions, you can’t survive doing that. Other people blow in your ear, ‘Smoke this, snort this, inject this …’ I didn’t do any of that but I did smoke some cigars (laughter from crowd).”

His closing statement to the crowd —

“For long stretches of my life, I’ve always felt that I wanted to keep the carrot out in front of me. … I feel like I’m always chasing the carrot. My carrot is, I’d like to think, the best days of my life are ahead of me as opposed to behind me. Sometimes it feels a little like a pipe dream, or whatever, but you have that feeling when you wake up in the morning: ‘This could be it. … This could be the best day of my life.’ I’ve had some good days. There’s probably people in this audience right now. ‘Aw man, when I was 17, it was so good. It was the best time of my life.’ Come on, now (laughter from the crowd). … Good things will happen to people who allow it to happen. Keep your eye on the prize. Look for that best day in your life to be tomorrow, not yesterday.”

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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.

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