Julius Erving, better known as ‘Dr. J’ was one of the best high-flyers back in the day. Having played his entire 11-year NBA career with the Philadelphia 76ers, he was a first-ballot Hall of Famer. But one thing that irked Erving during his initial years in the ABA and the NBA was being in the shadow of the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Julius Erving recently made an appearance on Shaquille O’Neal’s podcast, The Big Podcast with Shaq. Dr J shared numerous untold stories from his time in the league and how he overcame being in Kareem’s shadow.
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Erving narrated the story of when he met Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the first time in Reese Park. The 76ers legend had a small interaction where Abdul-Jabbar told him that he’d meet him in the league one day.
“I always felt as though I was in Kareem’s shadow. When I left school after my junior year, he had just left UCLA since he was two years ahead of me. And we met over at Reese Park…I went over and I introduced myself. He said, ‘Yeah, I heard about you…I’m not playing today but I’ll probably see you down the road in the NBA.”
Shaquille O’Neal keenly listened as Dr. J described how he dominated the ABA for 5 years before making it into the league. However, the 11-time All-Star still felt that he was playing in the shadow of Kareem, who was in the NBA instead.
“I went to the ABA which was a five-year period in which I was pretty much dominating the ABA. But I was still kinda in his shadow…He was considered to be the number one player.”
The Hall of Famer went on to narrate how they met Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Los Angeles Lakers twice in the playoffs but lost both times in 1980 and 1982. This made Erving feel that he may never be able to get out of The Captain’s shadow.
“In 80 and in 82, we played Los Angeles in the finals and they beat us. And I said, ‘I’m gonna be in his shadow the rest of my life.”
It wasn’t until 1983 that the Philadelphia 76ers acquired Moses Malone, the missing piece to their puzzle. The 76ers went on to make a return trip to the NBA Finals in ’83, finally sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers. That is when Julius Erving breathed a sigh of relief since he felt that he made it out of Kareem’s shadow.
“We went and got big Moses and we beat ‘em four straight in that. And I was just relieved…I was only in his shadow, I didn’t fear him.”
Before the world got caught up with Michael Jordan and his stardom, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the biggest face in the league back then. And it was the Los Angeles Lakers who dominated the league while also earning the name, ‘Show-time Lakers.’
Despite dominating the ABA for five straight years and taking the Philadelphia 76ers to a 50-win season right from the get-go in his first year in the NBA, there was only one thing on Julius Erving’s mind. And that was to defeat Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in order to step out of the shadow he had been living in all this while.
But after suffering two losses to Lakeshow in the NBA Finals, Erving’s time had finally arrived. Dr. J and the Philadelphia 76ers were finally able to beat Kareem and LA. After dealing with another heartbreak in the NBA Finals at the hands of Los Angeles the previous year, Erving and Philly swept the Lakers the very next year for their third NBA championship in franchise history.
The 76ers became NBA champions in 1983 and that was all Erving wanted during his career, to defeat Abdul-Jabbar on the biggest stage of them all.
Shaquille O’Neal hears untold Kareem-Erving story firsthand
After making it into the NBA, Julius Erving and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar locked horns on numerous occasions. The two faced off for a total of 26 times during Erving’s 11-year NBA career and they ended up splitting their matchups down to an even 13-13 record.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Julius Erving gave fans some big games with unforgettable highlights. For his career, Kareem averaged 25.7 points, 11.1 rebounds and 4.0 assists in the 26 games he played against Erving throughout his career.
As for Julius Erving, he averaged 19.5 points, 8.1 rebounds and 4.5 assists in all of the 26 games while facing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Even though Erving had fewer points, the 76ers had other stars who took the offensive load as opposed to the Lakers who only had Kareem and his sky hook, along with Magic Johnson dishing him the ball every time down the floor.
It may also be worthwhile to notice that Julius Erving and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar met in the NBA Finals thrice. And out of the three matchups, Kareem ended up winning the first two matchups whereas Erving only won the last one.
Apart from their professional rivalry, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Julius Erving did acknowledge each other’s talents on the basketball court. The two even participated in a friendly exhibition match after their retirement in 1992.
Dubbed the ‘Clash of the Legends’, as much fun as many thought it would be, Kareem ended up winning by a landslide as he defeated Erving with a 44-21 final score. But for Erving, that last win in the NBA Finals where they swept the Los Angeles Lakers was all he wanted to call his NBA career a success.
