(EDITOR’S NOTE: Hall of Famer Julius Erving, an NBA and ABA champion, is considered one of the greatest basketball players ever and one the greatest ambassadors of the game off the court. He is an 11-time NBA All-Star and league MVP. The player fans know as ”Dr. J” shares some of the experiences that helped make him who he is, and provided him with the foundation to help him lead the transformation the NBA during the 1980s.)
Those of us who played in the NBA in the 1980s definitely played a role in what the league has become today.
And I think that in communicating with the next generation of players, they gave a lot of credit to myself and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. If you start in 1980, and you look at the guys who were the All-Pro players, the MVPs or whatever, there was an acceptance, and there was the crossing-over between the different ethnicities that created a pretty good melting pot.
I look at the commercial success that happened with myself, with Larry Bird, with Converse and…