Julius “Dr. J” Erving Coach

Julius “Dr. J” Erving will return as Tri State’s coach. A living legend, Erving is so significant that in the summer of 2018, before the BIG3’s second season, the championship trophy was named in his honor.

Erving is a basketball icon who was one of basketball’s original high-flyers, and was arguably the first man to turn the dunk into a form of art. ‘The Doctor’ helped legitimize the ABA and was the best-known player in that league when it merged with the NBA after the 1975–76 season.

Of course, Erving had more than enough substance to his game for his legacy to be based around aesthetics. Erving won three championships, four Most Valuable Player Awards, and three scoring titles with the ABA’s Virginia Squires, New York Nets (now the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets), and the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers. He is the sixth-highest scorer in ABA/NBA history with 30,026 points (NBA and ABA combined). He is the only player ever voted Most Valuable Player in both the ABA and the NBA.

In 1993, Erving was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame and was also named to the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time team. In 1994, Erving was named by Sports Illustrated as one of the 40 most important athletes of all time. In 2004, he was inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame.