by Bill Livingston
I have covered Julius Erving and LeBron James in my career, so I am a lucky man.
The first time I saw Dr. J in person, a fan popped out of the stands in Philly and handed him a doctor's bag. So he could operate, get it? The first time I saw LeBron James, he was a 16-year-old high school sophomore. He was shooting 3-pointers in St. Vincent-St. Mary's warmups before a game against Central-Hower.
He still shoots too many threes. Otherwise, at 24, he has over Doc in almost everything.
Despite his work with an ice cube in the Dr. Pepper commercial, this Doctor never shot well from the outside until he had to because he couldn't go to the basket anymore. At mid-range, James is now probably better than Doc ever was for most of his career. And he even sometimes uses the Doctor's "old school" bank shot.
James is much bigger and close to as quick, which is preposterous. But so is much else about his physical gifts. James rebounds better than Erving in his NBA phase, James passes far better, and James has a much better ratio of assists to turnovers.
Dr. J faced enormous pressure, as the "face" of the ABA, when his contract was sold to an already good NBA team in the first year of the merger. He had to prove the guys who had used the red, white and blue ball could play. James faced enormous pressure from his rookie year on, as people wondered if anyone that young could possibly be that good.
Doc made the greatest shot I ever saw in person with his reverse layup to beat three Lakers in Game 4 of the 1980 Finals. James played the greatest game I ever covered in person when he single-handedly beat five Pistons in Game 5 of the 2007 East finals.
I have great memories from both. LeBron is only going to make more of them.
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