{"id":606738,"date":"2026-02-16T19:07:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T19:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/606738\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T19:07:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T19:07:16","slug":"magic-and-bird-helped-save-the-nba-but-doc-and-moses-did-their-part-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/606738\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic and Bird helped save the NBA, but Doc and Moses did their part, too"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is NBA gospel to believe that\u00a0Larry Bird<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Magic Johnson<\/a>, shining stars as they were in the East (and West), enabled the league to rise into the firmament, to become the Goliath it has since become.<\/p>\n

Upon their arrival in 1979, they polished pro basketball\u2019s profile, burying its sordid, drug-addled past and paving the way for the\u00a0Michael Jordans<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Kobe Bryants<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0LeBron Jameses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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And verily, David Stern and Adam Silver have said, it is good.<\/p>\n

Julius Erving<\/a>, forever the epitome of decorum and decency, is an unlikely blasphemer. And yet, Dr. J said this entire idea is \u201cbullshit\u201d in the 2025 book\u00a0\u201cMagic in the Air,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0by Inquirer columnist Mike Sielski.<\/p>\n

Erving believes that the NBA\u2019s ascension can be traced not to the Bird-Magic bump but rather the league\u2019s merger with the ABA in 1976 \u2013 that the resulting infusion of talent and flair led to a quantum leap.<\/p>\n

The Good Doctor acknowledged in Sielski\u2019s book that Magic and Bird brought \u201ca great rivalry\u201d from college to Los Angeles and Boston, respectively, where it became white hot. It was, Erving said, \u201ca good story.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut truth be told,\u201d he told the author, \u201cI think in terms of the popularity of the league, the league was never more popular than it was after the ABA joined the league. Eleven All-Stars in that first All-Star game were from the ABA. That\u2019s what saved the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both things can be true, of course. Erving and the ABAers brought talent, style and panache to a league sorely in need of all three. But in migrating to the two most storied franchises, Bird and Magic gave the NBA sizzle beyond measure. And that obscured all else \u2026 at least until MJ came along in 1984.<\/p>\n

Recent media offerings have brought the ABA\u2019s role in the NBA\u2019s resurrection to the fore, none better than Luke Epplin\u2019s new book\u00a0\u201cMoses and the Doctor: Two Men, One Championship and the Birth of Modern Basketball.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0With a painstaking eye for detail and a novelist\u2019s knack for narrative, Epplin \u2013 who in fact once dreamed of becoming a novelist \u2013 underscores the impact not only of Dr. J but another ABA alum of note,\u00a0Moses Malone<\/a>. And it is artfully framed around the Sixers\u2019 1982-83 championship run.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy biggest thing is character,\u201d Epplin, 47, said before a book signing last Tuesday, the day \u201cMoses and the Doctor\u201d was released.<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s befitting of a man who had trained to be a novelist at Washington University in St. Louis, and who continued to write fiction into his 30s. Then he came to a realization.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sucked,\u201d he told those who gathered at the signing, at a bookstore near Rittenhouse Square.<\/p>\n

But, he added, \u201cI use the techniques I developed as a failed novelist to write these kinds of stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did that in his 2021 book\u00a0\u201cOur Team,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0about the Cleveland Indians of the late 1940s, and he does it here. In the process he echoes, at least to a degree, not only Sielski\u2019s book, but also one authored in 2025 by Paul Knepper entitled\u00a0\u201cMoses Malone: The Life of a Basketball Prophet,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0as well as an Amazon Prime documentary released last week called\u00a0\u201cSoul Power: The Legend of the American Basketball Association.\u201c<\/a><\/p>\n

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And really, what better characters are there than Doc and Moses? What better story is there than theirs? Erving was soaring and elegant, Moses down and dirty. They were perfect complements to one another, a veritable yin and yang.<\/p>\n

While apart, their successes were considerable. Dr. J won two championships as a New York Net while keeping the ABA afloat, and Moses established himself as one of the greatest rebounders in history after becoming the first player to make the prep-to-pro jump. Epplin nonetheless argues that their tales were pockmarked with failure.<\/p>\n

Malone broke in with the Utah Stars as a 19-year-old in October 1974, then bounced from team to team. Indeed, one of pro basketball\u2019s great what-ifs is how things might have turned out if the Portland Trail Blazers, his first NBA landing spot, had held onto him, given the subsequent injuries suffered by\u00a0Bill Walton<\/a>. As it was, Malone never appeared in a regular-season game for the Blazers, who traded him to Buffalo, leading to another what-if: The Braves (now the Los Angeles Clippers) had\u00a0Bob McAdoo<\/a>! And\u00a0Ernie DiGregorio<\/a>! And\u00a0Adrian Dantley<\/a>! And the eternally underrated\u00a0Randy Smith<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Moses played exactly two games in Buffalo before he was shipped out to Houston, where he blossomed. Even led the undermanned Rockets to the 1981 Finals, at which point he argued that he and four guys from his native Petersburg, Va., could take down Bird and the mighty Celtics. We\u2019ll never know, but certainly the Rockets couldn\u2019t; they lost in six games.<\/p>\n

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Meantime Erving, acquired by the Sixers from the cash-strapped Nets in the fall of \u201876, was experiencing his own frustrations. As part of a talented but dysfunctional \u201876-77 Philadelphia club, he lost in the Finals to Walton\u2019s Blazers. Then Doc fell short against Magic\u2019s Lakers in the \u201880 and \u201882 Finals as well.<\/p>\n

By that point Dr. J was a beloved figure \u2013 the sport\u2019s foremost ambassador, a high-profile pitchman and the perfect teammate.\u00a0Bobby Jones<\/a>, with whom Epplin spoke for his book, once told me for\u00a0one of mine<\/a>\u00a0that unlike other superstars, Erving was \u201can encourager.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t arrogant,\u201d Bobby said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t consider himself better than anybody. He worked as hard as anybody, if not harder. Didn\u2019t put anybody down for the mistakes that they made. That\u2019s easy to do at that level, when the game\u2019s on the line or something\u2019s on the line. He knows he can do it, but you\u2019re in a position where you have to do it, and you don\u2019t, it takes strength of character to say, \u2018We\u2019re in this together. We win together, we lose together.\u2019 I think that was probably, to me, his greatest quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is as great a testimonial as any teammate could offer another, but that\u2019s Bobby. And that was Julius. Which is why everyone \u2013 and I mean\u00a0everyone\u00a0\u2013 wanted to see him win an NBA championship.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s also why he was beginning to wonder if he ever would. He cried in the Los Angeles Forum\u2019s visiting locker room after the Sixers were eliminated by the Lakers in six games in the \u201882 Finals.<\/p>\n

To revisit the Biblical theme: Julius wept.<\/p>\n

When Epplin learned of this, it immediately struck a chord.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, there\u2019s the break right there: Why is Julius Erving crying?\u201d he told last week\u2019s gathering.<\/p>\n

The answer is simple: Dr. J would not be fulfilled without a title. His tale would be incomplete.<\/p>\n

Then Moses came to Philly via trade, bringing with him the means of completion and redemption. No longer would the Sixers be bullied inside. No longer would they have to live with inconsistency at center, as had been the case with the eternally entertaining and eternally frustrating\u00a0Darryl Dawkins<\/a>. (Caldwell Jones<\/a>\u00a0had been around, too. But he was more a complementary piece than the dominating force Moses was, and was ultimately jettisoned in the Malone trade.)<\/p>\n

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The following spring, back in the Forum, the Sixers finished off a sweep of a Lakers team that by the end was without McAdoo,\u00a0James Worthy<\/a> and\u00a0Norm Nixon<\/a>\u00a0due to injury \u2013 i.e., two Hall of Famers and a terrific guard.<\/p>\n

No matter, though \u2013 the Sixers were the best team all year, storming to 65 victories and then nearly fulfilling Moses\u2019 fo\u2019, fo\u2019, fo\u2019 playoff prophecy. (And consider how Moses, famously averse to media interactions, uttered two of the greatest quotes in NBA history \u2013 this one, and the one about the dudes from Petersburg.)<\/p>\n

It is a testimony to Malone (who died in 2015) and Erving that they were able to meld their talents, that they knew they needed each other at that point in their careers. And it is testimony to Epplin that he was able to deftly navigate this most fascinating period in the history of the Sixers, and the league. That he was able to retell a tale that needs to be retold, for the sake of context. It is inarguable that Bird and Magic brought a great deal to the table, but Moses and Dr. J are among those deserving of a seat, too. In this book, each is given one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is NBA gospel to believe that\u00a0Larry Bird\u00a0and\u00a0Magic Johnson, shining stars as they were in the East (and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,45,46,559,187,292,80806,4034,192,4032,300,3497,516,251,135,4033,4031,80807,2682,9869,6,678,207,471],"class_list":["post-606738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-clippers","tag-basketball","tag-boston","tag-celtics","tag-clippers","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-houston","tag-john-iacono","tag-la","tag-la-clippers","tag-laclippers","tag-lakers","tag-larry-bird","tag-lebron","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesclippers","tag-magic-in-the-air","tag-magic-johnson","tag-moses-malone","tag-nba","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-portland-trail-blazers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116081881617023184","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}