I met Dr. J a few years ago, and told him I saw one of the greatest indidial performances on a basketball court vs. the Denver Nuggets on May 8, 1976 in the ABA playoffs. A great friend from St. Johns took me to the game to celebrate my birthday that night. Guarded by the great defender Bobby Jones (and everyone else on the Nuggets) Erving put on an incredible show of unstoppable force. In one sequence, he drove right on Jones, and got a step on him, Jones cut off the path to the basket, but Erving kept soaring behind the backboard. Issel clogged the middle and other Nuggets prepared to stop him if Erving came back for a reverse. Erving lept going, but instead of a reverse kiss (think of the incredible shot he made vs the Lakers as a Sixer in the NBA finals), he just kept airborne and slammed it home.
I remarked to Erving that he had scored something like 45 points. He smiled, and said, "Oh yea, the double double", and knew the exact number of points he had in consecutive games, which was 45 and 46 or something like that. I have a photo taken with Erving that day.
To me, the most exciting player in the air ever in basketball. Erving soaring, grasping the ball in one gigantic hand as it it were a softball, was the best combination of graceful flight and power ever seen on a basketball court, now or then.
