"The Charbor Chronicles": "Dr. J" Julius Erving at Philadelphia Free Library, November 14, 2013

Sitting in heavy traffic, and seeing the time slipping by surprisingly quickly, my nervousness is setting in. I have come from a distance to see this event, a talk with NBA legend "Dr. J", Julius Erving, and hopefully, hopefully to get an autograph for my copy of his new book. His autobiography, which he was promoting now.

But it's getting late, and I'm not so familiar with the city that I know precisely where the Free Library is. I had to rearrange my schedule (and inconvenience others in the process) in order to get here, but I only learned about his appearance at the Barnes and Noble in New York City the day after it happened. That is where I have gone to attend similar kinds of events, so I guess, in a manner of speaking, it could be said that that is my "usual" place for author events and such. There are two Barnes and Nobles that seem to have those kinds of events regularly, one at Union Square (easily the most convenient to get to for me), and the other in downtown Manhattan, not far from Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick's Cathedral, which requires a bit more time to get to. Between those two places, I have gone to see President Jimmy Carter, Bill Bryson, Richard Russo, and perhaps some others that are not quite popping into mind as quickly. That's my usual place, and I would have preferred it, probably. It still is a bit easier to get to.

But this is in Philadelphia, which normally was quite a bit further from me, coming from northern New Jersey, as I did. Living in Hillsborough, though, makes a trip to Philly considerably less daunting. When I had gone to events in Philly in the past, such as Pearl Jam, it really seemed unique, like I was going to some lengths to see them in a relatively exotic location.

Now, though, for the last year and a half or so, this is hardly the case. True, I have never been to an author event here before, and I have no idea about the Free Library, or even where it is. But this is a chance to see "Dr. J", an NBA legend who was not at the final New Jersey game for the Nets when I attended that in spring of last year (pretty much the whole arena had been hoping that he would).

It's getting late. The sun is going down, but there are some spots of sun blindness, and the only thing that I can see, other than the blinding sun, are lit up taillights. There must be a line around the corner by now, and there goes my plan for reading, since it's going to be dark. But at this point, I just hope to get in. Also, I hope to get that autograph.

Finally, I get to the exit that my GPS kept telling me is right around the corner, and the traffic frees up. In minutes, I pull up to the library, and am surprised by the familiarity of the location. This is the museum area! I've been here before! Right in the downtown, and this library is much bigger than I expected. Much more impressive. Also, there is absolutely no trace of a line anywhere. Hopefully, that's a good sign. Hopefully, in fact, it means that the line is inside somewhere, because the night is not as cold as it has been, but still a bit chilly. Before long, it would probably feel cold.

I park, and go inside. Right to the desk, and she is smiling, and tells me to go downstairs. She makes a serious face for a moment, and tells me that the line is forming.

Great. Probably too late already.

But when I go down there, there is only one person on line. He got there under the same assumption that I did: that this is going to be a huge draw. That we should get there hours early, if we hope to make inside of the 400-seat auditorium, if we want to get in on the free event. It is a pleasant surprise, but I'm second in line.

The line begins to form behind me, but there are very few people at first. I stand and read his book, but before long, I sit on the floor. Before too long, a few other people do as well. People begin to trickle in, and then, more and more people come. At some point, I take a break from the reading (and I am even more absorbed in reading it then I expected to be), and look around the corner to see how long the line has gotten. There are now hundreds of people on it. Impressive!

We learn that the talk will be roughly an hour or so, and that the signing will be upstairs. So, the people that did not get into the talk will be ahead of the rest of us in getting their book signed. Also, it's being telecast in the lobby of the library, so they won't really be missing all that much. Fair enough.

At around 6:40pm or so, they stat letting people in. The first three rows in the middle are reserved (for the press, it seems). The remaining rows in the middle, and everything to the side, is open for all of us. I'm second on line, so I have my pick of seats. I choose to sit off to the side, but in the front row. Very close!

We are waiting for a while, and the auditorium fills with the typical noises of people talking, people laughing, while I'm getting more and more absorbed with the book. It's pretty damn good so far!

Then, the highlight reel comes on, and people applaud. One clip after another of Julius Erving doing some amazing things on the court, back in the day. It gets quiet for a while, but there is no narrator's voice that comes on, and people begin their chattering again. The guy behind me apparently is either the ultimate Sixers fan, or the ultimate fan of Dr. J specifically, or perhaps both. But he is getting very excited with every clip, as if it were happening live, rather than three decades ago. When people happen to get in the way of his view of the screen, he excitedly tells them to move out of the way. One of the ushers laughs, and informs him that he can see the same clips on Youtube.

The clips stop abruptly, and then we know that he is about to take the stage, because it is very near that scheduled time of 7:30pm.

Finally, the director of the program for lectures at the Free Library comes on. He tells us that we can take all the pictures that we want for the first thirty seconds, when Erving will first come on stage, but that we should refrain from taking pictures thereafter, because of the flashes. Sounds fair, and everyone seems to comply with that, somewhat surprisingly.

Then, a local sports radio personality comes out for the introduction. Then, Julius Erving takes the stage in interview format.

He joked about the Afro, saying that, yes, he used to have the fro, but then changed to the corporate look, which he has kept ever since.

Then, the interview truly began. Some of the things that he spoke about:

How he got the name "Dr. J" - There was a teammate who was very smart, and he nicknamed him "the Professor". But that guy gave Julius Erving a nickname back - "The Doctor". Later, in college, when he joined a basketball team, there were actual doctors, and so to differentiate them from Julius Erving, who's established nickname by that point was "The Doctor", he became known as "Dr. J". During the course of his career, some people wanted to give him other nicknames, but he was happy with the one he already had, and is best known by.

He spoke about the rivalry between the city of Philadelphia and Boston, and said that when he first came to the Sixers, he did not realize just how strong the rivalry between Boston and Philadelphia was. It was intense. He knew that sports was not exactly life and death, but at times between the Celtics and Sixers, he almost felt like it was. This was particularly true when the Sixers would go up to the Boston Garden for a road game.

Erving also mentioned the famous fight that he got into with Larry Bird of the Celtics. He kind of lowered his voice, and said that it was safe to admit that now that enough time has passed, he was kind of glad to have gotten into the fight, and that he had landed some solid punches.

He spoke about his retirement tour, and said that while many stars had also had their retirement tours (and some stars like Kobe and Lebron would have them eventually), none were like his. He spoke about how memorable it was that even up in the Boston Garden, he felt privileged to see that red number six, and he joked about how that allowed him to realize that maybe Boston was not all bad.

Of course, he talked about some of his accomplishments on the court, particularly with the 76ers. He said that the team had enough talent to win multiple championships, but admitted that they blew it at times, recalling particularly one year, making it to the NBA Finals, and losing four straight games. He felt that the Sixers had been the better team, but they had just been beaten in those games.

There was a feeling that they would have the opportunity again. But the next year, the coach was fired after five games, and then there had been a few trades, and it was just not the same team. Unfortunately, that new team did not have the same championship potential.

But, he made it clear that he greatly appreciated the one NBA Championship he did win. Erving did not drink the champagne in the locker room, because he wanted to stay sober enough to remember every moment of that experience.

The window closes quickly, he said, and so you want to make the most of the opportunities while it's there. He was very glad to have gotten at least that one title.

There were a few other things that he spoke about that were not necessarily related to his basketball fame. Here were some of them:

According to him, there are three things that you really need in life - health, home, and productivity.

He talked about the glory days of being in a prominent and enviable relationship, which was sometimes compared to the black "Camelot", of sorts, with Dr. J and his then wife, Turquoise, seeming to represent unofficial royalty of sorts, like JFK and Jackie had before them.

Erving also mentioned how he lost so many people along the way. The most painful one was his mom, who died in 2004, because that left him as the only surviving member of his immediate family, and that is what got him thinking quite a bit, because he was feeling his mortality. He was getting older, and realized that there were more memories from the past then there likely would be the opportunity to make memories in the future.

He was asked why he did not hold back in his recent book, and responded by saying that he did not want write fluff, that such an approach would not earn him respect. People would be able to see right through that. So, he made a point of being honest about everything, including his infamous marital transgressions, and take an unflinching, honest look at his own life, and be upfront before the reader. He is revealing quite a lot in his book (some online have suggested too much), but he certainly cannot be criticized for holding back or hiding.

Finally, here are some pictures from the event: