J and give him to the Bucks, it is like taking Kawhi Leonard from Toronto and putting him on the Bucks. They still had Moses Malone on those teams and Charles Barkley on the ‘85 team, but if you take away Dr. Between 19, the Bucks lost four series to the 76ers in the playoffs Julius Erving’s 76ers. J affects the Bucks, let’s add in the 1980‘s. J being in Milwaukee might have helped the association when it was in dire need (and later “saved” by Magic Johnson and Larry Bird). The 70‘s were a weird time in the NBA, but Dr. From there, it’s anyone’s guess, but the Knicks somehow blew that team out of the water with Walt Frazier. J at least gets us to the West Finals vs. That just seems odd as how that worked, but I think Dr. It was hard to find reasons as to why, but a Warriors team led by players like Nate Thurmond and Rick Barry beat the Kareem/Oscar Bucks in the playoffs, before losing to the West/Goodrich/Chamberlain Lakers. But, let’s give them 1974 for sure because the 1973 season was tricky. That series went seven games, and I really believe that having a supreme talent like Erving on top of those two makes the Bucks nearly unbeatable in 19. Erving and Kareem clearly are the two best players, and Oscar is likely third. But that big three would have easily handled John Havlicek, Dave Cowens and JoJo White. We might have even been able to keep Kareem and/or Oscar longer than 1974 if we had Erving as well. J’s legacy impacts the Bucks, I guarantee it would have given us at least the 1974 title (he won the ABA’s that year), and probably at least one in the 80‘s. J’s contract to help the Nets get established, and that’s how he wound up in Philly.Īs far as how Dr. So, the 76ers gave the Nets $3 million to take Dr. Then, in what is viewed as a colossal mistake by the Knicks, they turned it down. So, they charged the Nets $4.8 million for being an NBA team on their turf, and the Nets tried to sell Erving to the Knicks as collateral. Since the Knicks were already in the NBA, the Knicks were mad at a team encroaching on their territory. He then ended up on the 76ers in another odd situation. In the ABA, after just one more season, the Virginia Squires traded him to the Nets, who eventually joined the NBA at the time of the merger. The Bucks eventually won the dispute, so Erving chose the ABA. During this time, he opted to stay with the ABA’s Virginia Squires while his contract dispute went on, since he wanted to play for the Hawks and join Pete Maravich. In spite of that pre-existing deal, the Bucks selected Erving, and essentially a long legal process occurred. The following season, prior to the 1972 NBA Draft, the Hawks signed him to a deal in a similar fashion to how players from the NBA sign with teams in Europe. That’s how he wound up with the Virginia Squires, and then the New Jersey Nets, prior to his NBA tenure. Anyways, because the NBA didn’t allow players who didn’t graduate college (essentially) to join the NBA, the ABA was able to draft Erving as a collegiate junior. J didn’t go with the Bucks, so I found it interesting. I know, it’s Wikipedia but I never actually read anything before about why Dr. J draft information, courtesy of Wikipedia, and why he chose the ABA. He has similarity scores close to Charles Barkley and Dirk Nowitzki. He also was an All-NBA first teamer five times, and has many other career highlights to his credit. He has three ABA MVP’s, and two ABA championships. He was an All-Star in all 16 of his years (11 with NBA, 5 with ABA), and never averaged less than 16.8 PPG, which happened his last season. J was the 1981 NBA MVP, and won the 1983 NBA title with the Philadelphia 76ers. J” was the best player in his class according to win-shares, with Bob McAdoo and Paul Westphal the next two players.ĭr. Julius Erving was selected 12th in the 1972 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, and was currently playing for the Virginia Squires in the ABA. We are counting down all the way from #12 to #1, and today we are moving on to a legend, who was drafted by the Bucks back in 1972, Julius Erving.īefore I start, I would like to say that this article is going to focus on Julius Erving’s career, but also the what-if scenarios had he chosen to play with the Bucks over the ABA. Hi Bucks’ fans! Welcome to the all-time top Bucks’ draft picks, power ranked by the fan’s yourselves.
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