Julius Erving's 40 Point Games
Last Friday, LeBron James notched the 34th 40 point game of his NBA career. According to ESPN, James ranks sixth on the list for most 40 point games before turning 25 (his 25th birthday is December 30, 2009):
Wilt Chamberlain--67
Michael Jordan--52
Bob McAdoo--47
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar--38
Rick Barry--35
The problem with this list is that it does not include ABA statistics; I have insisted for years that
ABA numbers should also count. Barry played his first two seasons for the NBA Warriors before jumping to the ABA for four seasons. He tallied nine 40 point games in the 1968-69 season as a member of the ABA's Oakland Oaks, so Barry actually had 44 40 point games before the age of 25; it is also worth noting that the NBA forced Barry to sit out his option year (1967-68) prior to switching leagues and that an injury limited Barry to just 35 games in 1968-69, so Barry easily could have beaten Jordan's total if he had not missed 120-plus games during that period.
Julius Erving spent his first five professional seasons in the ABA, so the methodology used to compile the above list essentially pretends that the first third of his career never happened. Erving had 39 40 point games in the ABA, including 30 prior to his 25th birthday, one on his 25th birthday (he dropped 51 on February 22, 1975) and eight more after he turned 25. I have never seen a published list of all of Erving's 40 point games; the information necessary to put together such a list is available--though not easy to find--and several years ago I made a complete chart of Erving's 48 regular season and seven playoff 40 point games:
Julius Erving's ABA/NBA 40 Point Games
| 1971-72 | (0-5) |
| Virginia Squires |
| Date |
| Team | Opp | Total |
| 1/20/72 |
| VIR 115 | KEN 118 | 40 |
| 3/4/72 |
| VIR 117 | at FLA 124 | 45 |
| 3/12/72 |
| VIR 101 | at KEN 104 | 40 |
| 3/26/72 |
| VIR 130 | at PIT 131 | 41 |
| 3/28/72 |
| VIR 121 | CAR 127 | 45 |
| 4/4/72 |
| VIR 118 | at FLA 113 | 53 |
Erving tied the ABA playoff single game
scoring record, a mark that he still shares
with
Roger Brown. Erving also tied Wilt
Chamberlain's record for most points by a
rookie in a playoff game.
| 1972-73 | (9-4) | Virginia | Squires |
| 11/5/72 |
| VIR 121 | at SD 132 | 42 |
| 11/17/72 |
| VIR 122 | KEN 115 | 45 |
| 11/25/72 |
| VIR 122 | MEM 108 | 46 |
| 12/7/72 |
| VIR 132 | IND 129 | 41 |
| 12/8/72 |
| VIR 124 | at NYN 126 | 41 |
| 12/23/72 |
| VIR 112 | DAL 107 | 41 |
| 1/16/73 |
| VIR 127 | at MEM 122 | 46 |
| 1/31/73 |
| VIR 100 | at NYN 94 | 47 |
| 2/8/73 |
| VIR 123 | NYN 108 | 58 |
| 2/10/73 |
| VIR 105 | KEN 100 | 44 |
| 2/17/73 |
| VIR 105 | KEN 112 | 44 |
| 3/9/73 |
| VIR 113 | KEN 119 | 42 |
| 3/14/73 |
| VIR 125 | at DAL 114 | 44 |
| 4/1/73 |
| VIR 109 | at KEN 104 | 41 |
| 1973-74 | (4-3) |
| New York Nets |
| 10/10/73 |
| NYN 99 | at IND 118 | 42 |
| 11/25/73 |
| NYN 124 | IND 126 | 43 |
| 1/27/74 |
| NYN 133 | CAR 114 | 46 |
| 2/6/74 |
| NYN 121 | at IND 100 | 40 |
| 3/16/74 | (OT) | NYN 114 | at KEN 112 | 41 |
| 3/17/74 |
| NYN 105 | at IND 117 | 41 |
| 3/27/74 |
| NYN 102 | DEN 96 | 43 |
Erving's outburst in game one of the Finals
versus top defensive forward Willie Wise
set the tone for New York's 4-1 series win.
| 1974-75 | (5-4) |
| New York Nets |
| 11/13/74 | (2OT) | NYN 129 | at KEN 132 | 44 |
| 1/17/75 |
| NYN 108 | KEN 93 | 40 |
| 1/24/75 |
| NYN 112 | KEN 110 | 42 |
| 2/3/75 |
| NYN 106 | at UTA 111 | 40 |
| 2/14/75 | (4OT) | NYN 166 | SD 176 | 63 |
| 2/22/75 |
| NYN 126 | SD 93 | 51 |
| 3/19/75 |
| NYN 119 | at IND 110 | 42 |
| 3/23/75 |
| NYN 111 | DEN 114 | 40 |
| 3/30/75 |
| NYN 130 | SAN 104 | 40 |
| 1975-76 | (2-3) |
| New York Nets |
| 10/31/75 | (OT) | NYN 116 | STL 120 | 42 |
| 1/10/76 | (2OT) | NYN 130 | STL 141 | 49 |
| 1/18/76 | (OT) | NYN 134 | SAN 130 | 51 |
| 2/5/76 |
| NYN 116 | SAN 124 | 44 |
| 2/8/76 |
| NYN 110 | at IND 104 | 40 |
| 4/21/76 |
| NYN 105 | at SAN 106 | 41 |
| 5/1/76 |
| NYN 120 | at DEN 118 | 45 |
| 5/4/76 |
| NYN 121 | at DEN 127 | 48 |
Erving scored 40-plus points in each of
the first two games of the Finals en route to
averaging 37.7 ppg as the Nets triumphed
4-2 to
claim the ABA's last championship.
| 1976-77 | (1-0) |
| Philadelphia 76ers |
| 6/5/77 |
| PHI 107 | at POR 109 | 40 |
Erving averaged 30.3 ppg in the 76ers'
six game loss to the Blazers in the Finals,
including 40 points in the last game of
the series.
| 1977-78 | (0-1) |
| Philadelphia 76ers |
| 1/19/78 |
| PHI 109 | at CLE 117 | 43 |
| 1979-80 | (3-1) |
| Philadelphia 76ers |
| 10/13/79 |
| PHI 113 | HOU 105 | 44 |
| 11/23/79 |
| PHI 113 | HOU 102 | 41 |
| 3/12/80 |
| PHI 105 | WAS 98 | 40 |
| 3/16/80 |
| PHI 109 | at CLE 123 | 41 |
| 1980-81 | (1-0) |
| Philadelphia 76ers |
| 11/1/80 | (OT) | PHI 117 | BOS 113 | 45 |
| 1982-83 | (1-0) |
| Philadelphia 76ers |
| 12/11/82 |
| PHI 128 | DET 111 | 44 |
| 1983-84 | (1-0) |
| Philadelphia 76ers |
| 2/8/84 |
| PHI 118 | HOU 107 | 42 |
Sources: Various Philadelphia 76ers Media Guides,
John Grasso's ABA regular season game by game logs, personal correspondence with John Grasso.
Labels: Bob McAdoo, Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, New York Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, Rick Barry, Virginia Squires, Wilt Chamberlain
posted by David Friedman @ 6:36 PM
5 Comments:
Thanks for the list, David. This is something I've always been curious about.
I haven't seen the video in a while, but I seem to remember Steve Albert referring to Erving's 41-point performance against the Spurs while he was calling Game 1 of the 1976 Finals. I think Albert implied it was in Game 7 of the Nets-Spurs series. You've got it as Game 6. Albert probably just misspoke.
Vednam:
My information regarding that game comes from John Grasso's ABA game logs. Grasso is an extremely reliable source.
Also, you can confirm that this is correct by visiting the SI Vault and looking at the "Roundup of the Week April 19-25" section of the May 3, 1976 issue of Sports Illustrated, which contains this statement: "ABA: The semifinals were marked by last-second game savers. Ex-Net, now-Spur Larry Kenon hit two free throws with three seconds left to give San Antonio a 106-105 win over New York that tied their series at 3-3. George Gervin scored 37 points for the Spurs, while Julius Erving had 41 for the Nets, including 31 in the second half."
I was at the game when Julius scored 51 on his birthday. I lived on Long Island and went with my brother and father. I believe that he was something like 19 of 23. He dunked at least 12 times. Every way you could dunk he did it. The players and coaches on both benches were spell bound. By the end of the game the whole arena was in awe. It was the greatest performance I have ever seen and I have seen. We could not believe it.
Natasha:
Thank you for sharing that memory. Many people say that if you did not see Dr. J in his ABA days then you did not see the real Dr. J, so you were privileged to see one of the best players of all-time at his absolute peak.
Saw him score 60 at Nassau Coliseum
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