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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Auction of Erving Memorabilia Includes 144 Items

The SCP Auction of Julius Erving's memorabilia will include 144 items from Dr. J's legendary career ranging from a Rucker League MVP trophy to various pieces from his UMass career to all three of his professional championship rings (1974 Nets, 1976 Nets, 1983 76ers) to his 50 Greatest Players ring. I don't know why Erving is selling all of these precious treasures and I realize that in this troubled economy many people will have little to no sympathy for a once wealthy person who has apparently fallen onto hard times but I find it indescribably sad that one of the greatest basketball players ever--indeed, one of the greatest athletes ever--is auctioning off such hard-earned awards and priceless mementoes.

I still hope that some of the many people who Erving helped and mentored over the years--including Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley--step up in Erving's time of need so that items Erving should be able to pass on to his children don't end up collecting dust in some wealthy person's trophy case. Failing that, I wonder if there is some way to organize a grassroots movement among Erving fans to pool our resources and buy back at least a few of the more significant items. For instance, the bidding on the Greatest Players ring starts at $5000 and the bidding on the 1983 championship ring starts at $25,000. I have no idea how high the bidding might go or how to coordinate some kind of "group bid" (if that is even possible) but if we could convince just 3000 people to commit $10 each then we could raise $30,000 to make minimum bids on both items. Obviously, if we could find more donors (and/or convince some or all of them to donate more than $10) then we could make a larger bid. I am not on Twitter and I don't have a huge Facebook following but if someone who has a big social media footprint spreads the word maybe we could do something nice for a player who meant so much to pro basketball history in general and contributed so much joy to our lives specifically.

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posted by David Friedman @ 12:47 PM

3 comments

3 Comments:

At Wednesday, October 26, 2011 10:52:00 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

i havent posted in a while but this is a very sad day and i know when you heard the news that this was a sad day for you as well.

madnice

 
At Wednesday, October 26, 2011 10:59:00 AM, Blogger David Friedman said...

Madnice:

It's heartbreaking. I know that there are bigger tragedies in the world--earthquakes and famines and war, etc.--and I know that Dr. J is not perfect but I believe that at his core he is a good man who worked very hard at his craft and who has helped many people along the way. He deserves better than this.

 
At Wednesday, October 26, 2011 12:03:00 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

he definitely deserves better. i definitely hope Charles and Magic do help him out. Jordan as well.

 

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