Doc on the Break: Early 1970s
I wrote this free verse poem on May 14, 1987, 11 days after Julius Erving's 16 season professional basketball career ended when the Milwaukee Bucks eliminated his Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the playoffs; this is one of three poems about Erving that I wrote on that day. Erving played his first regular season ABA game on October 15, 1971, a little more than two weeks before I was born. He has been my favorite player for as long as I can remember and my memory goes back pretty far. He is still my favorite player and although there are few certainties in life I am certain that I will never enjoy watching another basketball player more than I enjoyed watching Dr. J.I felt sad about the ending of an era, even though Erving told sportscaster George Micheal that fans should cheer his exit instead of shedding tears about it, and so I decided to paint a verbal picture of the Doctor at his peak, the Doctor who had young legs and a full Afro as opposed to the Doctor who had 37 year old, battle weary legs and cropped hair flecked with gray. Mark Shechner's free verse poem "Elgin Baylor"--published in the 1980 anthology Take It to the Hoop--inspired my choice of free verse poetry as a medium to describe a basketball player's greatness in short, staccato word bursts.
Labels: ABA, Julius Erving, New York Nets, Virginia Squires
posted by David Friedman @ 3:56 AM
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