YouTube Gold: Dr J’s Contemporaries React To His Most Iconic Move

Still perhaps the greatest move in the history of the NBA

In the 1980 NBA Finals, the matchup was superb: the Los Angeles Lakers with the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, wondrous rookie Magic Johnson, Michael Cooper, Norm Nixon and former NC State great Kenny Carr vs. the Philadelphia 76ers with Henry Bibby, Maurice Cheeks, Bobby Jones, Al Skinner, who would later coach Boston College, Darryl Dawkins, Doug Collins, whose son Chris of course played at Duke and former Blue Devil great Jim Spanarkel, who was a seldom-used rookie.

Also on that team: the great Julius Erving.

In that series, Erving did one of the most stunning moves of his NBA career or, really, any NBA career: he drove the right side and when he was in trouble, just went under the basket and flipped the ball in off the backboard.

In this clip, his contemporaries talk about how awed they were by the move. Magic Johnson said he was so shocked he thought maybe they should just stop the game and see if he could do it again. Other players were also just amazed by the brilliance of the move.

When you watch Erving, what stands out is that he could run and get the ball up in dunking position incredibly quickly. That and huge hands really helped him. The only guy we can recall who got the ball up in the air as quickly was James Worthy, who would join the Lakers in a couple of years and help create the polished version of Showtime that defined the era.