Dr. J Slams The Idea Of Forming Super Teams To Try And Win A Title While Also Throwing A Heavy Amount Of Shade At Kevin Durant
Peter Read Miller. Getty Images.If there's one thing older NBA legends can't seem to stomach, it's the idea of super teams. They hate them and are certainly not shy about it. Sometimes the critcism is a little hypocritical, like when Chuck kills a current player for pulling some shit in order to go to a certain destination and form a super team. We all remember the Rockets move in 1996-97 after they had won back to back titles a few seasons earlier. It's partly why that whole "bus driver" bullshit with KD was so exhausting.
Our latest example of this hatred towards super teams comes via another Sixers legend, Dr. J. Now his perspective is a little different from someone like Chuck's because Erving actually stuck it out in Philly as the only NBA team he ever played for. The Sixers ended up winning the 1982 title, but that was in Erving's age 32 season, his 7th in Philly. That 1982 team was stacked with three other HOFers (Maurice Cheeks, Bobby Jones and Moses Malone) as well as a HOF coach (Billy Cunningham). I'm sure he didn't care that Malone dipped on the Rockets in order to come to Philly as a 3x MVP at age 27, so it's all relative. It's fair to question what may have happened had the Sixers not won that title, but given the fact that they did, Dr. J didn't then hop around and ring chase over his final 4 seasons.
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I think you can guess how he feels about what stars are currently doing in 2023
Sheesh. Dr J certainly didn't hold back, but you could see he did put himself in a bit of a pretzel there. Starting off by talking about how all the movement to super teams is bad, but then being OK with what Dame is doing is a little confusing. Especially when he clearly still has issues with KD. I get it, everyone thinks KD jumping from OKC to GS was a weak ass move because they had won a title/been in the Finals. No need to rehash that.
But at the end of the day, KD was in SEA/OKC for 9 years and Dame has been in POR for 11 and is trying to force his way to a team that has been in 2 Finals in the last 4 years. Is it really so different? I guess some might think it is because Dame is doing it at 32 and KD did it at 28, but that's just a timing thing. KD entered the league at 19 compared to 22 for Dame. The idea of leaving the only team you knew for a team that has been competing in Finals is pretty much the exact same.
This isn't meant to be a KD defense blog, but in my opinion, you can't be selective about who it is or isn't OK for when it comes to super teams. The rationale he gave for why Dame's move is OK is basically the same thing that's happening right now with a 34 year old Durant and look at the difference in how he talked about both guys. For some reason, that KD move really rubs people the wrong way and clearly changes how the legends of the game view him. I dunno how fair that is, but that seems like the reality. I also found it interesting how there was no mention of say, LeBron, in that clip. Maybe that comes in the full interview or something.
So while you can't say that Dr J is wrong per se, but given that his only title came from forming a super team, it is a little contradictory. He just wasn't the guy that moved.
On a separate note, it'd be so awsome if Dr. J was playing in this current era. You want to talk about a player way ahead of his time, that was Julius Erving and then some