Quotes by Julius Erving

• The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical.
• In 1981, at age 31, I was voted the best player in basketball, and the most valuable player in the league.
• If you've experienced having control, you don't want to be moved to a subordinate position, if you have your druthers.
• In a lot of areas of my life, particularly in my teenage years, I began to think about the world, and to think about the universe as being a part of my conscious everyday life.
• One of the commitments that I personally have now is to a diverse approach to buying businesses, and the operation of those businesses.
• Right up until the time I retired at age 37, I felt like there were still things that I could do better.
• If you get depressed about being the second-best team in the world, then you've got a problem.
• That was just my own personal program: I didn't want to get too high over the good moments because I didn't want to be saddened and depressed when things didn't go as I had planned.
• My role models in the business were the older guys on my team when I first got there: Gray Scott, Adrian Smith, Roland Taylor. These were the guys who took me under their wing, and really schooled me in terms of what the business was about.
• There's the typical books, Moby Dick and, I guess in my adult life I began to read biographies more than fiction. I started to want to relate to other people's lives, things that had really happened.
• They are taking steps, but they are baby steps.
• To be great we need to win games we aren't supposed to win.
• When handling the ball, I always would look for daylight, wherever there was daylight.
• When I went to Philadelphia I was 26 years old and really sitting on top of the world. Family life, a professional career, plenty of friends and associates, and a good reputation, a wish list that could be the envy of many.
• When the crowd appreciates you, it encourages you to be a little more daring, I think.
• With the crowds on your side, it's easier to play up to your potential.
• Teachers are sort of faced with a thankless task, because no matter how good they are, unless they find a way to personally rationalize the rewards of their effort, nobody else is really going to do it for them en masse.
• One of the things in the back of my mind is that, after my sports experience, I never want to be, totally consumed by any one endeavor, other than my family life.
• I grabbed 19 rebounds in my first professional game, and somehow found a way to score 20 points. I felt real good about it. I felt that this was the beginning of something good.
• If you don't do what's best for your body, you're the one who comes up on the short end.
• If you do things with a certain type of result and cause a certain type of reaction or effect, then you increase your market value. It's very much a competition for the entertainment dollar, and that's never been more clearly evident than in today's NBA game.
• I think I started learning lessons about being a good person long before I ever knew what basketball was. And that starts in the home, it starts with the parental influence.
• I pulled the plug on it at a time that I thought was right for me to exit.
• I liked the game, I enjoyed the game, and the game fed me enough, and gave me enough rewards to reinforce that this is something that I should spend time doing, and that I could possibly make a priority in my life, versus other sports.
• I keep both eyes on my man. The basket hasn't moved on me yet.
• I had to spend countless hours, above and beyond the basic time, to try and perfect the fundamentals.
• I came from a broken home, so my mom was a major influence in my life.
• I always try to keep a pretty conservative demeanor on the court.
• Goals determine what you're going to be.
• Every team that I've played on, I've either been the captain or co-captain.
• Being a typical Pisces, I might have experienced mood shifts, but I don't remember any depression, or needing to do anything, or to have someone bring me out of being depressed.
• And I continued to grow until I was 25 years old.
• And from the first time I picked up a basketball at age eight - I had a lot of difficulty when I first picked up a basketball, because I was a scrub - there were things that I liked about it.
• I firmly believe that respect is a lot more important, and a lot greater, than popularity.