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He is Dr. J a.k.a. Julius Erving, one of the greatest basketball players to have EVER done it! Alexandra’s mother is freelance sports journalist, Samantha Stevenson, whom Dr. J began having an affair with behind his wife, Turquoise Erving’s, back after he’d met Samantha while she was covering his team for Sport magazine in 1978. Erving was married to Turquoise from 1972 until 2003.
Okay so here’s the thing: Dr. J decided to write a memoir a couple years ago to come clean about all the wrongs that he’d done to his daughter. He and Alexandra now have a beautiful relationship, but that didn’t just happen overnight. Here is how the situation surrounding Alexandra came about:
In [his book, “Dr. J: The Autobiography”] Erving describes Samantha Stevenson as ‘a smart single woman – a pretty white girl, a bit of a hippie giving off a vibe of availability’.
‘She becomes someone who helps me unwind if I’m feeling high-strung or stressed. I can drive over and spend a relaxing evening that might even include oral sex,’ Erving writes.
‘I can only remember one time that we actually had intercourse, and that was because she had just gotten this new orthodontia to straighten her teeth.
‘With wire and gleaming metal bristling in her mouth, oral sex was not an option.’
He also expressed his remorse that his daughter was caught in the media firestorm over her famous father when she played in the Wimbledon semifinals in 1999.
‘I’ve paid a terrible price for my sins and there is some justice in that. But should Alexandra have had to pay a price? What sin did she commit?’
Something sad and remarkable happened when Alexandra was only 8 years old. Julius Erving was holding a one day only basketball clinic at a local gym in her neighborhood. She finally asked her Mom, Samantha, if she could go and just lay her eyes on the father she’d only seen on TV and in magazines. Her Mom was hesitant, but eventually agreed. Alexandra was an excellent basketball player at that time, so she thought she would just blend in with the other kids who were there playing b-ball in front of Dr. J also. Here’s what happened next though:
Alexandra showed up with one of Samantha’s close girlfriends, who wrote ‘ALEXANDRA STEVENSON’ in large block letters on a name tag … then stepped back to watch the fireworks.
At first, Julius didn’t recognize Alexandra. He’d seen photos of her — Samantha would send some to the 76er offices once or twice a year — but he didn’t make the connection. What he did notice was a lanky, determined little girl, diving all over the court in her Size 9 sneakers, and he chose her as one of the camp’s top performers. Her prize was a personal autograph from him, and when he looked down and saw ALEXANDRA STEVENSON, Erving’s exact baritone words — according to Samantha’s friend, Geneva Kandel — were, “Nice to meet you, Alexandra.”The little girl froze. She glared at Julius, said, “I don’t want your autograph,” and stomped away.
“I realized it was Alexandra, and it was quite embarrassing,” Erving says. “I’ve replayed it a hundred times in my mind and thought about how it could’ve turned out differently, maybe if it had been set up a little better. It might be a wound that never heals for her. I was at the end of my career; a lot was going on. I was somewhat oblivious during that time.”
Kandel actually remembers what she saw in Erving’s eyes that day: tears. She remembers Turquoise, who was at the gym, fainting. And she remembers going back to retrieve the autographed basketball.
After his book released, Dr. J caught a small amount of flack for telling his life story and he stated that he never had intentions on hurting anyone with his book, but he said this was the reason for giving such a raw perspective about his life in his:
How could I write an autobiography and leave out things that are fact-based, things that really happened? If you’re going to write an autobiography, your life’s gotta be an open book, then I think you gotta be candid. I think I’d have less respect coming my way if I didn’t write the facts. If it was completely ignored, like it never happened then that would be a bigger problem than dealing with potential hurt feelings or someone disagreeing with what my recollection was.
Culled from iloveoldschoolmusic.com
[Sources: StreetKnowledgeNYC, BlackAmericaWeb, DailyMail]
