Dr J. discusses new autobiography with Tom Joyner

Julius “Dr. J” Erving says he didn’t mean any harm in writing his new autobiography. The NBA living legend known as much for his towering Afro as his towering talent, says his new book “Dr. J: The Autobiography” was an attempt to tell the truth without glossing over the facts of his life. Revelations included in the book are a tumultuous relationship with his longtime wife, Turquoise Erving, the death of their son, Cory, and some truly no-holds-barred information about the birth of his out of wedlock daughter, tennis player Alexandra Stevenson.

He says that she was conceived only because her mother, then freelance writer Samantha Stevenson had gotten orthodontia and couldn’t perform oral sex, so they had intercourse instead. Stevenson and her mother have remained quiet on this cringe-worthy admission, but Erving says his idea was to tell the truth and nothing but the truth in the story of his life.

“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.”

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Erving, who reconnected with his daughter as an adult after years of financial support in exchange for keeping the secret that he had fathered a child outside his marriage, says that he didn’t necessarily consider who would be hurt by his revelations. He says he hasn’t talked to his daughter, but has talked to her mother since the book was released a week ago. Erving, now remarried and living in Atlanta, says that after many of the books written about him by others, he wanted to set the record straight on his own.

“I don’t think that there was any doubt that everything needed to be included for an honest biography.  And I can’t not write a book because I’m going to hurt anybody. My commitment is to the project. I’ve been hurt by people and I’ve hurt people and when you read cover to cover, you see. Who has had a lifetime where people haven’t been hurt?”

In the book, he covers his marriage to Turquoise, which was mutually abusive, he says and the devastating death of his 19-year-old son, Cory, who was struggling with drug addiction and died in an accidental drowning in Orlando, Florida 13 years ago. He also talks about his womanizing, including a streak of eight days with eight different women. (Erving also fathered a second child while he was married to Turquoise, and now, including two kids from his second marriage to Dorys Madden, has a total of eight children.)

And of course, he talks basketball, including his infamous choking of rival Boston Celtic legend Larry Bird and his only championship with the 1983 Philadelphia 76’ers. Allegations that Erving had some financial incentive to do the book after some failed business deals may have led to the more surprisingly candid details. But Erving, now 63, says that writing the book was good for him.

“I think it’s a cleansing process. It’s therapeutic in terms of talking about my life and talking about it in terms of being at peace with the circumstances and understanding that I’ve always been the person who put the carrot out in front and says the next big thing in my life is going to happen tomorrow. In spite of the highs and lows and of yesterday and the middle ground that exists day to day, there’s always something out there that we should look forward to otherwise why live?”

Check out Tom Joyner’s take on Dr. J’s book here: 

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