Say it’s not true Julius. As a lifelong Philadelphia fan it pains me to hear that Dr J, Julius Erving, one of the greatest players in NBA history, is being sued by a 71 year old woman for supposedly defrauding her of more than $420,000. Uh-oh, it looks like the Doctor may need a Lawyer.
The report first surfaced in the NY Post last week that Erving, along with his money manager Kenneth Starr are being sued by Mary Gilbert for breach of contract over lost profits from a supposed lucrative partnership. Unlike most stories of this nature, Erving, now 60, actually did make a ton of money off of a company called Commonwealth Investors but lied about the amount of profits earned which totaled more than $2.9 million between 1995 and 2010, according to court documents.
Gilbert allegedly gave Starr and Erving $257,000 and was promised 33% of the Doctor’s dividends until her money was repaid and an additional 30% of all dividends earned there-after. At this point no one is really sure just how involved the NBA Hall of Famer is, just that he is named in the suit along with the notoriously crooked Starr.
Starr is now infamous for not only being a former financial advisor to many Hollywood stars and professional athletes but for running one of the biggest scams in US history. He is currently held in prison on an estimated $10 million in bail for his Ponzi scheme which netted him more than $59 million. Some of his clients included Wesley Snipes, Sylvester Stallone, and Erving.
For those of you who don’t remember, Erving is one of the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993 for an illustrious career that started in the now defunct ABA, then with the Nets and 76ers after the ABA/NBA merger. He is credited with being the godfather of the slam dunk, since he was one of the first players to play the game above the rim. Of course everyone remembers him for his famous “Free Throw Line” and “Rock The Cradle” dunks.
Check out a video of the Doctor’s Top 10 Dunks:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
