Sixers Consultant Julius Erving Calls Andrew Bynum ‘Damaged Goods’


Dr. J spoke to the press before the premiere of his 90-minute documentary (NBATV will air “The Doctor” on June 10), and naturally, they asked Julius Erving for his thoughts on free agent big man Andrew Bynum. Erving, who works as a consultant for the Philadelphia Sixers — and who’s never been a huge Bynum fan — referred to the oft-injured center as “damaged goods.” Per USA Today: “In addition to his playing career, the film addresses three tragedies in Erving’s life, which he speaks publicly about for the first time – the deaths of his father when he was 9 years old, his brother Marvin when he was 19 and his youngest son, Cory, after an automobile accident. ‘From an emotional standpoint, it’s very draining, very taxing to try and recall and recount things that were part of your past that you really just don’t deal with in your current life,’ Erving said. ‘You don’t deal with on a day-to-day basis. … They found some stones to look under and stories to remind me of and question to ask, that were sometimes gut-wrenching. … Some of those things you know and you say, ‘I’m taking to the grave,’ they find a way to flush them out and get them into the documentary. And I’m OK with that now.’ […] His memoirs are due to come out in November. Erving said he enjoys his role as a special consultant to the 76ers ownership group led by Joshua Harris, which is entering its third season and recently hired former Houston Rockets assistant general manager Sam Hinkie as president and GM. He said he believes the owners will turn the 76ers into a championship contender, but cautioned that it will require a degree of shrewdness and common sense to make it happen, alluding to the team’s ill-fated acquisition of Bynum, whose knee injuries prevented the center from playing last season, as a major misstep. ‘When you talk to the Lakers, when you talk to the Celtics, when you talk to – well, those two in particular – the guy on the other end of the phone has his fingers crossed,’ Erving said. ‘So whatever he’s telling you, he’s not telling you the truth. He’s working a deal for him. And what happened to us last year with getting damaged goods hopefully will only happen once. And that’s the extent of that learning curve.'”