Source

• Born: 22 February 1950
• Birthplace: East Meadow, New York
• Best Known As: Hall of Fame basketball star

Name at birth: Julius Winfield Erving II

Julius Erving was a high school and college basketball star, nicknamed "The Doctor" and "Dr. J" known for his flamboyance and skill on the court. He came out of the NCAA averaging over 20 points and 20 rebounds per game. Erving left college to play professionally in the now-defunct American Basketball Association, where he was one of the most gifted players and one of the biggest draws at the box office. After five years with the ABA, Erving joined the NBA and played another eleven years for the Philadelphia 76ers, helping them to win a championship in 1983. He retired in 1987, having scored more than 30,000 points in his career.

Julius Erving, known as Dr. J., was one of the great superstars of professional basketball during the 1970s and 1980s. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993 and went on to work for NBC as a studio analyst for their basketball coverage.

Julius Erving (Dr. J) began his career playing for the fledgling American Basketball Association, a league started to compete with the long-established National Basketball Association. He played for several years for the New York Nets, being named most valuable player for the 1973-74 and 1974-75 seasons. After the merger of the two leagues in 1976, Erving was traded to the Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers, where he continued a phenomenal career, playing in several all-star games, setting a slew of records, and altering the way the game was played forever by drawing attention away from the center-focused game. At the time of his retirement from the game, he was basketball's third-highest scorer.

Displayed Great Talent at a Young Age

Julius Erving was the middle child born to Julius and Callie Mae Erving (Lindsay). His father deserted the family when Julius was three, and his mother was left to raise three children on her own, working as a house cleaner. The family lived in a housing project in Hempstead, Long Island, among other poor families. Julius was a quiet, well behaved child, and at times his family was concerned that he was perhaps too withdrawn. In school, however, he was a bright student who liked to recite poetry. He was first attracted to basketball at about the age of nine, and began spending his free time at the public courts in Campbell Park. When he was ten, Irving joined the local Salvation Army team, leading it to a 27-3 season. The next year, his team was 31-1 and went on to win the Inter-County Basketball Association tournament.

Erving attending Roosevelt High School in Roosevelt, Long Island, a town not far from Hempstead, to which the family had moved when Julius was 13. Erving maintained his passion for basketball and was named to the All-County and All-Long Island teams. After graduation Erving was offered several basketball scholarships by some of the best colleges in the country. He chose the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where his basketball mentor's friend was the coach. In his first year at U-Mass, Erving led the freshman team to an undefeated season, on the way breaking the school's freshman records for scoring and rebounding. In his next year, Erving again had a stellar season, averaging 26 points and 20 rebounds per game, leading the country in rebounds. In the summer following his sophomore year, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) named Erving to a team of college all-stars to tour Europe and the old Soviet Union. Afterwards, Erving's teammates voted him the tour's most valuable player. In his junior year, Erving averaged 27 points and 19 rebounds per game.

Joined ABA

After completing his junior season, Erving decided to turn professional. This was a controversial decision in that the NCAA liked to see its players complete their degrees before turning pro. But there was a new basketball league forming, the ABA, to challenge the status of the NBA, and they were making Erving some lucrative offers. The year was 1971, and sports salaries were just beginning to skyrocket. Erving signed with an agent and took a four-year contract to play with the Virginia Squires for the sum of $500,000. He stayed with the Squires for two seasons. In his first, he was sixth in the ABA in scoring (27.3 points per game) and third in rebounding (15.7). The Squires went to the playoffs that year, and Erving was first in playoff scoring, with 33 points on average per game. In his next year with the Squires, Erving led the ABA with 31.9 points.

After the close of the 1972-73 season, Erving surprised many fans and hired a new agent to find a more lucrative contract for him. After considering a series of offers, Erving decided on a $1.8 million deal, with a $250,000 signing bonus, with the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA. By leaving the ABA for the NBA, however, Erving set himself up for legal troubles. The NBA, as the established professional basketball league in the country, had rules about college drafts, and because the Milwaukee Bucks had earned the right to first draft picks that year, they sued to stop the deal. Erving's old agents and his old team, the Virginia Squires also went to court. It was a complicated, highly publicized case that was finally sent to arbitration to be settled before the 1973-74 season. The arbitrators arranged a settlement that sent Erving from the Squires to the New York Nets, of the ABA, in exchange for the Nets' highest scorer and a cash payment of $750,000. The Nets also had to pay the Atlanta Hawks a settlement fee of $400,000, and then were free to sign Erving to an eight-year contract that would pay him $2.8 million.

One of the Greatest Athletes Ever

In Erving's first season with the Nets (1973-74), the young superstar won his second straight league scoring championship, averaging 27.4 points per game, and led the team to the championship against the Utah Stars. In the final series, Erving led both teams in scoring with 27.9 points per game, scoring 47 points in the last game, which brought the Nets the championship four games to one. In the next season, the Nets floundered, playing erratically. In the first round of the play-offs that year against the St. Louis Spirits, Erving had two good games but his performance wasn't enough to keep the team afloat, and the reigning champs were defeated in the first round.

By the 1975-76 season it was pretty clear that the ABA would merge with the NBA after the season. The leaders of the ABA had attracted star talent, like Erving and others, and had many teams playing on par with the older, established league. Basketball was also becoming big business and showed signs that it would continue to grow. Although the Nets again played sporadically that year, they made it to the championship against the Denver Nuggets. It was a hard fought series coming down to an exciting final game in New York; it showcased Erving to be one of the greatest athletes of modern times, and is considered one of the best games in basketball history. At one point The Nets trailed by 20 points, but managed to come back and win the game, largely as a result of Erving's play. Sports Illustrated called Erving's performance "the greatest individual performance by a basketball player at any level anywhere." For the championship series, Erving averaged 37.7 points, 14.2 rebounds and six assists per game. In his ABA career, Erving scored 11,662 points in total, a per-game average of 29.

Demanded Higher Salary

As anticipated, the next year the ABA and NBA merged. Erving was offered a contract to continue playing for the Nets, but he felt the money was insufficient for a player of his caliber, so he held out for a better offer. Erving was one of the first superstar athletes outside of baseball - which had seen skyrocketing salaries and athlete hold-outs for years - to demand increasingly large sums of money. Ultimately, he signed with the Philadelphia 76ers, already a playoff team with substantial talent, including Darrel Dawkins, Caldwell Jones, Doug Collins and George McGinnis.

The 76ers led their division through most of the season, and Erving scored thirty points during the all-star game and was named MVP. In the ABA, he had been in many ways, a superstar alone and unchallenged. The Sixers, however, were loaded with big names and big egos, and consequently exhibited little team work. They made it to the championship but lost to the Portland Trailblazers after winning the first two games of the series. They had a similar season the following year with the Sixers making it into the playoffs but being eliminated early.

In the 1978-79 season, the management of the Philadelphia 76ers realized that they had a flawed strategy of hiring a team of expensive superstars and thinking that would automatically lead to championships. They traded all their big names except Erving and named him captain, deciding to build a team around their most talented, most team-oriented player. However, that first season of rebuilding did not go well, and in the next season, 1979-80, the Sixers had their best regular season record in over a decade but were eliminated in the playoffs, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers with their soon-to-be-named rookie of the year, Magic Johnson.

Inducted into Basketball Hall of Fame

The following season, 1980-81, Erving was named MVP; the first time that award had gone to a non-center in 17 years. Erving's play had revolutionized basketball, taking offense out to the perimeter instead of just on the boards. They made it to the playoffs again, but this year they came up against their old rivals, the Boston Celtics, with their second-year superstar Larry Bird, and lost a heartbreaking series after being up three games to one. In 1981-82, the Sixers were again left without a championship. That year they made it past the Celtics, but lost to a rampaging Los Angeles Lakers in the finals.

For 1982-83, Philadelphia, by now quite tired of losing to the Celtics and Lakers, signed Moses Malone, hoping to beef up their offense to go against Jabar and Johnson on the Lakers and Bird and McHale on the Celtics. That year they played phenomenally well and made it to the championships, where, once again, they faced their perennial foes from the west, the Lakers. With Malone, however, the Sixers had an added dimension and they took the series in four games straight. It was Erving's first and last NBA championship. The Sixers' prominence steadily diminished over the next couple of years, and in 1987, Julius Erving retired from basketball, after becoming the third player, after Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, to score 30,000 career points.

After retiring from basketball, Erving became a successful businessman, buying a Coca Cola bottling business. In 1993 he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame and was hired by NBC as a studio analyst for their basketball coverage. In 1994 Sports Illustrated named him to its "40 for the Ages" list, a listing of the forty greatest athletes of all time.

Further Reading

Wilker, Josh, Julius Erving: Basketball Great, Chelsea House, 1995.

Porter, David L., Biographical Dictionary of American Sports, Greenwood Press, 1995.

basketball player; basketball executive

Personal Information

Born Julius Winfield Erving II on February 22, 1950, in Roosevelt, New York; son of Julius Erving and Callie (Erving) Lindsey; married Turquoise, 1972 (divorced, 2003); children: Cheo, Julius III, Jazmin, and Cory (with Turquoise); Alexandra Stevenson
Education: Attended University of Massachusetts.
Memberships: Meridian Bancorp, board of directors.

Career

Virginia Squires (ABA), professional basketball player, 1971-73; New York Nets (ABA), professional basketball player, 1973-76; Philadelphia 76ers (NBA), professional basketball player, 1976-87. Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Philadelphia, co-owner, 1987-; Orlando Magic, executive vice-president, 1997-2003; NBC-TV, television commentator; JDREGI (management and marketing firm), president.

Life's Work

So much has been written and said about Julius Erving over the years that it is difficult to say what is most important about him. He will go down in history as one of the basketball pioneers who took a sport that had been traditionally played on a wooden floor and changed it so that it was played in mid-air, and he popularized a form of scoring known as the dunk. He was a legendary figure that very few people saw play in his early professional years in the American Basketball Association, and his reputation probably forced the more established National Basketball Association to merge with that league. He was the consummate team player, who won championships in both professional leagues. He was a perfect gentleman and an ambassador for the game at a time when its popularity was at a low ebb, and he will be remembered forever as "Dr. J."

Julius Winfield Erving II was born February 22, 1950, in Roosevelt, New York. He and his brother were raised by their mother, Callie. His father, Julius, was absent much of the time, and when young Julius was seven his dad was hit and killed by a car. "I never really had a father, but then the possibility that I ever would was removed," he told Esquire. He attended Roosevelt High School, where he was a fine student and an even better basketball player. He made the all-county and All-Long Island teams in high school.

A Natural Basketball Player

Julius was a natural at basketball as a youngster, both in school and on the playground. Erving told Esquire, "I've never felt particularly unique. Even within the context of basketball, I honestly never imagined myself as anything special. I remember back home, when I first started playing, at nine, ten, I had a two-hand shot. Then by twelve-and-a-half, thirteen, I had a one-hand shot. Always went to the basket, that was my way, that pattern was set by then." "Actually, I don't think I've changed much as a player since then," he continued. "Back then, before I was physically able, I felt these different things within me, certain moves, ways to dunk. I realized all I had to do was be patient and they would come. So I wasn't particularly surprised when they did, they were part of me for so long. I didn't find anything particularly special about them. It wasn't that I didn't think I was a good player, that I could play, I just assumed everyone could do these things if they tried."

Erving parlayed his good grades and basketball success into a college career at the University of Massachusetts. He planned on becoming a doctor, and it wasn't until he found himself among the nation's scoring leaders that it occurred to him that he could make the move from the traditionally weak basketball school to a pro career. He got a break when he was invited to play some exhibition games for an Olympic development squad--those being the days when a college All-Star team also comprised the U.S. Olympic basketball team--and his reputation began to grow among pro scouts. His mother suffered some medical problems during Julius' college days, and he skipped his senior season to play in the American Basketball Association (ABA), which had a hardship rule that allowed college underclassmen to enter the league. Erving signed with the Virginia Squires as a free agent in 1971.

Erving enjoyed immediate success in the ABA. During his rookie season he played 84 games, averaged over 27 points and 15 rebounds a game, and led the Squires on a strong playoff run. He was named to the league's All-Rookie Team and the All-Star Second Team. It was also during Erving's rookie year with Virginia that a strong part of his identity was born. "The Doctor" had been a handle placed on Erving since grade school, when he announced in front of his class he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up. It became a playground moniker when his high school teammate, Leon Saunders, and Erving began referring to each other as "The Doctor" and "The Professor." During that season in Virginia, Squire Fatty Taylor began sticking the "J" onto Erving's name, and the nickname "Dr. J" was born.

Became ABA All-Star

In 1972-73 Erving had another strong season, leading the league with 31.9 points-per-game (PPG). That year he also made the league's All-Star First Team, but he still faced the problem of his budding career being played in obscurity. The ABA was almost never on television, and the Squires hardly played in a major market. Erving had tried to jump to the NBA, signing a contract with the Atlanta Hawks after his rookie season, but a judge ruled that he was the property of the Squires and had to return to that team. At the end of his second season the Squires gave Erving a bit of a boost toward the big-time when they traded him to the league's Big Apple franchise, the New York Nets.

In his first season with the Nets Erving helped that team to the league championship, leading the league with a 27.4 scoring average and increasing that average to 27.9 over 14 playoff games. He was named both the league's regular season most valuable player (MVP) and the playoff MVP. Erving had now won a league championship in the biggest market in the country, but still relatively few people had seen him play. The league still didn't have a network television contract, and the Nets were low in the pecking order of New York Sports teams, never selling out a regular season game.

In his second season with the Nets Erving won the league's Most Valuable Player award with a 27.9 PPG average and 10.9 rebounds per game. Despite his averaging 27.4 points in the playoffs, the Nets lost in the first round. The following year, however, Erving again led the league with 29.3 points per game, and led the Nets in a charmed season all the way to the league championship series.

During this season Erving's reputation grew dramatically. It cannot be said that he invented the airborne style of basketball, often referred to as "playing above the rim." Others had preceded him in that style, most notably Connie Hawkins and Elgin Baylor. But Erving, while not really reinventing the sport, had upped the ante by being just a little bit faster, jumping just a little bit further, being just a little bit more spectacular than anyone ever had before. While the ABA's games still were not often broadcast for a national audience, the media began to do more features on the amazing basketball player playing for the New York team in that other league. Another key point came during the ABA's 1976 All-Star Game, when the first-ever slam-dunk contest was held. Erving won it, due in large part to his final dunk, on which he gripped the ball in one hand, ran the length of the floor, took off in flight at the free throw line and dunked before coming down. Several other players have done the identical dunk since, but at the time it seemed as if Erving had done the impossible. Footage of the dunk received widespread television exposure, and Erving became a national phenomenon.

That season Erving capped his ABA career, and the history of the league, with a sensational final series against the Denver Nuggets. The Nets beat the Nuggets four games to two, and Erving was so instrumental and spectacular in both the wins and the losses, that it was sometimes easy to forget there were nine other players on the floor. Erving scored 45, 48, 31, 34, 37, and 31 points in the six games, and led the Nets back from 22 points down in the final game at Nassau Coliseum. It was the last game in the history of the ABA.

Leaped to NBA Stardom

Before the 1976-77 basketball season, the ABA folded in triumph, with four of its teams, including the Nets, being accepted into the older, more established, more conservative NBA. Although history has not recorded definitively that Julius Erving was the primary or possibly even only reason the NBA agreed to the merger, that likelihood has been suggested and a strong case can be made that Erving had proven that world-class basketball was played in the ABA. At any rate, Julius Erving was finally about to showcase his talents on the biggest basketball stage in the world.

As some had predicted, Erving found a bit more resistance to his freewheeling style of play in the older league. The day before his first season in that league was to begin, the Nets traded him to the Philadelphia 76ers. His scoring average dropped about 25 percent with Philadelphia compared to what it been in New York, to about 21.8 points per game his first season. He did help the Sixers to the league championship series that year, but their loss to the Portland Trailblazers was considered such a disappointment that the team felt it had to live down the loss for years afterward. The highlight of the season for Dr. J may have been the All-Star Game, in which he had 30 points and 12 rebounds, and won the game's Most Valuable Player award.

That started a long string of seasons in which Erving was considered the best player in the league who had never won a championship. Through the late 1970s and early 1980s his image was that of a spectacular player, certainly one of the best in the league. Yet the question remained as to whether he would ever win a NBA championship. He didn't dominate the NBA as he had the ABA, although he played in the All-Star Game every year, was named to either the league's post-season first or second All-Star team every year except 1979, and even won the league's Most Valuable Player award in 1981. But it seemed every year either the Boston Celtics or Los Angeles Lakers beat the 76ers and left them waiting.

The year Erving and the 76ers were waiting for finally came during the 1982-83 season. That year Erving won the All-Star Game MVP for the second time, even though his scoring that season was at its second-lowest point since he came into the NBA, only 21.4 points per game. But the 76ers had acquired a strong inside force that season in Moses Malone and they proved unstoppable in the playoffs, steamrolling into the finals, where they met the Lakers, to whom they had lost tough final series in 1980 and 1982. Erving's scoring average was down for the playoffs as well, to under 20 points per game, and Malone was the standout as the 76ers won the first three games from the Lakers. Dr. J saved his magic for the final game, making a shot from the top of the key in the closing seconds to give Philadelphia a three-point lead and clinch the championship. It was also during this series that Erving made a shot that will probably be repeated on highlight reels forever, a reverse windmill layup from behind the backboard. Dr. J, who by this was wearing his trademark Afro short and with some flecks of gray, had his most memorable shot and his first NBA championship.

It also turned out to be his last NBA championship. Although the 76ers continued to be a strong team, and made the playoffs every year--Erving never missed the playoffs in his ABA or NBA careers--they never made it back to the NBA finals. Erving still averaged over 20 points a game for the 1983-84 and 1984-85 seasons, then saw his PPG drop below that mark for the first time in his professional career for his last two seasons.

Became Game's Elder Statesman

But while Dr. J's game may have fallen off a bit in his late 30s, he had another reputation that became even stronger in those late seasons. He was known as one of the true gentlemen of professional basketball, and was universally admired by opponents, sportswriters, broadcasters, and fans. He was never seen to be short-tempered or rude with reporters or fans, a difficult task considering the constant demands placed on a basketball star of his stature. Erving had entered the league at a time when its popularity was at a low ebb, with two-thirds of the league's teams in serious financial trouble. While the subsequent arrival of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and later Michael Jordan, had more to do with the ascent of the game's stature in the 1980s, Erving served an important role in keeping the game afloat and bolstering its reputation. "I've never heard anybody knock him or express jealousy," Dominique Wilkins of the Atlanta Hawks said during Erving's final season. "Never one negative word. I can't name you one other player who has that status."

Also in those final seasons, Erving began to make the transition from his playing days to his retirement years by making shrewd business investments. In 1983 he purchased shares in the New York Coca-Cola Bottling Company, and three years later he turned that investment into an outright purchase of the larger Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company, the 15th largest bottling facility in the world. As a result, he and his partner, Bruce Llewellyn, shared ownership one of the largest black-owned businesses in the world. He also started up a shoe store--dress shoes, not basketball shoes--which failed, and a television station and a cable television company in New York State.

When Erving announced that 1986-87 would be his last NBA season, he received an honor that is reserved for only the elite athletes: he was honored with special ceremonies not just in Philadelphia, but in each of the other arenas on his last visit. Accolades and souvenirs were showered on him on his farewell tour, as the league thanked Erving for what he had done for the game. In Los Angeles, Lakers coach Pat Riley told the crowd, "There may have been some better people off the court. Like a few mothers and the pope. But there was only one Dr. J the player."

Awards continued to be bestowed on Erving even after his playing days were over. In 1993 he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, and in 1994, as part of its 40th anniversary, Sports Illustrated named him to a list of its 40 most important athletes. In 1996, as the NBA celebrated its 50th anniversary, Erving was an easy choice for one of the top 50 players in the history of the league.

Retired a Legend

Erving found plenty to keep him busy in his retirement. He continued to work with his business enterprises and charitable causes, and did some work in the 1990s for NBC TV's NBA broadcasts. In 1997 the Orlando Magic hired Erving as its executive vice- president, widely defining his duties as concerning both basketball and business aspects of the operation. Erving left the Magic after the 2002-03 season to pursue other business opportunities. Also in 1997 the legend of Dr. J was revived when Converse, a sneaker company which had seen its market share fall off dramatically since the mid-1980s, made Erving, along with Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, the staple of a new marketing campaign. Although Erving had by then not played basketball professionally in a decade, the company saw a dramatic turn in its fortunes, with sales up substantially.

Though Erving had enjoyed a squeaky clean public image for many years, events and press coverage in the late 1990s and early 2000s were not so positive. In 1999 it was revealed that Dr. J was the father of rising tennis star Alexandra Stevenson, the product of an adulterous liaison with a Philadelphia sportswriter. Tragedy struck the Erving family in 2000 when their youngest son, 19-year-old Cory, came up missing. After a 39-day search, it was discovered that his car had run off the road and into a swamp near the family's Florida home, drowning Cory. Though Erving was quoted in People saying that "we will be a stronger family as a result" of the tragedy, by 2003 his 31-year marriage to his wife, Turquoise, disintegrated in messy divorce proceedings that revealed a second child born out of wedlock.

While history may remember Erving for his statistics, or the championships he won, or the leagues he made profitable, it is more likely that most of the people who watched him play will remember him for other reasons. Long after he played, fans still swapped stories about the spectacular dunks and other moves they saw Erving make. Upon Erving's retirement, Frank DeFord of Sports Illustrated wrote, "More than any single player, Erving transformed what had been a horizontal game (with occasional parabolas) into a vertical exercise. Basketball is now a much more artistic game than it was before--than any game was before--because of Julius Erving. The slam, before the Doctor, was essentially an act of power--a stuff is what it was usually called--as great giants jammed the ball through the hoop. Erving transformed the stuff into the dunk, and made what had been brutal and the product of size into something beautiful and a measure of creativity."

Awards

ABA Most Valuable Player, 1974, 1975 (shared), 1976; ABA All-Star First Team, 1973-76; NBA Most Valuable Player, 1981; All-NBA First Team, 1978, 1980-83; Jackie Robinson Award, 1983; American Express Man of the Year, 1985; named to Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, 1993.

Further Reading

Books

• Haskins, James, Doctor J.: A Biography of Julius Erving, Doubleday, 1975.
• Porter, David L., ed., African-American Sports Greats: A Biographical Dictionary, Greenwood Press, 1995.
• Wilker, Josh, Julius Erving, Chelsea House, 1995.

Periodicals

• Basketball Digest, February 2002, pp. 30-35; March 2002, pp. 18-20; May-June 2004, pp. 20-22.
• Black Enterprise, March 1986, p. 13.
• Esquire, February 1985, p. 112.
• Investor's Business Daily, April 16, 2002, p. A4.
• Jet, June 23, 1997, p. 48; July 26, 1999, p. 34; July 24, 2000, p. 54.
• New York Times, March 26, 1997, p, D3.
• People Weekly, July 19, 1999, p. 73; July 24, 2000, p. 67.
• Sports Illustrated, May 4, 1987, p. 74; September 19, 1994, p. 146; May 31, 2004, p. 39.
• Time, July 12, 1999.

On-line

• "Julius Erving," NBA History, www.nba.com/history/players/erving_summary.html (August 18, 2004).
• "Julius Erving," Remember the ABA, www.remembertheaba.com/TributeMaterial/Erving.html (August 18, 2004).

— Mike Eggert And Tom Pendergast

For more information on Julius Winfield Erving, visit Britannica.com.

(ûr'vĭng) , 1950–, American basketball player, b. Roosevelt, N.J., known as “Dr. J.” An excellent shooter, rebounder, and ball-handler, he played for the American Basketball Association's Virginia Squires (1971–73) and New York Nets (1973–76) and for the National Basketball Association's Philadelphia 76ers (1976–87). He led the ABA in scoring three times (1973–74, 1976) and was named most valuable player four times (ABA, 1974–76; NBA, 1981). With 30,026 career points in both leagues, he ranks third on the all-time scoring list. A spectacular leaper, Erving was the first leading practitioner of the “air” game later exemplified by Michael Jordan. Since leaving the court Erving has been a successful business executive, a television sports analyst, and an executive with the Orlando Magic.

Quotes:

"Goals determine what you're going to be."

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life -- mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical."

"If you don't do what's best for your body, you're the one who comes up on the short end."

"I keep both eyes on my man. The basket hasn't moved on me yet."

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)