Julius Erving refutes the connection of lawsuit with the auction of his basketball collection: NBA
NBA Hall of Famer Julius Erving, a man who was the pioneer of introducing the modern style of basketball which focuses on leaping and playing above the rim, has denied the connection of his recent lawsuit with the upcoming auction of his basketball collection.
Recently, Georgia Primary bank filed a lawsuit in Fulton Superior Court against Julius Erving and Erving Group Corporation, claiming that the former NBA superstar owed more than two hundred thousand dollars in loan to the bank.
According to the lawsuit, Georgia Bank gave Erving’s company a credit of one million dollars in 2009 and the balance of the loan was due in July. On non-payment of the balance, the bank took the matter to the court.
The timing of the auction has raised the speculation that Julius Erving is eager to gather finances to fulfil his payments with the bank.
However, the eleven-time NBA All-Star, more commonly known as ‘Dr. J’ rejected the notion.
"That irony actually gave me a sleepless night last night. I had to laugh at it and cringe at it that these stories would run concurrent with one another. My family is 100 percent behind it. We decided to do it a long time ago. To claim it's a fire sale or to clear up some debt, I don't think so. You don't do an auction overnight. This has been long planned. We had 4,000 catalogues that have been mailed already to people who buy this kind of stuff."
Julius Erving stated that he is not a hoarder or collector, and was planning to sell his basketball related items with SCP Auctions. Erving mentioned that he has been in talks with the organization for quite a while and the recent lawsuit was in no way linked to the auctioning plan at all.
The Chief Executive Officer of SCP Auction also backed the NBA legend;
"It's not that (financial difficulties); he was just willing to sell now. He was ready to do it. We've been talking about this for about a year, and this is going to be the 25th year since his retirement.”
The bidding of Dr. J’s item will open on 28th October for only the registered bidders and it will go through 19th November. The items in the auction includes Julius’ NBA Championship ring with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1983, a pair of championship rings with New York Nets in ABA and Most Valuable Player (MVP) trophies from each league.
Erving has also declared that he will donate some part of the money from the auction to the Salvation Army.
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