Julius Erving thinks NBA players today have gotten ‘softer’

At the risk of sounding like he is yelling at a cloud, Julius Erving is offering his take on today’s NBA stars.

The retired Philadelphia 76ers great appeared this week on CBS Sports’ “Nothing Personal with David Samson.” One topic Erving spoke on was the differences between his era, when players had to fly commercial and room with teammates, and the privileges enjoyed by players in the modern era.

“That was the good old days, it kept the humility intact,” said Erving. “You felt honored to be a professional athlete and not privileged because there were just some things you just had to suck it up and go do. We depended a lot on our trainers and equipment managers and what have you to move the franchise from city to city.

“You always had to catch the first flight out the next morning so we didn’t have a lot of the conveniences they have today,” Erving added. “But that’s okay. I think it’s made some of the players a little softer than the ’70s, ’80s, ’60s and ’50s players. But there’s fan appreciation for the softness and the finesse, and it is what it is.”

Erving, now 71 years old, enjoyed one of the most successful and influential basketball careers of all-time. It began with the Virginia Squires of the ABA in 1971 and finished in the NBA with the Sixers in 1987. That was obviously long before today’s core concepts such as load management, sleep and travel analytics, and player empowerment ever entered into the basketball lexicon.

In any case, Erving has been keeping the same energy with all his hot takes. He recently expressed his disdain for another trend in the modern NBA.