Dr. J's Dilemma

The bitter struggle between the rival National and American basketball associations has triggered a series of increasingly complicated lawsuits. But none of the earlier legal hassles compares in complexity to the bizarre case of Julius Winfield Erving Jr., a gifted 6-ft. 7-in., 22-year-old forward whose clinical dissection of opposing defenses supports his self-styled title of "Dr. J."

In 1971, at the end of his junior year at the University of Massachusetts, Erving quit school to sign a four-year, $500,000 contract with the A.B.A. Virginia Squires. After a brilliant rookie season, Erving decided that he was being grossly underpaid. Last April he signed a five-year contract with the N.B.A.'s Atlanta Hawks for an estimated $1,500,000, subsequently alleging that his Squire contract was invalid.

The day after he signed with the Hawks, Erving was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks of the N.B.A., who claimed that Atlanta signed him illegally. In the resulting threeway, two-league struggle for Dr. J's considerable talents, the Squires have sought a court injunction to prevent him from playing for Atlanta. The Bucks have also won a ruling from the N.B.A.'s board of governors that Erving belongs to Milwaukee. Atlanta, a troubled franchise with the greatest need for Erving, last week refused to pay a $25,000 fine levied by N.B.A. Commissioner Walter Kennedy for using Dr. J in two exhibition games. The Hawks and Erving also filed a $2,000,000 antitrust suit against the N.B.A. and Kennedy. As the controversy raged around him, Dr. J remained calm. "I invited myself into this situation," he said, "and I'm willing to suffer the consequences."

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