Julius Erving's 40 Point Games

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Last Friday, LeBron James notched the 34th 40 point game of his NBA career. According to ESPN, James ranks sixth on the list for most 40 point games before turning 25 (his 25th birthday is December 30, 2009):

Wilt Chamberlain--67
Michael Jordan--52
Bob McAdoo--47
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar--38
Rick Barry--35

The problem with this list is that it does not include ABA statistics; I have insisted for years that ABA numbers should also count. Barry played his first two seasons for the NBA Warriors before jumping to the ABA for four seasons. He tallied nine 40 point games in the 1968-69 season as a member of the ABA's Oakland Oaks, so Barry actually had 44 40 point games before the age of 25; it is also worth noting that the NBA forced Barry to sit out his option year (1967-68) prior to switching leagues and that an injury limited Barry to just 35 games in 1968-69, so Barry easily could have beaten Jordan's total if he had not missed 120-plus games during that period.

Julius Erving spent his first five professional seasons in the ABA, so the methodology used to compile the above list essentially pretends that the first third of his career never happened. Erving had 39 40 point games in the ABA, including 30 prior to his 25th birthday, one on his 25th birthday (he dropped 51 on February 22, 1975) and eight more after he turned 25. I have never seen a published list of all of Erving's 40 point games; the information necessary to put together such a list is available--though not easy to find--and several years ago I made a complete chart of Erving's 48 regular season and seven playoff 40 point games:

Julius Erving's ABA/NBA 40 Point Games

1971-72

(0-5)

Virginia Squires

Date		Team	Opp	Total
1/20/72		VIR 115	KEN 118	40
3/4/72		VIR 117	at FLA 124	45
3/12/72		VIR 101	at KEN 104	40
3/26/72		VIR 130	at PIT 131	41
3/28/72		VIR 121	CAR 127	45

Playoffs

(1-0)

4/4/72

VIR 118

at FLA 113

53

Erving tied the ABA playoff single game
scoring record, a mark that he still shares
with Roger Brown. Erving also tied Wilt
Chamberlain's record for most points by a
rookie in a playoff game.

1972-73

(9-4)

Virginia

Squires

11/5/72		VIR 121	at SD 132	42
11/17/72		VIR 122	KEN 115	45
11/25/72		VIR 122	MEM 108	46
12/7/72		VIR 132	IND 129	41
12/8/72		VIR 124	at NYN 126	41
12/23/72		VIR 112	DAL 107	41
1/16/73		VIR 127	at MEM 122	46
1/31/73		VIR 100	at NYN 94	47
2/8/73		VIR 123	NYN 108	58
2/10/73		VIR 105	KEN 100	44
2/17/73		VIR 105	KEN 112	44
3/9/73		VIR 113	KEN 119	42
3/14/73		VIR 125	at DAL 114	44

Playoffs

(1-0)

4/1/73

VIR 109

at KEN 104

41

1973-74

(4-3)

New York Nets

10/10/73		NYN 99	at IND 118	42
11/25/73		NYN 124	IND 126	43
1/27/74		NYN 133	CAR 114	46
2/6/74		NYN 121	at IND 100	40
3/16/74	(OT)	NYN 114	at KEN 112	41
3/17/74		NYN 105	at IND 117	41
3/27/74		NYN 102	DEN 96	43

Playoffs

(1-0)

4/30/74

NYN 89

UTA 85

47

Erving's outburst in game one of the Finals
versus top defensive forward Willie Wise
set the tone for New York's 4-1 series win.

1974-75

(5-4)

New York Nets

11/13/74	(2OT)	NYN 129	at KEN 132	44
1/17/75		NYN 108	KEN 93	40
1/24/75		NYN 112	KEN 110	42
2/3/75		NYN 106	at UTA 111	40
2/14/75	(4OT)	NYN 166	SD 176	63
2/22/75		NYN 126	SD 93	51
3/19/75		NYN 119	at IND 110	42
3/23/75		NYN 111	DEN 114	40
3/30/75		NYN 130	SAN 104	40

1975-76

(2-3)

New York Nets

10/31/75	(OT)	NYN 116	STL 120	42
1/10/76	(2OT)	NYN 130	STL 141	49
1/18/76	(OT)	NYN 134	SAN 130	51
2/5/76		NYN 116	SAN 124	44
2/8/76		NYN 110	at IND 104	40

Playoffs

(1-2)

4/21/76		NYN 105	at SAN 106	41
5/1/76		NYN 120	at DEN 118	45
5/4/76		NYN 121	at DEN 127	48

Erving scored 40-plus points in each of
the first two games of the Finals en route to
averaging 37.7 ppg as the Nets triumphed
4-2 to claim the ABA's last championship.

1976-77

(1-0)

Philadelphia 76ers

4/9/77

PHI 125

WAS 93

40

Playoffs

(0-1)

6/5/77

PHI 107

at POR 109

40

Erving averaged 30.3 ppg in the 76ers'
six game loss to the Blazers in the Finals,
including 40 points in the last game of
the series.

1977-78

(0-1)

Philadelphia 76ers

1/19/78

PHI 109

at CLE 117

43

1979-80

(3-1)

Philadelphia 76ers

10/13/79		PHI 113	HOU 105	44
11/23/79		PHI 113	HOU 102	41
3/12/80		PHI 105	WAS 98	40
3/16/80		PHI 109	at CLE 123	41

1980-81

(1-0)

Philadelphia 76ers

11/1/80

(OT)

PHI 117

BOS 113

45

1982-83

(1-0)

Philadelphia 76ers

12/11/82

PHI 128

DET 111

44

1983-84

(1-0)

Philadelphia 76ers

2/8/84

PHI 118

HOU 107

42

Sources: Various Philadelphia 76ers Media Guides, John Grasso's ABA regular season game by game logs, personal correspondence with John Grasso.

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