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Retired NBA star Julius Erving was best known through his professional career as Dr. J, a nickname that originated in high school. But few people know that the Basketball Hall of Famer is also a proud supporter of cord blood banking, and encourages continuous research into cord blood stem cell therapy.
Erving played most of his NBA career with the Philadelphia 76ers, and quickly became known as one of the leaders on the team. Confident, opinionated, and well known for slam dunking Dr. J built a reputation as one of the most respected team leaders in the league.
Following his retirement from the NBA, Erving became philanthropically involved with building awareness for cord blood banking. Erving went to the US Congress in 2005 when he lobbied politicians to allow umbilical cord blood stem cell research.
Erving works with partners of the US National Marrow Donor Program, and recently handed out autographed basketballs to mothers who chose to bank their baby’s cord blood. During the awareness event, Dr. J discussed his meeting with the US government.
“We had a chance to get before Congress and the Senate and at that time there was a lot of controversy surrounding stem cell regeneration, and I think the stem cell bills were being introduced as one package. So I think with our team going there, we were able to convince them that it needed to be introduced separately.”
Erving will continue to remain involved with the National Marrow Donor Program. He hopes to continue informing the public about the benefits of cord blood stem cells as well as convince the government to support further research into potential medical therapy.