Julius Erving says Lakers gave 76ers ‘damaged goods’ in Bynum

Julius Erving thinks that teams need to exercise caution when making deals with the Boston Celtics or the Lakers.

“When you talk to the Lakers, when you talk to the Celtics, when you talk to -- well, those two in particular -- the guy on the other end of the phone has his fingers crossed,” Erving told the Philadelphia Inquirer on Wednesday before the premiere of “The Doctor,” a documentary on his life.

“So whatever he’s telling you, he’s not telling you the truth. He’s working a deal for him. And what happened to us last year with getting damaged goods hopefully will only happen once. And that’s the extent of that learning curve.”

Erving, who is a special consultant to 76ers owner Joshua Harris, was referring to Andrew Bynum when he mentioned “damaged goods.”

Bynum was traded to the 76ers last year in a four-team trade that sent Andre Iguodala to the Denver Nuggets and Dwight Howard to the Lakers. But the 76ers didn’t benefit much from the deal because Bynum was sidelined the entire season with bone bruises in both knees.

On Thursday, in an interview with SportsCenter, Erving elaborated on his disappointment with that trade.

“I was talking about the Sixers and the management and the ownership and their commitment to excellence, to being a contender, to being a champion. And they set a timeline of five to seven years three seasons ago, so as they close in on that timeline, the comment was really about not making any mistakes. Not making decisions that don’t turn out,” he said.

“So that’s how we got over to the Andrew Bynum decision, which on paper seemed like a good decision. But forewarned is foretold,” he said. “If you’re going to deal with the Celtics, who are our natural rivals, or the Lakers, the two teams that have won the most championships in the NBA, they’re always going to make deals where they get the better end of the deal. That’s been their history, that’s how they presently are and that’s how they’re going to be in the future.

“So for the Sixers, to get Andrew Bynum and think he was going to be an All-Star and an all-pro and think he was going to be a valuable part of the franchise, as was the thinking, it turned out to be a bad deal.”

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