PHILADELPHIA — Julius Erving returned to the city of his greatest basketball success Monday to plead again for help in finding his missing son.
The NBA great said he thinks 19-year-old Cory Erving is still alive, and might have been using drugs at the time of his disappearance in late May. Cory has had a history of drug and alcohol abuse as well as run-ins with the law.
"I don't think he was clean," Erving said Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America." "I think he was still participating."
Later, at a news conference, Erving said one of Cory's friends claimed Cory had been using marijuana and "roofies" — a slang term for the illegal sedative Rohypnol — the night before he disappeared. But Erving noted that the friend was talking "without trying to incriminate himself."
Erving, an executive with the Orlando Magic, appeared at City Hall with his other sons, 26-year-old Julius III and 27-year-old Cheo. Both choked back tears as they described their brother as a fun-loving prankster and pleaded with him to come home.
Erving's disclosure of his son's disappearance June 13 produced hundreds of tips, including 34 from the Philadelphia area. But Deputy Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said Monday that none of them panned out.
There is "nothing substantial to say that he's here," Johnson said, although Cory has friends in the area and Julius III runs a sports and entertainment marketing business here.
Cory's disappearance has been especially hard on his mother, Turquoise, Julius Erving said. When he left Orlando on Sunday, Erving said, his wife "was bedridden and in a weakened state, with only a framed picture of Cory and a Bible to quell her fear."
Erving, who had already planned to be in Philadelphia to help Julius III kick off his annual summer basketball league, used the opportunity to thank the city for its support. As "Dr. J," Erving starred for the 76ers in the late 1970s and '80s, and the team won the NBA title in 1983.
Mayor John F. Street, who has known Erving personally for many years, pledged the resources of the police department to "help get this situation resolved."
"We regard Julius Erving and his family as being a part of our family. Doc has made a variety of contributions to our city, and I'm not just talking about on the basketball court," Street said.
Despite nearly two weeks of national media exposure, there has been no sign of Cory or his black 1999 Volkswagen Passat.
The last time the family heard from him was May 28, when he went to buy bread for a family cookout. A $50,000 reward has been offered for information leading to his return.
Investigators had said the most credible tip they received was a reported sighting of Cory Erving with an unidentified woman with blonde hair in Altamonte Springs, just north of Orlando, Fla. On Monday, Erving said the tip "has turned into a wild goose chase."
"We haven't had anything that's been fruitful," he said.
(The national hotline number is 888-609-2529.)