She wants to tell them, screw you, I’m Alexandra Stevenson. But she avoids them because Julius Erving-basketball Hall of Famer-is a name she chooses not to hear. He is undeniably her father, and she has his face to prove it, but her feelings for him are cold and raw, and the events of these last few weeks do not help. Just recently, Erving stood at a podium to discuss his missing 19-year-old child—and he wasnt talking about her. His son Cory, a long-time drug user, had disappeared, and Erving was there begging a sympathetic public to help find him. But the natural response of the daughter was, I feel your pain, but why not come and find me? “People keep asking how I feel about the boy who’s missing,” she said that day. “Well, I dont even know my father. How can I know his kids?”

And so if Julius Erving is in a private hell, so is Alexandra Stevenson. He has a son who has vanished, and she has a father who has essentially vanished. Four children grew up under Erving’s roof, but only she, who grew up estranged from him in a one-bedroom condo, has demonstrated his athletic genius. That is why the world is fascinated by her, but the world also needs to know she is not so fascinated by him. “He didn’t change my diapers,” she says.