His nickname was the IceMan for his cool demeanor on the court, his best known shot was the finger roll. George Gervin was a scoring machine scoriung from anywhere on the court. Gewrvin played in both the ABA and the NBA in the ABA with the Virgina Squires and the San Antonio Spurs and in the NBA with the Spurs, and the Chicago Bulls. I got a chance to see Gervin played in person at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks and I watched the Iceman during the warm ups why during the warm ups?I read somewhere that he didn’t miss a shot during the warmups so I watched to see if it was true and while other players shot goes in and gets’ knocked out or rolls in and out his always went in. Ok so I was young and impressed.Then came the game, I never saw anyone in person as smooth as Gervin he moved effortlessly and looked liked he never broke a sweat. In fact it looked like he didn’t do much at all yet at the end of the game he has scored 40 points in a 7 point loss to the Knicks 180-101.
He was the master of the finger roll, he had a great outside shot and would also dunk on you as well. Gervin was a 9 time NBA All Star and a 4 time NBA scoring champ. For his career he averaged 25 ppg 5.3 rebounds and 2,6 assists per game. George Gervin was name one of the top 50 greatest players of all time. His number 44 is retired by the San Antonio Spurs.
Small Thoughts: Old School Tuesday salutes…George Iceman Gervin!