Happy 73rd Birthday, George Gervin

George Gervin rises up for a shot. Photo credit: Ron Koch, NBAE 1979

One of the greatest scorers in NBA history celebrates a birthday on Sunday as George Gervin turns 73. 

In a world of hyperboles, saying that the “Iceman” is one of the best scorers the league has ever seen is no exaggeration. 

One of the NBA’s original smooth operators, you could play a Sade mix alongside a Gervin highlight reel. 

“He’s probably the most famous player to ever come out of Detroit and always will be,” said former NBA forward and Detroit native Steve Smith in an interview some two and a decades old. 

Gervin was an attendee of Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School. Only 5 feet, 8 inches as a sophomore, Gervin failed to make the school team. As a result, he worked tirelessly on his game, eventually making the team and leading the Crusaders as a senior. In his final season of high school basketball, he averaged 31 points and 20 rebounds and led the school to the Michigan state quarterfinals. 

For college, Gervin first opted to attend California State College, Long Beach, but after one semester went back home and enrolled at Eastern Michigan University in nearby Ypsilanti.

As a freshman, Gervin averaged nearly 18 points per game, and as a sophomore upped his average to 29.5 points per game. In the NCAA College Division Semifinal against Roanoke College in his sophomore season, Gervin was ejected and got in a fight with an opposing player, an incident that led Gervin to withdraw from school as he would be suspended for his entire junior year with his senior year also in jeopardy. 

Gervin then signed with the Pontiac Chaparrals of the Continental Basketball Association and averaged over 30 points per game. Pontiac led him to Norfolk, Va., and the American Basketball Association’s Virginia Squires. Gervin, 20 years old, knew Sonny Vaccaro, the former Nike executive and future founder of the ABCD camp. Vaccaro introduced Gervin to Squires’ head coach Al Bianci - a former NBA veteran with the Syracuse Nationals and Philadelphia 76ers - and Gervin began his ABA career with the Squires, where he would play alongside another round ball showman and future Hall of Famer by the name of Julius Erving. 

Gervin played 79 games with the Squires (30.6 minutes per game), and averaged 21.1 points and 6.9 rebounds on 47.2% shooting. As a rookie, playing 23.0 minutes, he scored 14.1 points per night, making 5-of-11 shots per game on average. 

On January 30, 1974, Gervin was sold to the San Antonio Spurs, also of the ABA at the time, where he would go on to make his Hall of Fame name. 

In 25 games with the Spurs to conclude the 1973-74 season, Gervin averaged 19.4 points and 8.2 rebounds on 46.8% shooting (31.3 minutes). Overall that season, between Virginia and San Antonio, Gervin averaged 23.4 points and 8.4 rebounds (47.1% in 33.9 minutes) in 74 games and was named an all-star for the first time. 

The following season, Gervin played 84 games, shot 47.4% on 19.7 shots on average, and put up 23.4 points and 8.3 rebounds, being named an all-star once again. 

The 1975-76 season marked the third consecutive all-star season for Gervin, his last in the ABA. He averaged 21.8 points and 6.7 rebounds on 50% (33.9 minutes, 81 games) in the Spurs’ final ABA season prior to the merger with the NBA. 

Gervin played all 82 games in his first NBA season, averaging 33.0 minutes per game while shooting 54% (16.3 shots) and 23.1 points and 5.5 rebounds in what was his first of nine NBA all-star appearances. That season, he was named to the All-NBA 2nd team, the first of seven All-NBA team nods. 

In 1977-78, Gervin put together his best year yet. Leading the NBA in scoring for the first time, Gervin finished second in MVP voting with a 27.2 point per game average (5.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.7 steals, 1.3 blocks) on 53.6% shooting in 34.8 minutes (82 games). He produced a career night on April 9, 1978 in a 153-132 loss to the Utah Jazz, scoring a career-high 63 points in 33 minutes. In the game, he made 23-of-49 attempts and shot 17-of-20 from the free-throw line. Gervin scored a then-NBA record 33 points in the second quarter in that game, a quarter mark that was broken by Klay Thompson’s 37 in one quarter in 2015.

The 63-point outburst by Gervin secured the scoring title, as he needed 58 points to win the title over the Nuggets’ David Thompson. The Spurs, winners of 50 games that season under head coach Doug Moe, lost in the Eastern Conference Semifinals to the Washington Bullets - Elvin Hayes, Wes Unseld, Bob Dandridge and Co. - in six games. Gervin averaged 33.7 points in the series (5.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists) on 54.9% shooting. He posted 35 points (15-for-28), 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block in Game 1's 114-103 Spur victory, and in Game 2 scored 46 points with 6 rebounds on 17-for-32 shooting.

Gervin finished second in MVP voting again the next year, winning the scoring title once again by averaging 29.6 points per game, leading the NBA in field-goals made and attempted per game (11.8 makes, 21.9 attempts). The Spurs won 48 games and lost to those same Bullets in the same round, this time in seven games. Gervin scored 34 in Game 1, 29 in Game 3, 42 in Game 4, 28 in Game 5, and in Game 7 scored 42 points as the Spurs lost by only two, 107-105. He averaged 31.0 points and 6.3 rebounds on 52.4% shooting in that series.

In 1979-80, Gervin had the highest scoring output of his career at 33.1 points per game , while again leading the league in makes and attempts per game (13.1 and 24.9). His 37.6 minutes per game that season were also a career-best. He finished third in MVP voting as the Spurs finished 41-41.  

Gervin played all 82 games in 1980-81, for the third time of four total times that he would do so in his NBA career. He made All-NBA 1st team for the fourth consecutive season (he would repeat that feat in 1981-82), and finished with averages of 27.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.2 assists on 49.2% shooting in 33.7 minutes per game and flanked by 17.7 point per game scorer James Silas led the Spurs to 52 wins under head coach Stan Albeck. That postseason, the Spurs lost in seven games in the Western Conference Semifinals to the Houston Rockets. In the series, Gervin, who finished fifth in MVP voting (four consecutive seasons of top five finishes in the category) averaged 27.1 points on 50% shooting.

In 1981-82, Gervin won his last scoring title (32.3 points per game), was sixth in MVP voting, and again led the NBA in makes and attempts per game (12.6, 25.2). He played in 79 games, averaging 35.7 minutes. 48-34 was the Spurs' regular season record, and they made the Western Conference Finals, where they were swept by the Los Angeles Lakers. Gervin scored 34 points in Game 1, 39 in Game 3, and 38 in Game 4.

Gervin was an all-star each of the next three seasons, which would be his final three in San Antonio. In those three seasons, he averaged 26.2 points, 25.9 points, and 21.2 points, shooting 48.7%, 49.0%, and 50.8%.

In the 1982-83 season, the Spurs went 53-29, their highest win total with Gervin. With veteran Hall of Fame center Artis Gilmore and scoring forward Mike Mitchell, Gervin averaged 45.5% in the Spurs' six-game loss to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, putting up 22.7 points per game in his final playoff appearance.

After his final Spur season of 1984-85, Gervin aged 32 going on 33 was traded to the Chicago Bulls on October 25, 1985 for David Greenwood. He played all 82 games in his final season (75 starts) and posted an impressive 16.2 points in 25.2 minutes and while he shot 47.2% with his shots decreased to 13.4 per game. 

Gervin posted 20 more points 31 times in his final NBA campaign, with a season-high 45 points on 15-for-29 from the field and 15-for-16 from the line in 44 minutes on January 27, 1986, despite the Bulls losing the game 124-116 to the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas. Without Michael Jordan not in the lineup, Gervin wanted to prove to the people that he still had it. 

Over his 14 seasons (ABA and NBA), Gervin played in 1,060 games and started 623. In 33.6 minutes per game, he shot 50.4% and averaged 25.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 2.6 assists. He was a career 80.4% free-throw shooter. Gervin possessed an unorthodox shooting form, to where his left arm made an outward “L” shape as he rose and released the ball. Forms don’t matter though, results do. 

A 9-time NBA All-Star, Gervin’s averages were 26.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.2 steals in 791 games (623 starts) on 51.1% shooting in 10 NBA seasons. He amassed 26,595 total points, 19th in NBA/ABA history, 99 points ahead of fellow Spur Tim Duncan and just 73 points behind Dominique Wilkins. His 20,708 NBA points are 1,053 ahead of fellow Hall of Famer and supreme scorer Bernard King. His four scoring titles are tied with Kevin Durant for the third most in NBA history, behind only Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. 

Gervin was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1996.  

One of the smoothest players and best scorers in NBA history. One of the founding fathers of the finger roll who brought a flair and style that was all his own to the floor. When it comes to NBA nicknames, his is right at the top. 

“I loved basketball. I didn’t just play it because I could, I played it because I loved it,” said Gervin in a 1990s interview. 

Happy 73rd, George Gervin.