George Gervin: An Appreciation
George "Iceman" Gervin may be one of the most underrated great players in pro basketball history. Gervin is overlooked for several reasons: he began his career in the ABA, he did not win a championship, and his prime years happened just before national/international coverage of pro basketball exploded. Gervin should be appreciated for being that rare player who is both a great shooter and a great scorer. During his career, Gervin shot. 504 from the field and .841 from the free throw line. He not only led the league in scoring four times (1978-80, 1982) but he also ranked in the top 10 in field goal percentage twice (1977-78), and he ranked in the top 10 in free throw percentage five times (1975-76, 1982-83, 1986). Gervin showed off his soft shooting touch with his deadly jump shot, his uncannily accurate bank shot, and his legendary finger roll, but he also excelled at drawing contact, ranking in the top 10 in free throws made for 11 straight seasons.
"Stat gurus" tout "advanced basketball statistics" and proclaim that today's NBA players are so smart and efficient because they focus on only shooting layups/dunks and three pointers, but Gervin is a model of true basketball efficiency, as demonstrated by his shooting percentages and by his low turnover rate (3.0 tpg for his career, never averaging more than 3.8 tpg in a season) despite having the ball in his hands so much. Jacking up three pointers without regard to time/score/game situation is a high variance approach to basketball that is neither efficient nor fun to watch. I would rather watch George Gervin than James Harden, and any true basketball fan who has seen both players feels the same way.
For the first 43 years of NBA history (including the ABA's nine seasons as well), only two players won at least four scoring titles: Wilt Chamberlain (seven) and George Gervin (four). Michael Jordan now holds the record (10), and Allen Iverson and Kevin Durant won four scoring titles each. Julius Erving holds the ABA record with three scoring titles. Gervin ranks 12th in ABA/NBA career regular season scoring average (25.1 ppg), just ahead of Karl Malone (25.0 ppg) and Kobe Bryant (25.0 ppg), and just behind Oscar Robertson (25.7 ppg) and Damian Lillard (25.2 ppg). He also ranks 14th in ABA/NBA career playoff scoring average (26.5 ppg), just behind Stephen Curry (27.0 ppg) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (26.7 ppg). Gervin averaged at least 30 ppg in five different playoff series, and he led the league in playoff scoring average six times (1975 in the ABA, and then 1978-82 in the NBA).
Gervin's scoring prowess is impressive, but he was more than just a sharp shooting prolific scorer. He was an excellent rebounder and shotblocker from the guard position, and he led the Spurs to 10 straight playoff appearances. Gervin logged five 100-100 seasons during which he had at least 100 steals and at least 100 blocked shots; the 6-8 Gervin first played forward, but he spent most of his pro career at guard, and he is the only guard who had at least four 100-100 seasons. In recognition of Gervin's all-around game, he finished second in MVP voting in 1978 and 1979, and he also ranked in the top five in MVP voting in 1980 (third) and 1981 (fifth). Gervin earned five consecutive All-NBA First Team selections (1978-82), four All-ABA or All-NBA Second Team selections (1975-77, 1983), and 12 straight All-Star selections (1974-85).
Gervin twice won the Seagram's Seven Crowns of Sports award for basketball player of the year. That award is all but forgotten now, but it was a big deal in the 1970s and 1980s. The Seagram's awards were determined based on a computer formula that compared players at the same position in terms of scoring, shooting accuracy, free throw percentage, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. Since players were only compared to players at the same position, it would seem that an award should have been given to the top finishers at each position and not just to the player with the top overall score. I have done a lot of archival research and used a variety of sources to piece together at least a partial list of Seagram's winners. The first public reference to the Seagram's awards that I found happened in 1974, but it is not clear if awards were given out at that time or if the rankings were just released to publicize the concept. Subsequent reports refer to the 1975 awards as the inaugural Seagram's awards. For the record, the top three basketball players in Seagram's 1974 rankings were Julius Erving, Bob McAdoo, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Here are the Seagram's basketball winners that I found, with runner-up information listed if available.
1975: 1) Bob McAdoo 2) George McGinnis 3) Julius Erving
1976: 1) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 2) Julius Erving 3) Bob McAdoo
1977: 1) Bobby Jones 2) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
1978: 1) George Gervin 2) Paul Westphal 3) David Thompson
1979: 1) George Gervin 2) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 3) Paul Westphal
1980: 1) Julius Erving 2) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 3) George Gervin
1981: 1) Julius Erving 2) Adrian Dantley 3) Moses Malone
1982: 1) Magic Johnson 2) Julius Erving 3) Adrian Dantley
1983: 1) Larry Bird
1984: 1) Larry Bird 2) Isiah Thomas 3) Magic Johnson
1985: 1) Michael Jordan
1986: 1) Larry Bird
1987: 1) Michael Jordan
"Iceman: A George Gervin Story" traces Gervin's life path from humble beginnings in Detroit to becoming an all-time great basketball player. By the end of the documentary, what shines through is not just Gervin's indisputable basketball greatness but also his kindness and his commitment to helping other people, embodied in the George Gervin Academy charter school program that he founded in San Antonio. Steve Smith and David Robinson--who are both well known for their extraordinary philanthropic efforts--credit Gervin as the inspiration for their community service work. Gervin said that his legacy will be defined not by what he did on the court, but by the people he has helped off of the court, declaring, "That's my trophy." Gervin delivers the same message, in more detail, in his autobiography Ice: Why I Was Born to Score.
The story of how Gervin signed with the ABA's Virginia Squires is remarkable. In 1972, Gervin was playing in the CBA after being expelled from Eastern Michigan University because he punched an opposing player (Jay Piccola, who later became President of Puma North America, and who appeared in "Iceman," describing the apology letter that Gervin wrote to him, a letter that Piccola has kept). The ABA paid Sonny Vaccaro to find talented players, and Vaccaro arranged for Gervin to have a tryout with the Squires. Squires owner Earl Foreman asked Gervin to go on the court and shoot. Gervin, wearing street clothes, put on such a tremendous shooting exhibition that Foreman signed him on the spot--according to Vaccaro, the deal was signed on a napkin! Vaccaro insists that Gervin made 50 straight shots from all over the court. Gervin, with his trademark laugh and smile, says that he does not remember making 50 shots, "but I don't remember missing any, either!"
Gervin joined the Squires in the middle of the 1972-73 season, teaming up with fellow future Hall of Famer Julius Erving. Erving established himself as a superstar as a rookie in 1971-72, averaging 27.3 ppg and 15.7 rpg in the regular season before leading the league in playoff scoring (33.4 ppg) and playoff rebounding (20.4 rpg). When Gervin became a Squire, Erving was on his way to winning the first of his three scoring titles. Erving insisted to Gervin that they play one on one after practice, something that Erving picked up from his brief time as Pistol Pete Maravich's teammate with the Atlanta Hawks, as Erving told me: "It really was one of the joys of my life to play with Pete, to be in training camp with him. We used to stay after practice and play one-on-one. We would play for dinner after practice. I did the same thing with George Gervin once he became my teammate [in Virginia]--I pretty much learned that from Pete. If this guy is going to be your teammate, you really need to stay after practice and get to understand his game and know his likes and his dislikes--where he likes the ball and that kind of stuff. The best way to do that is to just play--go play each other one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three. Play away from the coaches, away from the whole team practicing in unison." In "Iceman," Erving added that he liked to challenge his teammates so that they would not become lazy, and he said that he is proud of how great Gervin became.
The cash-strapped Squires traded Erving to the New York Nets prior to the 1973-74 season, and then they sold Gervin to the San Antonio Spurs during the 1973-74 season. Erving led the Nets to two ABA championships (1974, 1976), and Gervin emerged as one of pro basketball's top scorers while lifting the Spurs into becoming perennial contenders. Erving and Gervin faced each other in two memorable playoff series, with Erving's Nets beating Gervin's Spurs in the 1976 ABA playoffs en route to claiming the final ABA title, and then Gervin's Spurs defeating Erving's Philadelphia 76ers in seven games in the 1979 Eastern Conference Semifinals. Erving averaged 32.1 ppg, 11.3 rpg, and 4.6 apg with shooting splits of .488/.222/.824 in the 1976 series as the Nets won in seven games, while Gervin averaged 27.1 ppg, 9.1 rpg, and 2.7 apg with shooting splits of .523/.000/.812. The three point shot was not a major weapon at that time, as Erving only attempted nine and Gervin only attempted three during that series. Erving was the leading scorer in five of the seven games, including a series-high 41 points that were not quite enough to prevent the Spurs from winning game six in San Antonio, 106-105. In the 1979 series, Erving averaged 26.0 ppg, 6.6 rpg, and 6.0 apg with shooting splits of .542/.755, while Gervin averaged 26.1 ppg, 5.4 rpg, and 2.6 apg with shooting splits of .550/.820; three point shooting is not included in the shooting splits because the NBA did not start using the three point shot until the next season. I provided game summaries of the 1976 series in Julius Erving's Playoff Career, Part II: Two Championships in Three Years with the Nets, and I provided game summaries of the 1979 series in Julius Erving's Playoff Career, Part III: Consistency, Frustration and then a Glorious Championship Run.
What stands out about Erving and Gervin is not just the wins and the points, but their artistry, a facet of Gervin's game that Erving poetically described in a 1986 interview with Bob Sakamoto:
"He personifies being at one with certain elements in the universe
that, at least theoretically, are supposed to have a certain effect.
When I see him play, sometimes it makes me think about
the psychic side of the sport, abstract things that can be introduced to
the sport and explained through his motion. It really is a
tribute to him that he can trigger this in me, because I've seen a lot
of players come and go, and he's probably my favorite." Of course,
everything that Erving said about Gervin is true of Erving as well.
After beating Erving's 76ers, the Spurs lost 4-3 to the defending NBA champion Washington Bullets in the 1979 Eastern Conference Finals. The Spurs shifted to the Western Conference in 1981, and Gervin led them to the 1982 Western Conference Finals, but the eventual NBA champion L.A. Lakers swept them 4-0. The Spurs acquired Hall of Fame center Artis Gilmore before the 1982-83 season, and the Gervin-Gilmore duo led the Spurs back to the Western Conference Finals, but the Lakers prevailed again, 4-2.
The Spurs traded Gervin to the Chicago Bulls before the 1985-86 season. Gervin backed up second year sensation Michael Jordan before Jordan suffered a foot injury that caused him to miss 64 games. Gervin started 75 games and played all 82 games, averaging 16.2 ppg in his final NBA season.
After his NBA career ended, Gervin played a season in Italy. He credits that time in Europe for helping him to refocus his life priorities and attain greater balance; near the end of Gervin's NBA career he struggled with drug addiction, and that battle almost cost him his family. Gervin is candid about this period, saying that he suffered from a "malfunction" in his brain. John Lucas, the number one overall pick in the 1976 NBA Draft, lost his NBA career to drug addiction, but he has spent much of his post-playing life helping others battle substance abuse. Gervin sought out Lucas, and Lucas played a key role in Gervin's recovery.
Gervin feels that his most powerful legacy is his family and his community service work. He has said that he never sought fame, and that he played basketball because he loved to hoop. His journey is so different from the journeys of many of today's star athletes, who have been pampered and showered with praise since childhood, and then are provided with generational wealth because of their athletic abilities; too much public adulation and too much money distorts reality, and often leads to a sense of entitlement as opposed to a sense of responsibility.
So many of today's athletes scream, "I'm him!" Erving is not like that, and neither is Gervin. Gervin combines confidence with humility. He knows that he could not just score but also play at a high level, but he was never a showboat, and he gives credit to his teammates. Gervin has always spoken highly of his Spurs backcourt partner James Silas, and at the 2005 ABA Reunion Gervin told me, "James Silas was a guy who we really went to at the end of the game. James Silas never missed free throws. They don't give him enough credit and I'm disappointed in that, but we (the ABA players) give it to him because we played with him and respect him and a lot of us idolize his play."
Uninformed people often think that great athletes are running, jumping, and scoring without much thought, but the reality is that excellence in sports requires intelligence. You can get a glimpse of this intelligence in George Gervin's answer to my question about what made Roger Brown special:
He probably had one of the best first steps in basketball. You've really got to understand basketball to know what I'm saying when I say 'first step.' Matter of fact, I learned that from him when I played against Roger Brown--that first step. He used to pivot and make you move and he isn't going anywhere. It was probably one of the best moves that I picked up and when I went to the guard spot it really helped to take my game to the next level.
Speaking to me in a 2004 interview that I quoted in my Roger Brown tribute article, Gervin added that he wished that modern players emulated Brown's approach to the game: "What guys don't realize today is that first step is everything because if I can get the first step on you then you will never catch me--and if you do catch me then all I have to do is fake and you will go for the fake because you are trying to catch up--you are in a recovery situation. That's where Roger was good. He forced you into a recovery situation all the time, so you had to go for his fakes." Gervin contrasted Brown's use of the first step with the way that too many current players overuse the dribble: "Dribbling that ball five, six, seven, eight seconds is a travesty. What are the other four guys doing--standing there watching? A lot of the guys pound the ball today, but we used to move the ball around and when we got it we took that first step and made something happen. So we (retired legends) hope and pray that the guys understand that you really need to give the ball up. If you're not going to make your move, give it up, go back and get it. Don't just stand there and pound it."
Gervin was a basketball artist and a basketball technician--and the two traits are connected: by mastering the sport's fundamental techniques, Gervin acquired the necessary foundational skills to enable his creativity to blossom. He played basketball with unbridled joy, and it was a joy to watch him play.
Labels: Artis Gilmore, Chicago Bulls, George Gervin, Julius Erving, Michael Jordan, Roger Brown, San Antonio Spurs, Seagram's Seven Crowns of Sports, Virginia Squires
posted by David Friedman @ 11:04 PM
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