George Gervin

The Phoenix Suns selected Gervin in the third round with the 40th pick, however Gervin elected to stay in the ABA and kept playing for the Spurs.

With Gervin as the centerpiece, the Spurs transformed from a primarily defense-oriented team into an exciting fast-breaking team that played what coach Bob Bass called "schoolyard basketball".

George Gervin (born April 27, 1952), nicknamed "the Iceman", is an American former professional basketball player who played in both the American Basketball Association (ABA) and National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Virginia Squires, San Antonio Spurs, and Chicago Bulls.

Gervin averaged at least 14 points per game in all 14 of his ABA and NBA seasons, and finished with an NBA career average of 26.2 points per game.

George Gervin was born on April 27, 1952, in Detroit, Michigan.

Gervin attended Martin Luther King, Jr. High School.

He struggled on and off the court until his senior year, when a growth spurt allowed him to average 31 points and 20 rebounds and lead his school to the state quarterfinals.

He was a Detroit Free Press All-State selection in 1970.

Gervin received a scholarship to play under Coach Jerry Tarkanian at California State University, Long Beach, but he had such a culture shock that he returned home before the first semester was over.

He transferred to Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan and averaged 29.5 points as a sophomore forward in 1971–72.

While competing in an NCAA College Division national semifinal game in Evansville, Indiana, Gervin punched a Roanoke player.

Gervin was suspended for the following season and eventually was removed from the team.

Invitations to try out for the Olympic and Pan-American teams were withdrawn.

In 1972–73, Gervin initially played in Michigan for the Pontiac Chaparrals of the Continental Basketball Association.

While playing with Pontiac, Gervin was spotted by Johnny Kerr, a Vice President, Basketball Operations for the Virginia Squires of the ABA.

In January 1973, Kerr signed Gervin to the Squires for a $40,000 a year contract.

Gervin's time in Virginia would be short-lived, however.

The Squires' finances had never been stable, and they had been forced to start trading their best players to get enough money to stay alive.

In the space of only four months, they traded Julius Erving and Swen Nater for cash and/or draft picks.

During the 1974 ABA All-Star Weekend, rumors abounded that the Squires were in talks about dealing Gervin for cash.

The rumors turned out to be true; on January 30, Gervin was sold to the Spurs for $228,000.

The ABA tried to block the trade, claiming that by trading their last legitimate star, the Squires were holding a fire sale.

However, a court sided with the Spurs.

Within two years, the Squires were no more.

After two seasons in the ABA, Gervin became NBA eligible in time for the 1974 NBA draft.

Although the Spurs never won an ABA playoff series during Gervin's first three years there, their high-powered offense made them very attractive to the NBA (along with their attendance figures in a relatively small media market), and the Spurs joined the more established league as part of the 1976 ABA–NBA merger.

Right before the final ABA season, the Spurs had acquired star power forward Larry Kenon via trade, forming an offensively dominant one-two punch of both he and Gervin in order to strengthen their lineup and compete for a championship.

In the final season of the ABA in 1976, the Spurs finished 3rd in a five-team postseason Playoff, which meant they faced the #2 seed New York Nets for the right to play in the 1976 ABA Finals.

The Spurs pushed the Julius Erving-led Nets to a Game 7, but the Nets prevailed 121-114 on their way to the Finals, which they won.

Gervin's first NBA scoring crown came in the 1977–78 season, when he narrowly edged David Thompson for the scoring title by seven-hundredths of a point (27.22 to 27.15).

Although Thompson came up with a memorable performance for the last game of the regular season, scoring 73 points, Gervin maintained his slight lead by scoring 63 points (including a then NBA record 33 points in the second quarter) in a loss during the last game of the regular season.

With the scoring crown in hand, he sat out some of the third, and all of the fourth quarter.

In the 1978–79 NBA season, the Spurs finished 48–34 with the second seed in the Eastern Conference, they had made it past Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round, beating them in seven games as Gervin led the league in playoff scoring with 28.6 ppg.

Despite disappointing playoff eliminations and not making it to the finals, Gervin was committed to the Spurs, showing no frustration towards his teammates, thus living up to his nickname and went on to lead the NBA in scoring average three years in a row from 1978 to 1980 (with a high of 33.1 points per game in 1979–80), and again in 1982.

Prior to Michael Jordan, Gervin had the most scoring titles of any guard in league history.

They were one win away from making it to the 1979 NBA Finals as they were up 3–1 against the Washington Bullets in the Conference Finals but collapsed by losing three straight to lose the series.

Kenon would become a free agent and sign with the Bulls after the following season.

In 1981, while sitting out three games due to injury, Gervin's replacement, Ron Brewer, averaged over 30 ppg.

When Gervin returned, he scored 40+ points.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest shooting guards in NBA history, in 1996 Gervin was named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, and in 2021, Gervin was named as one of the 75 greatest players in NBA history.