NBA star nicknames

Full name: George Gervin (George Gervin)

Birthday: April 27, 1952 in Detroit

High school: M.L. King (Detroit) < /p>

College: Eastern Michigan

Draft: 1974 Phoenix Suns

Trade: Traded to Chicago Bulls on October 24, 1985

Nickname: Iceman

Height: 6 feet, 7 inches

Weight: 185 pounds

Honor: Elected to the Nike Basketball Hall of Fame (1996 ); NBA first team (1978, 79, 80, 81, 82); NBA second team (1977, 83); 9-time NBA All-Star (1977-85); All-Star Game MVP (1980); selected to NBA The 50 Greatest Stars in History (1996)

George Gervin's game record can fully explain the problem. He has won 4 NBA scoring titles. Only Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan have surpassed him in this regard. He is also the first guard to win 3 consecutive scoring titles. His career scoring average reached 26.2 points per game, and he scored 26,595 points in the NBA and ABA leagues.

During his career, Gervin set an extraordinary record of scoring in double figures in 407 consecutive games. He participated in 12 consecutive All-Star games, nine of which were in the NBA, and averaged 21 points per game. In his 9 NBA seasons with the Spurs, the Spurs won 5 division championships. He won the All-Star Game MVP once and finished second in regular season MVP voting twice.

But these numbers only begin to tell the story of Gervin's illustrious career, which stretched from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. For those who want to fully appreciate the greatness of the "Iceman", they cannot miss Gervin's smooth 25-foot jumper, beautiful finger-roll as he flies into the blue circle, An elegant reverse shot with either left or right hand, or a dunk under the defense of two 7-foot men. (I have watched cctv2’s Sunday afternoon NBA special program before, and once it specifically introduced George Gervin and his finger-roll...it was very gorgeous...)

Whether he is facing Three-man double teams or changes of direction in the air, Gervin always makes those seemingly impossible shots as easy as free throws. Although he often took some extremely difficult shots, Gervin's overall field goal percentage in the NBA was over 50%. Ironically, his style of play that made the game easier prevented him from achieving the same reputation as more expressive players such as Julius Erving, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan.

Jerry West commented to the "Los Angeles Times" after Gervin won the scoring title for the fourth time in 1982: "He is a player I will pay to watch him play." NBA's Coach Dick Motta told the Sacramento Bee that same year: "You can't stop George Gervin. You just hope his arm gets tired after 40 shots. I believe he can score if he wants to. I doubt it." Will he get tired of scoring all the time? "(George Gervin's number one fan?...-_-...)

Gervin took an unusual path to the NBA. road. He grew up in a poor family in Detroit with six children. When Gervin was just a toddler, his father abandoned the family and the burden of making ends meet fell on his mother, who had to work any job she could find. "I will never know how she did it, but she had to be an incredibly strong woman.

"Looking back, I don't know how we got through this," Gervin said. But I don’t know why, but my mother always made sure that we didn’t go hungry. "(Poor children become rich early...)

George started playing basketball at the home of one of his cousins, and his partner was a child named Ralph Simpson. Ralph gradually grew into a star. , either at Michigan State or with the ABA's Denver Nuggets. "I was just running around the streets like any other kid, but the difference was I loved basketball," Gervin recalled. "You live in a place like that. A city where you live in a state of war. You don't realize any of this, you just live day by day. "

As a 5-foot-8 sophomore, Gervin tried out for Martin Luther King High School's basketball team. He was quick but he still needed to hone his shooting skills. " Elimination he. The head coach told his assistant coach Willie Meriweather, who was also in charge of the school team. But Meriweather liked Gervin, so he persuaded the school team coach to allow him to add an extra player to the team's lineup. Meriweather and Gervin began to get along. Get closer. “He was my teacher,” Gervin told the Sacramento Bee. “He was basically like a father figure to me. "

Meanwhile, the shy but lovable Gervin also received help from the school janitor. Gervin only knew him as Mr. Winters. Every night, Mr. Winters allowed Gervin to practice shooting in the basketball gym. Just clear the arena before he leaves. “It gives me a lonely environment. There I would be alone for hours. There was nothing else there, just me and my imagination," Gervin said. "There was nothing else for me to do. In a way, I was a really lucky kid. I never had to worry about crime, pranks, drugs, or anything like that. The only thing I was thinking about was basketball. "

Despite his rapid improvement on the court, Gervin struggled in the classroom. Poor grades forced him to miss half of his junior year. Meriweather urged him to catch up during summer school. By then he had grown to 6'4", and Gervin was finally able to take his time playing and studying in his senior year. He led his school into the NBA with averages of 31 points and 20 rebounds per game. The top 8 in the state.

After graduation, Gervin accepted a scholarship to Long Beach State University and came there to play under Jerry Tarkanian. But living in Southern California gave Gervin a lot of cultural shock. He returned to Michigan before the end of the first semester. He entered Eastern Michigan University and averaged 29.5 points per game as a sophomore in the 1971-72 season. Gervin's out-of-control behavior cast a shadow over a career that was already on track when he punched a Roanoke College player named Jay Piccola during a Division II tournament in Evansville, Indiana. . And Gervin had never hit an opponent in a game before. The final result of this incident was disastrous. Eastern Michigan coach Jim Gervin was punished and resigned. He was suspended for the entire season and eventually kicked off the team. The official reason for the expulsion was Gervin's poor performance in an NCAA qualifying test, but Gervin obviously did not agree with it and invited him to participate in the Olympic team and the Pan. The American Athletic Conference bid was withdrawn. With nowhere else to go, Gervin joined the Eastern Basketball League, a relatively successful secondary league.

During that time, he was making just $500 a month while averaging 40 points per game for Pontiac Chaparral (Michigan). One night, Johnny Kerr, a scout from the eager Virginia Squires of the ABA League, came to watch Gervin play. In that game, Gervin scored 50 points. After the game, Gervin got a new job that paid him $40,000 a year.

In the 1972-73 season, the Squires already had Erving, a second-year forward from Massachusetts State University. Gervin's performance was smooth, while "Dr. J's" performance was dazzling. Gervin joined the Virginia Squires midway through the season and averaged 14.1 points per game the remainder of the season, while Erving took the scoring title with a 31.9 average.

Squires linebacker Fatty Taylor looked at Gervin one day and called him "Iceberg Slim," after a pimp wrote about his former life on the streets of Chicago. ’s best-selling autobiographical novel. "That's my impression of my whole life," Gervin said. "Big cars, big hats. Fast life, dying young. The people in Detroit that I hung out with. Those guys, that's the way they live." The nickname was eventually shortened to "the Iceman," which was more of a reference than his physical resemblance to the pimps on the streets. Gervin's composure on the court.

In the 1973-74 season, when Gervin participated in his first ABA All-Star Game, he was traded to the San Antonio Spurs on the same day. The Spurs' team name at the time was the Chaparrals, and they had just moved out of Dallas. This seemed to be a very standard player transaction, but at that time, it involved transfers between different leagues in the NBA and ABA, which resulted in a controversy about the contract. Teams and the ABA league office have different contractual interpretations of the trade. So the 21-year-old Gervin had to wait for the deal to be resolved during this period so that he could join the Spurs. And when he first started playing for the Spurs, he was like a duck in water. He averaged 23.4 points per game this season, ranking fourth in the league. He subsequently ranked in the top 10 in scoring for two consecutive years and was selected to the All-Star team. In the 1975 ABA All-Star Game, Gervin and his childhood playing partner Ralph Simpson were teammates and represented the Western Stars in the game.

When the Spurs joined the NBA in 1976, many observers expected Gervin to be a first-rate player rather than a superstar. To their surprise, Gervin won four scoring titles in five years, was selected to the NBA First Team five times, and appeared in nine consecutive NBA All-Star Games. In 1977-78, the second year after the Spurs joined the NBA, they achieved the league's third-best record in the Central Division with a record of 52 wins and 30 losses. Coach Doug Moe took over the Spurs after they joined the NBA in a special way and successfully built a winning team, although only three players on his team averaged double-digit scoring. Gervin won his first scoring title with an average of 27.2 points per game, followed by Larry Kenon (20.6 points) and big center Billy Paultz (15.8 points). Other unknown players make up Coach Moe's roster.

That year, Gervin needed to score at least 58 points in the final game of the season on April 9 to beat David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets for the scoring title. Thompson scored 73 points in the game that ended the day before, putting tremendous pressure on Gervin.

And when Gervin missed six shots against the New Orleans Jazz to start the game, he told his teammates to give up trying to catch Thompson. But his teammates ignored his pleas and kept passing the ball to him. When he finally started to find his touch, Gervin scored 33 points in the second quarter - setting an NBA record, and this record for the most points in a single quarter was set by Thompson just the day before. 32 points in the quarter - Gervin ended up with 63 points in the game. Gervin finally narrowly defeated Thompson 27.22 to 27.15 and won the scoring title. At the same time, he only lost to Bill Walton of the Portland Trail Blazers and finished second in the NBA's MVB voting. In the following season, Gervin retained the scoring title with 29.6 points and once again won second place in the MVP voting, this time losing to Moses Malone of the Houston Rockets. In the 1978-1979 season, Gervin came closest to the NBA Finals. After eliminating the Philadelphia 76ers in the best-of-seven conference semifinals, the Spurs led the Washington Bullets 3-1 in the Eastern Conference finals. (Another poor guy...-_-)

After moving to the Western Conference, San Antonio, with Gervin under its banner, entered the conference finals again in 1982 and 1983, but lost both times. Gave it to the Los Angeles Lakers. At that time, Gervin, a former ABA superstar, was already surrounded by talented forwards Gene Banks and Mike Mitchell, and formidable center Artis Gilmore. Meanwhile, Johnny Moore is growing into an efficient offensive playmaker to complement Gervin's scoring talents.

After Doug Moe left the team for Denver in 1980, the Spurs went through a number of head coaches, including Bob Bass (two short-term takeovers), Stan Albeck and Morris Mchone. The appointment of new head coach Cotton Fitzsimmons in the 1984-85 season led to the end of Gervin's 12-year career with the Spurs. These 2 people will never get along. Fitzsimmons clearly thinks Gervin has deficiencies defensively and is afraid to take the final shot in the clutch. After reaching the milestone 25,000 points in his career, Gervin was traded to the Chicago Bulls for forward David Greenwood before the start of the following season. Gervin left the Spurs with 23,602 points and more than 60 franchise records.

Just as he had a second-year future star Erving beside him when he first entered the ABA, in the 1985-86 season, which was also his last season in the NBA, he met another second-year star. of future stars. This man's name is Michael Jordan. However, Jordan was limited to 18 games due to a foot injury. And Gervin plays a very valuable role in Bulls head coach Stan Albeck's lineup. The 33-year-old Gervin participated in all games that season and averaged 16.2 points per game, ranking second on the team behind Orlando Woolridge. He retired from the NBA at the end of that season, leaving behind a total of 20,708 points in the NBA and a combined 26,595 points in the ABA and NBA.

The next year, Gervin played for Italy's Banco Roma team and averaged 26.1 points per game. As a recently retired athlete, Gervin had a little trouble transitioning into roles. He developed a drug addiction and went to rehab three times before kicking the habit, the last time in 1989 at a treatment facility in Houston run by his former Spurs teammate John Lucas.

Subsequently, Gervin began to indulge in a harmless activity: golf.

Gervin founded a golf tournament held annually in San Antonio. In 1989-90, he attempted a brief comeback with the Quad City Thunder of the CBA League, where he averaged 20.3 points per game in 14 games.

Thereafter, Gervin worked for the Spurs as a community relations representative. It wasn't until 1992 that the then head coach John Lucas asked him to serve as an assistant coach. After spending two seasons on the bench, he returned to his position in the Community Relations Department in 1994.

Gervin's No. 44 jersey has been retired by the Spurs (you can often see his jersey when watching Spurs games on SBC...^_^). Then in 1996, Gervin had a banner year as he was named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Star Team and was also inducted into the N' Smith Basketball Hall of Fame.