George Gervin
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George Gervin (born April 27, 1952 in Detroit, Michigan) is a former professional basketball player, a shooting guard for the ABA's Virginia Squires and the NBA's San Antonio Spurs and Chicago Bulls. Gervin never failed to average at least fourteen points in any of his fourteen ABA and NBA seasons, and finished an NBA career average of 26.2 points per game. Gervin holds the interesting distinction of being a former teammate of both Julius Erving (with the Squires) and Michael Jordan (with the Bulls), although in Gervin's only season in Chicago, Jordan played only eighteen games due to injury.
Nicknamed Iceman for his cool demeanor on the court, Gervin was primarily known for his scoring talents, leading the NBA in scoring average three years in a row from 1978 to 1980. He gained his fourth and last scoring title in 1982.
His first scoring crown, which took place in 1978, was one of NBA's most famed moments. He defeated fellow scorer David Thompson 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 dropping 63 points on his last game of the season.
His trademark was the finger roll, a technique consisting in shooting his layups by rolling the basketball along his fingertips.
Gervin was inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame, had his #44 jersey retired by the Spurs and was named to the NBA's fifty greatest players list.
External links
- Gervin @ NBA.com (http://www.nba.com/history/players/gervin_summary.html)
- George's page @ Basketball-Reference.com (http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/gervige01.html)
- Gervin tribute @ Remember the ABA.com (http://www.remembertheaba.com/TributeMaterial/Gervin.html)