Today's players aren't as cool as Iceman

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Mar 17, 2004

OAKLAND -- Nobody made the game of basketball look as easy as George Gervin. He moved almost in slow-motion as he floated, glided and finger-rolled his way into that select fraternity of hoops legends.

Basketball takes work, and Gervin worked hard to make the NBA's 50 greatest players list. But, still, he played the game with such ease, such nonchalance. He was cool, daddy. He was the "Iceman."

Gervin was unflappable and unstoppable. He averaged 26.2 points over 14 seasons in the ABA and NBA. He won four scoring titles. Only Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan won more.

Gervin's road to greatness wasn't always paved with good intentions or special advantages. The 6-7, 185-pound undernourished- looking Iceman emerged from the furnace of life to become an 12-time all-star, a ghetto-to-glory story he shared with staff writer Dave Newhouse before Monday's San Antonio-Golden State game.

Q. What is the origin of the name "Iceman?"

A. When I joined the Virginia Squires in 1972, I had a teammate named Fatty Taylor. I was putting the ball in the basket and my uniform never got wet. So Fatty nicknamed me "Ice." Then Fatty talked about "Iceberg Slim," a guy who was out of my hometown, Detroit, but the kind of guy I didn't want to be nuttin' like. So they just started calling me "Ice."

Q. Why didn't your uniform get wet. Basketball isn't that easy.

A. I really was about 155 pounds then, so I didn't have that much water in me. I was a rail coming up, very few muscles but a lot of skills.

Q. Without much muscle, how did you avoid punishment?

A. I took a certain amount of pain from players bigger than me, but over the years I developed a way to stay away from them. I was able to roll off their strength and to have the confidence I could do it. My only injury was a broken wrist. I fell on it trying to block a shot. That was it.

Q. You are given credit as the inventor of the finger roll. Was it your invention?

A. I can't take the credit and don't really want to. I played with Julius Erving as a rookie. Doc used to finger roll 'cause he had those big ol' hands. There's a message behind it: I took it from Dr. J., I took it from Connie Hawkins, I took it from Wilt Chamberlain. I added it to my game and took it to another level.

Q. How easy or hard was it to master that shot?

A. I could palm the ball real easy. I had control of the ball so I could flip it any way I wanted. The key to the finger roll is

to flip it up in the air, not try to flip it into the basket. I hear announcers today say "That was a good finger roll." I say, "Man, that was no finger roll. That's a scoop shot." The finger roll is what I used to do from the free-throw line. You can't block it. You got to knock me down.

Q. You had a rough childhood, with your dad leaving home and your mom left to bring up six children. How rough was it?

A. I knew who my father was, knew him by his face, but I never really spent any time with him. My mom took all kinds of jobs -- janitorial work at different schools I used to play against -- so we could go to school. Mom was everything. She raised us right. I didn't get into much trouble.

Q. How did a future scoring champion named Iceman get cut from his high school team?

A. When I started high school, I was 5-9. When I came back as a sophomore, I was 6-6. They almost said, "Who is that? That's not George." I could do things at 5-9, but I couldn't finish because I was too small. When I was 6-6, I could do everything.

Q. What was your identity before the finger roll?

A. Jumper. That easy jumper. I used to like to shoot the 10-, 12- , 15-footers. It came easy for me because I worked at it. People would say, "Oh, you were a natural." I was only a natural if I worked at my game. And I loved the game with a passion. It was like being in paradise.

Q. While attending Eastern Michigan, you slugged a player, Jay Piccola of Roanoke College. What prompted that?

A. It's the only fight I ever had in my life. It was a tough situation. They were taking advantage of us, we were getting no calls. Me and Jay Piccola got tangled up, and I just hit him. I knocked him out. I hit him so hard, it scared me. His eyes were rolling.

Q. The punishment didn't fit the crime as you were suspended then and for the following season. Did you feel violated?

A. They said I would sit out one year, and then they would decide whether I could play my last year. That ain't fair, so I quit.

Q. So you went pro, first with the Eastern League, then with the ABA and NBA with the San Antonio Spurs. In all that time, did you have a defensive nemesis?

A. Dennis Johnson. He had good footwork, wouldn't hardly go for fakes. So he was a good defender. And at 6-5, he had good size. He used to make me work to get a hard 30. Jamaal Wilkes was tough, too, and (Michael) Cooper. Those three guys and Bobby Jones stand out in guarding me.

Q. You weren't known for defense, right?

A. I was the only guard to have 110 blocks in a season. Most people said I had a matador defense, but I had done some things on defense nobody had ever done before. I was long and had good anticipation.