George Gervin deserves your respect. Not because he did for Michael Jordan what Michael Jordan did for Richard Hamilton in 2001. Heck, not for representing the San Antonio Spurs in nine straight All-Star games from 1977 to 1985 either. George Gervin deserves your respect because the tragically underrated, 1996-elected, Basketball Hall of Famer has never stopped giving back to the community that decades ago made him an undisputed "people's champion".
"When I hear someone like yourself recognize my accomplishments," the man says from his San Antonio home, "And when I go around the country and older people come up to me and say 'Ice Man, I just want to say thank you for entertaining me all these years, you were one of the greatest ball players I've ever seen', that's a hell of a feeling".
Consider then, the feeling one gets chatting candidly over the phone with a man who once scored 63 points in 33 minutes. A man whose track record of four scoring titles is eclipsed only by Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. Not bad for a guy rarely mentioned in casual talks regarding the greatest scorers of all time.
"When I played, the media wasn't as involved, the technology wasn't there," said Gervin. "If the world had a chance to see a lot of the guys - like myself - in this
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