NBA Legend George Gervin Disputes Klay Thompson ‘Beating’ His Record For Most Points In A Quarter, Shares List of Top 5 Players, & More

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Today, former San Antonio Spurs legend and Hall of Famer George Gervin sat down for the latest episode of “Knuckleheads Podcast with Darius Miles & Quentin Richardson” to discuss his feelings around Klay Thompson beating his record for most points scored in a quarter and why it should have an asterisk with it.

The NBA 50 greatest player of all time honoree also dishes on which current player he’s most similar to, his all-time top five NBA players, how he got the “Iceman” nickname, the differences between the ABA and the NBA, and more.

  • On where the nickname “Iceman” came from (1:45): “[I got the name while in the] ABA – [Roland] Fatty Taylor is the guy who started naming me that. I’m from Detroit, you know, I wore the big hat, my dress was stupid, I wore the gators, I drove a Cadillac Eldorado. I had that kind of style and he started calling me Ice, man… and that’s kind of how I got my nickname. That was just a part of the way we came up, the environment. When I was coming up they called me GG so you can imagine a brother like me being called GG– you know I ain’t going to like no crap like that, man. When Ice came, that was a welcoming call, man. What [Ice] means to me– I don’t try to be cool, I don’t have to. It’s just being me, man. I’ve just done some things that people thought were cool.”
  • On Klay Thompson beating his record* (22:20): “You know, it’s hard to compare what I did versus to how they do it. And again, I ain’t mad or nothing. It’s like when Klay Thompson broke my record, I got 33 in a quarter. Klay got 27 points of 3s, and ended up getting 37 points. You know, I got mine with no 3s. So, did he break my record? Well you can put an asterisk behind it and say he broke my record…but did he really? The press called me and said ‘Iceman he broke your record’ and I said ‘He didn’t break my record, he started a new one.’”
  • On the one player that reminds him of himself (24:50): “Oh KD [Kevin Durant] – he scores different than me, but as far as putting it in the hole he’s just as effective. You know, once he added that in-between game, he’s even gonna more effective, you know? I told him ‘Once you start shooting that in-between man, you’re 6’11” and nobody’s there!’ ‘He shoots deeper than me, I mean he just is– to me an unbelievable player with his size and what he’s able to do, man. He is definitely one of the top in the league, man.’”
  • On his top 5 players of all-time (50:48): “Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Julius Irvin, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Lebron [James]. Lebron and Kevin [Durant] I put them in the same kind of bag so you know, them my top guys that I think of man.”
  • On the NBA promoting Black Lives Matter (57:57): “You go back to the Bill Russell days and there was still a racial divide. When I came up we didn’t really have a voice, you know? But it’s good to see now. You’ve got the players speaking up and forcing the shift – you gotta always remember that. The players make the league. So when you have guys like Lebron [James], Chris Paul speaking up saying we’re not going to allow this, you gotta do something, you gotta help. Now things are being done. If these guys wouldn’t say nothing, we don’t know what could be done. The players have to step up and be the voice.”

Fans can look forward to new episodes on Tuesdays on all major podcast services and online at The Players’ Tribune website and video of the episodes will be available on Thursdays on The Players’ Tribune YouTube.