Gervin’s memoir is a brisk 336 pages and 20 chapters. Credit: Triumph Books

Over the summer, former teammates reunited at Eastern Michigan University where a statue of NBA icon George “The Iceman” Gervin was unveiled, capturing the four-time scoring champion’s likeness and signature finger roll. Addressing the crowd, Gervin credited his time at EMU for sharpening his jumper, preparing him for a basketball journey to the Hall of Fame as one of the greatest players in the history of the game.

Gervin reflects on his playing days at Eastern Michigan in his newly released memoir ICE: Why I Was Born to Score, written with veteran hoops scribe Scoop Jackson. The former Spur specifically recalls a national semifinals game during his sophomore season where a scuffle for a rebound led to an uncharacteristic ejection and a punch sparked a brawl. Anticipating the effects the fallout would have on his future, he vowed to never lose his composure again.

“That kind of changed his course of how he’s approaching life and how he’s approaching the game of basketball, where he’s never going to let anything affect him,” said Jackson, who’s known Gervin since the early ’90s. “That wound up shaping who he became as an individual. Nothing fazed him after that.”

Gervin’s ABA career began soon after as a member of the Virginia Squires, with Julius “Dr. J” Erving as his mentor. After being traded to San Antonio, his tenure with the Spurs included 12 consecutive All-Star appearances and three straight scoring titles, the first of which he secured with a 63-point game to overtake David Thompson. The last NBA game he played in was as a member of the Chicago Bulls, during which teammate Michael Jordan scored 63 points against the Boston Celtics in a mythical post-season performance.

One of the recurring themes in ICE: Why I Was Born to Score is Gervin’s role in the growth of various entities including the ABA, NBA, Nike and San Antonio Spurs. Jackson credits Gervin’s unique ability to communicate and connect with people, and the writer sought to capture the basketball legend’s conversational tone as they collaborated.

“He’s an amazing storyteller and people gravitate towards him because of the way he communicates with individuals,” Jackson said. “I tried to stay as true to that as possible and tried to fight to keep as much of that voice in there as possible.”

Comprising a brisk 336 pages and 20 chapters, Gervin’s memoir includes a few surprises, most notably a proposed trade to the showtime Lakers orchestrated by team owners Jerry Buss and Angelo Drossos. Gervin ultimately turned down the trade, deciding that he would prefer to compete against the Lakers instead of joining them.

“It says a lot about competitiveness, but I think he knew he’s either one player, one game or one stroke of good luck away from beating the Lakers and getting to the finals and winning,” Jackson said. “I think going back to 1979 when they lost to Washington, they were up 3-1, and I think that carries over in his mind later on when he had to go against the Lakers. In his mind, once he gets to the Finals, he’s not losing. All he has to do is get there.”

Gervin laments his losses to the Bullets and Lakers but doesn’t dwell on them. His humility and emphasis on embracing hard work and elevating his teammates laid the foundation for Spurs culture long before championship banners. Patterned after the likes of Wilt Chamberlain, Connie Hawkins and Julius Erving, Gervin’s legendary finger roll and seemingly effortless game transformed him into a cultural icon — one seated on a throne of ice.

Gervin closes out his memoir by crediting Jackson with helping him understand how people perceive him.

“He’s perceived as being the epitome of what Black coolness is,” Jackson said. “I kind of had to explain it to him, of how it was natural, but he never thought of it — how it was received and what it meant and how it resonated with everybody else, and the power in that.”

“There was a lot of coolness going around,” Jackson added, referring to the ’70s. “For this dude to be the personification of it and show us the real way and the natural way that we carry ourselves and not play a character. That was influential and meant a lot.”

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