George Gervin played in one of the most important eras in basketball history. The NBA and ABA merged, superstars like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird formed the sport’s fiercest rivalry, and one-of-a-kind talents like Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon burst onto the scene.
Through the eyes of many, this is when the game was at its peak — while today’s NBA is so often labeled “too soft” and criticized for lacking parity.
But through the eyes of “The Iceman” — who made a living terrorizing defenses, effortlessly sinking basket after basket en route to four scoring titles and 12 All-Star selections — the sport is at an all-time high.
“This game is global, man. Do these people know where this game started? I’m from the 70s and 80s and we weren’t worldwide,” Gervin told USA TODAY Sports. “My playoff games were tape delayed. To say that this league is not where it should be, to me, being a part of the league, is insane. We’re all over the world, man. The only game that was really all over the world was soccer. Now we’re all over the world competing against soccer. So that tells you a lot, man. We’ve got guys in this league that are from all over the world. When I played, I don’t know if we had anybody from any (other) country.”
To Gervin’s point, basketball’s true globalization didn’t begin until the Dream Team’s gold medal run at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, when Jordan, Johnson, Bird, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone et al showcased their talents on the biggest of stages.
Fast forward a quarter-century — there were a record 113 international players from a record 41 countries and territories on opening night rosters to start the 2016-17 NBA season.
“People have their opinions, man, but I pretty much deal with facts. Factually, this game is the best that it’s been. We look at sponsorship, we look at branding, we look at the television, we look at the new collective bargaining agreement. Come on, man — we’ve come an unbelievable way with this game.”
Of course the influx of generational talents and once-in-a-lifetime storylines — like this year’s back-and-forth MVP race between ex-teammates Russell Westbrook from the Oklahoma City Thunder and James Harden from the Houston Rockets, per se — doesn’t exactly hurt the state of the NBA’s landscape, either.
“It’s just fun to watch,” Gervin said. “I think once (Rockets) coach (Mike D’Antoni) inserted James Harden into the backcourt at point guard, I mean, wow. It just accelerated his game. So now we’re seeing things that we didn’t ever see in him. That just goes to show you about positions. And he’s motivating his team. He’s making guys better around him and they’re winning. ... Same thing with Westbrook, now that Kevin (Durant) is gone. It’s Westbrook’s team and Westbrook always seems to have something to prove every time he steps on the court and he’s one of the best to do it.”
