George Gervin scored 33 points in a quarter in 1978. He held that scoring record for almost four decades until Klay Thompson dropped 37 in the third quarter against the Sacramento Kings on January 23, 2015. However, if you ask the Iceman, his 33 is still greater than Klay's 37.
“I'd like to see him try to get 33 or 37 in a quarter when there wasn't no three-point line,” Gervin said via Bleacher Report. "I don't feel—and it's funny, everybody laughs—I don't feel he broke my record.”
"Think about it, man," added Gervin. "That's like if we're going to have a race, and you start on the 50-yard line and I start on the 1-yard line and we're doing a 100-yard race. It's not even."
The San Antonio Spurs legend has an interesting point. Iceman scored 33 in the second quarter against the New Orleans Jazz in the Spurs' last game of the 1977-78 season. Two seasons later, the league adopted a three-point line.
On the other hand, Thompson got his 37 by making nine threes, four two-point field goals, and two free throws. If the four-time NBA champ did it back in Gervin's day, that's only worth 28 points.
“Worst shot in basketball”
Gervin is not exactly a fan of the three-point shot, which is a bit surprising since he played in the ABA, the league that pioneered the rainbow “gimmick.”
“Three-pointer is the worst shot in basketball. When you talk about fundamentals, you talk about two-point shot,” Iceman reasoned in an interview with BBALLBREAKDOWN. “I shot 51% in my career shooting twos. What I would teach a young person… I say make the twos because it’s closer in and you shoot a better percentage. The three-point shot is the worst shot in basketball.”
Iceman made that statement in 2015, which certainly did not age well. Mathematically, a 33% three-point shooter scores more than a 49% shooter from two on the same volume of attempts. And a 51% two-point shooter like Gervin scores less than someone who makes 34% of threes on the same attempts. Now, consider a 41% career three-point shooter like Klay, and that’s a blowout!
It’s another thing to live and die by the three-point shot. Nevertheless, making it part of a team or player’s offensive arsenal is crucial to winning basketball games.
Iceman gave Klay his flowers
Being proud of your body of work is expected at the highest level. Gervin was not trying to discredit Klay’s achievement; instead, he was in awe of Thompson’s ability as a shooter.
"I'm saying, like, wait a minute, y'all. Y'all are making it seem like what I did was just regular," Gervin remarked. "I ain't mad at the kid doing what he did. But what I'm saying is, let's let the fans know what really happened, and let them be the judge of it… You can't do anything but compliment that kid, man. That's very impressive, for accuracy and shooting. But that's for another record."
"If you give a guy an advantage to break my record, it ain't on the same playing level," added Gervin. "So I'm saying, I ain't going away that easy, by saying 'Hey, he broke my record.' Now, I don't care what nobody say. I'm standing up for something that I'm real proud of, man...In the system that I played, my record will never be broken."
Iceman felt his and Klay’s records did not belong in the same category. If he had his way, he would have the record for most points in a quarter in the “no three-point line era,” while Thompson would get his recognition in the context of modern basketball. Regardless, both feats are fantastic and deserve to be celebrated.
Related: "He shoots three-point shots like layups" - Why Julius Erving was immediately impressed with George Gervin
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