Was George Gervin Better than DJ?

I mean, really, is he?

So Ice won a few scoring titles.

Whoopie.

I just don't see how a one-dimensional guy like Ice gets enough votes for Naismith, while a multidimensional threat like DJ is left to wander the world in purgatory.

This really irks me. The Isiah-DJ discussion is silly by comparison. No one doubts that Isiah was one of the all-time great point guards. But George Gervin was a scorer, pure and simple. That shouldn't be enough to get you into the Hall over players that were multidimensional threats.

While sitting out 3 games due to injury, Gervin's replacement, Ron Brewer, averaged over 30 ppg. When Gervin returned, he scored 40+ points. When asked if he was sending a message, Gervin said, "Just the way the Lord planned it" and added, "Ice be cool" (with Ron Brewer). LINK

Can you see DJ doing something like that? Well, can you?

Yesterday, we read that Magic Johnson called-out DJ as one of the best defenders ever. Even Gervin said that no one defended better than DJ.

Was George Gervin Better than DJ?

I mean it. Who was better?

So Ice won a few scoring titles.

Whoopie.

I just don't see how a one-dimensional guy like Ice gets enough votes for Naismith, while a multidimensional threat like DJ is left to wander the world in purgatory.

This really irks me. The Isiah-DJ discussion is silly by comparison. No one doubts that Isiah was one of the all-time great point guards. But George Gervin was a scorer, pure and simple. That shouldn't be enough to get you into the Hall over players that were multidimensional threats.

While sitting out 3 games due to injury, Gervin's replacement, Ron Brewer, averaged over 30 ppg. When Gervin returned, he scored 40+ points. When asked if he was sending a message, Gervin said, "Just the way the Lord planned it" and added, "Ice be cool" (with Ron Brewer). LINK

Can you see DJ doing something like that? Well, can you?

Yesterday, we read that Magic Johnson called-out DJ as one of the best defenders ever. Even Gervin said that no one defended better than DJ.

1986 Cs Beat Spurs, Move to 52-13

Was it something vaguely like this in the old pre-radio and pre-TV days, when vaudevillians and acting companies and concert performers endlessly crisscrossed the country, bringing otherwise unobtainable entertainment to the locals?

After all, what are the Celtics these days but an entertainment troupe? And what is Larry Bird but a Ted Lewis, a Galli-Curci or a Barrymore? They are an attraction, and he is an Attraction! Last night the attraction shot a surrealistic 80 percent (32 for 40) in the first half while pounding the short-handed Spurs by a 135-119 score, even as the Attraction! was electrifying his followers by shooting a perfect 11 for 11, by making four three-point shots and scoring 31 points -- all in the first half.

Bird/The Attraction! made certain that the 14,218 Hemisfair fans would go home talking about his annual visit; that's for sure. "In the first half," said San Antonio's Jeff Lamp, "Bird was a joke, an absolute joke. The thing that makes him so great, apart from his feel for the game, is his versatility. He hit four three-pointers in the half, but the majority of his points were scored by posting up."

His first offensive burst certainly got everyone's attention. With the Celtics trailing, 8-6, following some early sparring, he gave them a nonrefundable lead by scoring eight points in four consecutive possessions totaling 68 seconds. He started with two free throws. He then came down on a transition and swished a three-pointer on the right wing. When the Spurs missed, he came down on the transition and threw up another three-pointer from the same spot, only this time off the dribble. Another swish. That's eight quickies. David Greenwood answered with a jumper, but Bird promptly took a feed from Dennis Johnson on a right-to-left cut and laid the ball in left- handed.

The Celtics went on to shoot 76 percent in the period (Kevin McHale and DJ were also stroking it nicely), but were still ahead by a mere three points as late as 35-32 (1:25 remaining) for two reasons.

The first was a penchant for turnovers that would reach absurd proportions by halftime, when the stat sheet revealed that Boston had handed San Antonio 20 points via 16 turnovers. The second was that, as of this moment, there is no indication that McHale realized he was supposed to be guarding first Mike Mitchell (30) and then Lamp (25), most of whose combined 34 first-half points came on simple, open H-O-R-S-E jumpers.

Here are two views on the turnovers. First, losing coach Cotton Fitzsimmons: "We played hard, and it's a good thing. The way they were shooting, without the turnovers, we could have been down by 40 at the half." Secondly, Bird: "It was just a matter of guys not moving to the ball."

The fact remains that despite this dazzling Boston shooting, the biggest first-half margin was 13 (at 49-36 and 52-39, both the results of Bird second- quarter three-pointers), and it took a second-chance buzzer-beater by McHale to send the Celtics into the locker room up by 11 (a startling 80-69) at the half. The Celtics had shot so well that San Antonio's Jeff Wilkins had the only three defensive rebounds available to his team.

So there was still a game to be won, despite Bird's ridiculous halftime numbers (including six multiple-point shots). But it did not take too long for the Celtics to eliminate the suspense. Quick baskets by Robert Parish (17 points), Danny Ainge (10), Parish and DJ (15) boosted the lead to 19, and you didn't need your PhD in Hoopology to know that a San Antonio team playing without Artis Gilmore (pulled hamstring) and Steve Johnson (bone spurs in his left ankle) wasn't coming back against this Celtics squad.

The only question left was, "What else can, or will, Bird do?" The answer was, "Not much." He didn't shoot until the 4:33 mark of the quarter, when he sank a running lefty hook. Some 39 seconds later, he missed his only shot of the night, a three-pointer from the right. He later admitted he did not realize he was working on a perfect night. He did not play in the fourth quarter.

But he had earned his money, and he had gained even more respect from an opposing team. "He's a bad dude," sighed Fitzsimmons. "That's what the guys in my locker room are saying. Larry Bird is a bad dude."

1986 Cs Beat Spurs, Move to 45-11

Attention, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea: The Celtics slapped the San Antonio Spurs around by a 120-100 score at the Garden last night, and Larry Bird did not get a triple double. That's news.

Robert Parish, meanwhile, did play a sensational game, and while that isn't necessarily news, it's not often enough noted. Other centers can win games in their own manner, but nobody wins games the way Robert Parish does. Robert Parish is the starting center on the All-Sprinters Team.

"The first thing we said in the locker room before the game," said Spurs coach Cotton Fitzsimmons, "was that we know Robert is going to try to beat Artis (Gilmore) down the floor. It's not like we didn't think it was a serious matter."

It took exactly 25 seconds for the Spurs to realize how serious a matter it would be. San Antonio got the tap, and the ball went in to Artis, the Human Erector Set. He went right to what Bill Fitch would call his "basic," his pet move, his comfort-zone move. It is an involved dip-in move in which he uses about 713 fakes. Parish yawned his way through all of them, and when Artis finally launched the shot, Robert smashed the ball into his face. That was Part 1.

Part 2 followed immediately. Having rejected the Gilmore shot, Parish didn't stand around posing. He took off downcourt, receiving a nice feed from Dennis Johnson as soon as he hit the left lower box. He turned and laid the ball in, just as Artis was Dagwood Bumsteading his way into the play. You know what? It was 2-0, and the game was over.

If Parish weren't outrunning Gilmore vertically, he was out-quicking him horizontally. Parish looked like the All-Stater and Artis looked like the kid dragged off the high school corridor by the coach simply because he was the tallest man in school.

Anyway, the Celtics were making their first Garden appearance in three weeks, and they weren't about to disappoint the home crowd. It was 8-6, San Antonio, when Bird took a Danny Ainge feed for a cutting layup and Parish came rambling in from the right corner for a thunderous stuff. Kevin McHale (remember him?) threw in a runner, and DJ picked up a loose ball and laid it in to conclude an eight-point run, and you knew the Celtics were in control.

It was 32-23 after one quarter and 61-48 at the half. The second quarter was a kaleidoscope of downtown jumpers, mostly by the visitors, and drives, stuffs, outlets, behind-the-back passes, mostly by the Celtics. The big run in every way, both on the scoreboard and on the excitement meter, was a spurt of 17-6 which carried the Celtics from a 44-37 lead to a comfortable 61-43 advantage with 54 seconds remaining in the half.

During this burst, Parish (27 points, 10 rebounds, 3 blocks) outran the Spurs for three baskets, the best of which was the culmination of a sequence begun by a spectacular back-tap of an outlet by Bill Walton over to Bird, who hit a speeding Parish for a three-point drive. At moments such as this, the phrase "Greatest Show On Earth" springs to mind.

If the Spurs were harboring the remotest thought of an upset, said thought was blown away in the first 3:13 of the second half. With only an Alvin Robertson leaner and a Gilmore free throw intervening, the Celtics hit San Antonio with the following: a Bird layup, an Ainge 20-foot swish, a Johnson mortar, a Parish turnaround and a Johnson fast-break stop-and-popper. Now it was 71-51, and Fitzsimmons was beginning to think about playing time for some new arrivals.

"You hate to think this way," said the ever forthright Fitzsimmons, "but I tried to use this game as something to build on for the future."

As for Bird's failure to record another triple double, be assured that if either he or K.C. Jones was truly interested in stats, it would have been done. Bird had a 22-9-9 line and he only played 34 minutes.

Anyway, this was Chief's night. "When you play with the league MVP, a lot of people's contributions get overlooked," said Walton. "Robert Parish doesn't get the credit he deserves for the total player he is."

Spurs Lose Again

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Hornets Trounce Spurs

Box Score