Gervin became synonymous with San Antonio when he joined the Spurs during the 1973-74 season. The Iceman is being introduced to a younger generation.
After 45 years, Spurs great George “the Iceman” Gervin still gets love for his iconic 1978 Nike poster, the one where the future Hall of Famer crosses his lanky legs on a throne made of real ice to match his nickname, a silver basketball under each hand to match his 'ICE'-labeled track suit.
'Everywhere I go, it seems like when someone sees me they tell me, 'I had that poster in my room,' ' said Gervin, 72. 'It’s just so humbling, man. Because when we created it I never knew it was going to have the impact on people as it did.' Fans can feel that impact like never before with the Iceman Collection, a new clothing line that pays tribute to Gervin's famous poster on caps, hoodies, T-shirts and more. The Iceman Collection is available now exclusively at the Spurs Fan Shop at Frost Bank Center and SpursFanShop.com. BEYOND THE POSTER: 'Iceman' documentary looks at the life and career of Spurs legend George Gervin Gervin credited the collection to his continued relationship with Nike and the Spurs. He noted Nike gave him the go-ahead to use the silhouette of his poster pose on the line's Nike-branded pieces. The collection features black, white and blue T-shirts bearing the Gervin silhouette, along with baby blue caps, hoodies, tees and track suit pieces bearing “ICE” as a callback to Gervin’s custom track suit in the poster. Gervin helped create the Nike portions of the collection, which took more than a year to develop. New Era is behind the 'ICE' cap, while NBA licensee Pro Standard is behind the other “ICE”-labeled clothing. About the only thing missing from the Iceman Collection is the poster itself. The closest the line gets to a reprint is a spoof poster featuring the Spurs Coyote in a similar seated pose with “Ice Yote” at the bottom of the pin-up. Despite promotional imagery of Gervin on a replica throne, the Iceman Collection does not include reprints of his original poster. That, too, was by design. 'George is so iconic to basketball as a culture, not just the NBA. This is a way to revisit that for that next generation. To bring back some iconic imagery, but in a way that's a little bit modernized, so to speak,' said Andre Moyce, associate director of retail strategy for Spurs Sports & Entertainment. ANOTHER IMMORTALIZED GERVIN SHOT: 'There ain't nothing like it': Spurs legend George Gervin honored by alma mater with statue Moyce noted the Iceman Collection's minimalist design speaks to Gervin's core identity, namely his connection to the Association as well as to the Alamo City. 'And to me, if you're from San Antonio it's just as iconic as the Jerry West logo,' Moyce said, comparing Gervin's poster pose to West's famous silhouette for the NBA logo. 'I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel,' Gervin said of the Iceman Collection's core design. 'The younger generation may not know the silhouette of me sitting on a block of ice, so we put 'Iceman' on there to introduce that younger generation to the poster that their parents had. It’s a reintroduction to the young people.' The original 1978 poster remains a coveted collectible, with recent eBay sales ranging from around $50 to $300. Of course, not everyone wants to part with or put a price on such a prized possession. “In my opinion, I think it’s the best poster ever made when it comes to any basketball players,” said Jonathan Hicks, a hospital café manager in San Antonio. Hicks owns a signed copy of the Gervin poster with a special backstory. Back in the early 1980s when Hicks was a child, his late father, Gilbert Diaz, was a longtime salesman at the former sporting goods store, Wright Sports. One day Gervin visited the store and Diaz introduced his son to the Spurs star. Gervin shook Hicks' tiny hand, then popped out to his car to grab a poster for him. “My dad was like, ‘Look, I’m going to hold this for you and give it to you when you’re ready,’ ” Hicks said. Around 25 years later, Diaz kept his word and passed the poster on to Hicks around 2007, a few years before Diaz died in 2014 at age 80. “To me this is local. It’s all about San Antonio,” Hicks said. GERVIN COMES TO S.A.: Spurs legend George Gervin joined team in 1974 Gervin became synonymous with San Antonio when he joined the Spurs in the middle of the 1973-74 season. True to his nickname, he quickly became known as the coolest scorer on the court, racking up points with jump shots and his signature finger roll, a graceful layup to the basket with nothing but net. Gervin won the first of four scoring titles in 1978. That same year, Nike tapped Gervin and several other NBA stars for a series of off-the-court 'personality posters' designed by Seattle advertising firm John Brown & Partners. The posters focused on the players’ nicknames and celebrity. Wearing Nikes, of course. For the Iceman, that meant holding court in an Oregon warehouse on a throne made of real ice blocks. Gervin had no idea he would be sitting on the frozen stuff until he arrived for the day-long shoot. Nike also kitted out Gervin with that custom 'ICE' track suit just for the shoot, along with a plastic sheet to sit on to protect the merchandise. As in the track suit. 'I was literally freezing my butt off,' said Gervin, who would get up every 10 minutes during the shoot to preserve his posterior. The result was a true work of promotional art. Beckett Basketball would declare the Gervin poster the No. 1 sports poster of all time. The poster also hangs in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City, the only design museum in the nation. There’s even a rare Spanish version of the poster titled “El Hombre de Hielo,” which Gervin suggested to Nike for Hispanic fans in San Antonio and South Texas. Iceman Collection aside, the iconic poster recently reappeared as the cover to Gervin’s 2023 autobiography, “Ice: Why I Was Born to Score.” In the book’s forward, NBA star Kevin Durant recalls seeing the famous Iceman poster for the first time when he visited the Nike campus in Portland, Oreg., when he was 'around 18 or 19 years old.' “That was the beginning of me seeing the other side of Ice — his brand, his persona, how people viewed him,” Durant wrote. “Before then I was just looking at him as just an athlete. Then I began to see the differences in how people in San Antonio and just people in the basketball community revered him.” Gervin’s biggest post-game highlight by far is the George Gervin Academy, the free public charter school he founded in the 1990s with his sister, state Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, D-San Antonio. The academy serves pre-K through 12th grade with three campuses in San Antonio. 'For us it’s been a journey, so rewarding to see our young people grow and mature and become successful,' Gervin-Hawkins said. 'What George has brought to San Antonio and what San Antonio has brought back to George has been tremendous.' To know the history helps you appreciate the future, she said. That goes for education as well as her brother's new clothing line. “I’m just glad to have an opportunity, man, to have some of my fans have this,' Gervin said of the Iceman Collection. 'To have the image to continue that appreciation that we both have for each other.'
Iceman Collection NBA Spurs George Gervin Academy New Era Frost Bank Center Association Ebay Spurs Sports &Amp Beckett Basketball No. 1 George Gervin Gervin Hall Of Famer Jonathan Hicks The Iceman George Gilbert Diaz Andre Moyce Kevin Durant Barbara Gervin-Hawkins IMMORTALIZED GERVIN Jerry West Cooper Hewitt Hispanic D John Brown San Antonio Spurs Fan Shop Ice West Alamo City New York City Smithsonian Design Museum Portland Spanish South Texas Oregon Seattle The Iceman Returneth: Spurs Pro Standard Spursfanshop.Com Wright Sports Ice Yote Spurs Coyote Nikes El Hombre De Hielo Ice: Why I Was
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