ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 6, 1996 TAG: 9602060072
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
SOURCE: Associated Press
A CAREER THAT BEGAN with the Virginia Squires ends in the Basketball Hall of Fame for George Gervin, elected along with former Old Dominion All-American Nancy Lieberman-Cline.
George Gervin and David Thompson finally put their fierce scoring rivalry to rest Monday when they were elected - together - to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
The other inductees were UCLA and Los Angeles Lakers star Gail Goodrich, Old Dominion All-American Nancy Lieberman-Cline, high-scoring George Yardley and the late Kresimir Cosic of Croatia.
Fresno State's Jerry Tarkanian, who has the best winning percentage among college coaches, was passed over.
The scoring competition between Gervin and Thompson reached its height on April 9, 1978, as each was grasping at the league scoring title with one game left. Thompson scored 73 points for Denver to take the lead. But a few hours later, Gervin scored 63 for San Antonio, to win the title that season.
``It's truly an honor to be going in with David,'' Gervin said Monday. ``We had quite a few battles.''
Each of them battled in his own life, too. Nicknamed ``Iceman,'' Gervin turned pro with the Virginia Squires after punching an opponent and losing his college scholarship. Later, while with the Spurs, he entered a substance-abuse program.
``Overcoming that addiction is the Hall of Fame in itself,'' said Gervin, who played some of his games with the Squires in Roanoke.
Despite his personal problems, Gervin, who also played for Chicago, scored more than 2,000 points in six consecutive seasons. He averaged 26 points during 14 seasons in the ABA and NBA.
Thompson, an acrobatic player who led North Carolina State past UCLA and Bill Walton en route to the 1974 NCAA championship, also fell prey to cocaine as a pro. At the height of his drug problems, he did a brief stint at a prison camp for beating his wife.
Thompson averaged 22 points during a career that took him to Denver and Seattle. He once hit 13 field goals in a quarter, an NBA record. He is the only man to be named most valuable player in ABA and NBA All-Star games.
Both Thompson and Gervin now do work for programs that help disadvantaged children.
Goodrich, another NBA marquee name, led UCLA to its first titles under coach John Wooden in 1964 and 1965, before starring with the Los Angeles Lakers. At 6-foot-1, he averaged almost 19 points a game in his 14 seasons, which also included stints with Phoenix and New Orleans.
Goodrich, whose signing as a free agent cost New Orleans the draft pick the Lakers used to select Magic Johnson, said he would ask his former coach to be a presenter at induction ceremonies May 6.
Nancy Lieberman-Cline, an Olympic silver medal-winner at age 17, helped reshape women's basketball into a more aggressive, physical game, closer to how men play. She remembered Monday how, at 5-foot-8 and 120 pounds, she came into the 1974 U.S. national tryouts boxing out players and throwing elbows.
``People looked at me like ... `Who the hell do you think you are?''' she said.
Lieberman-Cline showed them who she was. Her Olympic medal two years later made her the youngest basketball medal-winner in history. She led the Old Dominion women's team to two national championships. Later, she was the first woman to play in a men's pro league, with the Springfield Fame of the U.S. Basketball League in 1986-87.
Known as ``Bird,'' Yardley earned a place in NBA history during the 1957-58 season, when he broke the 2,000-point ceiling by one point.
Cosic, a 6-11 center, starred for Brigham Young in the early 1970s. He won a gold medal at the 1980 Olympics with the former Yugoslav national team. He died of cancer in May at age 46.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) 1. Gervin. color. 2. Lieberman-Cline. KEYWORDS: BASKETBALLby CNB