When Klay Thompson went off for an NBA-record 37 points in the third quarter of the Warriors’ win last Friday night against the Sacramento Kings, he topped a record previously shared by Carmelo Anthony and George “Iceman” Gervin, who each had logged 33 point outbursts six and 37 years ago, respectively.
The footnote is that Gervin scored his 33 without the benefit of a three-point line, whereas Thompson hit nine threes in order to set the record. Ice believes that this difference is sufficient to say that the two feats are not created equal.
“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. “I don't feel—and it's funny, everybody laughs—I don't feel he broke my record. I feel he set a new record. He set a new record for the new NBA.”
Gervin was quick to note that he wasn’t trying to put down Thompson’s accomplishment, saying that “"ou can't do anything but compliment that kid, man. That's very impressive, for accuracy and shooting. But that's for another record.”
It’s certainly convenient for Ice that neither Thompson nor really anybody in the modern game is capable of breaking his record, unless of course the three-point line is abolished or a player refuses to shoot anything but twos. But he does kind of have a point; in Ice’s day, Thompson would have had “only” 28 points in the quarter.
“In the system that I played, my record will never be broken,” Gervin said. “I'm the one in the Guinness book. So if they put somebody else in the Guinness book for most points in a quarter, I'd like to see an asterisk by it.”
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[via CSN Bay Area]
