George Gervin was again a hero at Saturday night's NBA Legends Classic, and the villain was an unpopular oldtimer - the knee injury.
Both David Thompson and Norm Nixon both left the game stretchers with injured knees, marring the East's 46-38 victory over the West. Gervin paced the East with 24 points and 11 rebounds.Thompson suffered a ruptured patella tendon in his left knee in the first half when his foot slipped and twisted awkwardly as he was driving through the lane for a layup. Nixon sustained a ruptured quadricep tendon in his right knee when his leg turned as he planted to go up for a jump shot from beyond the free-throw line.
Neither injury involved contact. Each player had his knee wrapped before being transported to a hospital.
Nixon said he thought his injury was a tendon because he heard it snap. A tendon injury to Nixon's left knee caused him to miss two entire seasons in 1987-88.
"I just feel badly for them," East forward Rick Barry said. "Having been through that myself, the older you get, the more you worry about something like that happening."
"Our bench was a little bit nervous when D.T. and Norm went down," East guard Jo Jo White said. "Some of the guys who have had knee problems were a little bit wary of going back in."
"Ice" Gervin, 39, was as cool as ever. He hit 11 of 15 shots came and within two points of the Legends Classic record set by Calvin Murphy in 1989.
"Gervin can shoot the ball a whole lot better than a lot of guys making a whole lot of money in the NBA right now," Barry said. "I think he can play and come off the bench and give a team some offense. He'll be the first to agree that he's not the guy to come in if you have to stop a team on defense."
Gervin scored three quick baskets at the start of the second half to help the East take a 29-22 lead, and his team led the rest of the way.
"The competitive fires burn whenever I step on the court," he said. "I love putting the ball up."
Murphy led the West with 10 points.
Some of the players labored to get up and down the court, particularly 42-year-old Spencer Haywood, who appeared to be at least 75 pounds over his playing weight of 225.
"They had the bigger team," East coach Tommy Heinsohn said. "We had the quicker team - notwithstanding that Spencer Haywood was with us."