Derrick Gervin Has Moves Too

It was early in the second half and San Antonio was involved in a tight basketball game, so, as usually is the case, the ball kept going to Gervin.

He would set up outside, put a move or three on his defender and then knife to the basket for a layup. Sometimes he would begin his drive, abruptly stop and pop from 10 feet and send his man sprawling.

On one fast break, Gervin appeared on a collision course with a 6-10 center who was laying back on defense. Spinning to his right and fading away just as impact seemed imminent, Gervin lofted the ball almost straight up; it came down in what seemed like five seconds later and caught nothing but net.

Six minutes into the second half, it no longer was a close game. The University of Texas at San Antonio went on to beat Hardin-Simmons, 92-83. And Derrick Gervin, the 10th-leading collegiate scorer in the country, finished with 25 points.

All this pleased UTSA Coach Don Eddy.

“Derrick is the most gifted player I have ever coached,” Eddy said the next day. “At the same time he has been the most difficult. There were times when I didn’t think he was going to make it.”

Derrick Gervin really hadn’t intended to play for UTSA. And, for a while, it was questionable whether he would get to play anywhere.

Gervin, a “street player” from Detroit and a younger brother of Spurs’ star George Gervin, seemed to have an uncanny knack for locating the self-destruct button both on and off the court.

Eddy, who has a reputation as a teaching coach and a man dedicated to the team concept, wasn’t at all thrilled with Gervin’s game or attitude. And, in reality, he wasn’t used to coaching a name player.

“We understood that it would take an enormous amount of patience with Derrick,” Eddy said. “He’s got the problem of having George Gervin as his brother. That can be a burden.

“He is not George Gervin. He is Derrick.”

“I noticed Don and Derrick kidding a bit during (a recent) game,” said a smiling Rudy Davalos, UTSA’s athletic director. “Don is a good coach and super person. He knew Derrick would flourish if he got involved and listened to him.

“But he (Derrick) used to drive Don crazy. I used to look at Don during a game and you could see his face and neck turning red after something Derrick did out there.”

Things are better now--maybe not perfect, but better--between the two key figures of the young program.

On-court success, if not popularity, in laid-back San Antonio has come quickly to UTSA, the only NCAA Division I basketball team in the nation’s 10th-largest city.

The Roadrunners, who are 11-7 as of Tuesday, are probably headed toward their second straight 20-victory season in only their fourth year of existence. At UTSA, a 12-year-old school catering to commuter students--a school situated so far northwest of downtown San Antonio that deer occasionally lope across campus--there is talk of a possible NIT bid. There also is talk of forming a new conference with teams like Tulsa and Creighton.

And now there is some national recognition, which is critical to a fledgling program. Part of that recognition can be attributed to Derrick Gervin, who brought the Gervin name to campus.

When basketball fans think of the Spurs, they often make the association with George Gervin--The Iceman of the NBA. And now, when people think of the UTSA Roadrunners, they often make the association with Derrick Gervin. San Antonio has a hot brother act.

At King High School in Detroit, Derrick Gervin was a scoring machine, albeit an undisciplined one. Gervin was going to play for Abe Lemons at the University of Texas. This was at the suggestion of brother George, a friend of Lemons, who thought the coach would take an interest and keep an eye on Derrick. But, as he now admits, Derrick got a bit wrapped up in himself and began taking things for granted.

During his senior year in high school, Gervin missed 55 days of classes, a result, he says, of running with the wrong crowd. He did not make grades and did not graduate. Also, Lemons was fired at Texas. Suddenly, everything had come apart at the seams.

It was at that point that brother George asked him to come and stay with him in San Antonio.

“George wanted to get me away,” Derrick said. “Get away from the distractions. It is easy to get caught up with the wrong crowd and put everything ahead of class. It (San Antonio) was quite a change from back home.

It’s not so easy to get in trouble here. My fun was cut down. It slowed me down.”

Gervin sat out a year--”getting my life together,” he said--took an equivalency test and received a high school diploma. Occasionally, he would show up at the UTSA gym. Then he enrolled.

As a high school star, Gervin never had been asked to pass the ball, or play defense, or rebound. His game revolved around one thing: scoring. His brother George, of course, is one of the NBA’s all-time leading scorers. And that may have been a factor in Derrick’s approach to the game, perhaps even subconsciously.

In his freshman year, Gervin had a hard time understanding that Eddy, who is strong on discipline, wanted him to play a certain role.

“You can shoot a lot less and, if you have the right shot selection, have the same production for yourself,” Eddy preached. “And the team will be better off.”

Gervin did not make that adjustment smoothly. So Eddy did what he does to any freshman who isn’t attuned to his philosophy: He sat him down.