Spurs Trade Gervin to Bulls for Greenwood

George Gervin, the “Iceman” who has sparked the San Antonio Spurs’ scoring attack since 1974, was traded Thursday to the Chicago Bulls for forward David Greenwood.

Gervin, who led the National Basketball Assn. in scoring four years and was on the All-NBA team five times, “has been a mainstay of this franchise for 13 years,” Spur owner Angelo Drossos said.

“It was a difficult decision but a decision we had to make sooner or later,” Drossos said. “We decided to make it now.”

Gervin, 33, who for the first time last year in his nine NBA seasons failed to rank among the league’s top 20 scorers, said: “It ain’t like I’m dying. I got a new job, a new owner and new people to deal with. If you’re a good person, you can deal with that.”

Gervin said he will continue to live in San Antonio. “You can get me a new job but you can’t get rid of me,” he said.

He refused to criticize Spur management for the way the trade was handled. He said Drossos asked him to retire. “I’m not ready to retire. That’s out of the question. They handled it the best they knew how,” he told the San Antonio Light.

The Bulls reportedly agreed to pick up the 12 months remaining on Gervin’s $750,000-a-year contract, which also carries incentives up to $300,000.

Greenwood, 28, the second pick by Chicago in the first round of the 1979 draft out of UCLA, reportedly will get a guaranteed $500,000 for two years from the Spurs.

Drossos said Greenwood, who has averaged 13.5 points per game, “is a good shooter and a good rebounder.”

Talk of trading Gervin to Chicago surfaced Wednesday after he failed to show up for two practices Tuesday and was fined.

Gervin, a 6-8 guard, was generally lackluster in the exhibition season, averaging just 10.7 points per game. He has also been at odds with Spur Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons, who was critical of Gervin’s failure to be aggressive on defense.

Gervin, who passed the career 25,000-point mark last season, averaged 21.2 points and missed 10 games in 1984-85 with injuries, the most games he has ever missed in a season. He has played in seven NBA All-Star games and has a 27.3-point career scoring average. In Chicago, Gervin will be playing under his former coach at San Antonio, Stan Albeck.

The Spurs, then a member of the now-defunct American Basketball Assn., acquired Gervin in 1974 from the Virginia Squires. He played four years in the ABA before it was absorbed into the NBA in 1976.

The 6-9 Greenwood, who played six seasons with the Bulls, missed 11 games last season with tendinitis in both heels. He underwent surgery on his heels in the off-season.