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On This Day - The Ice Man & The Skywalker

Flashing back this Friday to Sunday April 9th, 1978 when two of the coolest cats to ever hit the hardwood were battling it out for the NBA Scoring title. Going into the day only 14 points separated George ‘Ice Man’ Gervin & David ‘Skywalker’ Thompson. Skywalker and the Denver Nuggets were up first in an early afternoon affair with the Detroit Pistons. This also happened to be the last game played by the Pistons in Detroit Rock City’s Cobo Arena, before they made their way over to the Silverdome. Thompson came out on fire, burying shots left and right scoring 32 points in the 1st quarter. The shots kept dropping for Thompson on his way to 73 points in the 139-137 loss.

George knew he needed 59 points that night to take the title back. When the ‘Ice Man’ put up 33 alone in the 2nd quarter, he could feel the title within his grasp. With 63 points to his credit as the buzzer sounded the title was Gervin’s. Though the Spurs were somehow still blown out by 21. It’s the closest scoring chase in NBA History with the Ice Man’s 27.22 ppg topping Thompson’s 27.15. Have an awesome Friday Everybody!!