Saturday, January 3, 2009

Training with a Hall of Famer

ESPN's Marc Stein did an interview recently with DAL guard Jason Terry, who talked about working out with George "Iceman" Gervin in the offseason:

"He started training me in 2002 and then I went back to him this summer. We played golf and trained three times a day.

The thing about it is, once you've been in the league for 10 years, you know how to shoot. But just being with a guy that's a Hall of Famer and him just building you up mentally, I think that does more than all the shooting.

I think he's trained one other guy and that was Stephon Marbury and he had his best scoring year that year Ice trained him. He doesn't really do it, so it's an honor. I give him a lot of credit for my success.

On the court, I think we made 500 jumpers a day, but it's all midrange. No 3-pointers. He shows me how to get where I want to get on the court and be able to rise up and shoot and square my shoulders.

He has this thing called 'one piece.' That's the [method] that he used. So every time I shoot, every time he grabs the rebound, he's over there screaming, 'One piece, one piece.'

My uncle's from Detroit, where Ice is from. His high school coach -- Coach Meriweather -- he told me, "Ice would love to work with you and all you've got to do is call him."

I called him back when I was in Atlanta and he told me: 'Young fella, I'm a big fan of your game, I've been watching you. Come down and let's spend some time together.'

No doubt [Gervin] is the best as far as getting to the spot, pulling up and squaring your shoulders. He's the best."