The finger roll now stands sixteen feet tall in Ypsilanti. In August 2023, Eastern Michigan University unveiled a solid bronze statue of George Gervin outside the George Gervin GameAbove Center, capturing the Hall of Famer at the top of his signature move.
Sculptor Ben Victor spent nearly twenty months on the piece, which rises 16-foot-8 from the ground to the basketball balanced in Gervin's outstretched hand. Gervin and his family were on hand for the ceremony, and former teammates traveled in for the reunion.
The honor deepens a long relationship. Gervin's No. 24 was the first jersey retired in EMU program history, back in 1986, and the university later put his name on its arena. Speaking at the unveiling, Gervin credited his time in Ypsilanti with sharpening the jumper that carried him to the Hall of Fame.
For the man they call the Iceman, it is a fitting kind of permanence - cast in metal, frozen mid-glide, exactly the way defenders remember him.
The statue joins his retired No. 44 in San Antonio and his place on the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team on the list of honors that keep arriving decades after his final game.