Sugar Ray, Iceman and a nerd alert

George Gervin started his professional career in something called the Continental Basketball Association, which is where Micheal Richardson more or less ended up.

The CBA ended in 2009, and Richardson — the former Griz hoop standout with the meteoric NBA career — spent the last two years of its existence coaching the Lawton-Fort Sill (Okla.) Cavalry.

In between there were scoring championships for one, and playoff upsets and historic drug suspensions for the other. Both men were at Gray Wolf Casino on Friday, along with fellow NBA legends Artis Gilmore, Calvin Murphy and Otis Birdsong.

Monty Marengo, an entrepreneur who lives in Polson, organized the get-together to raise money for youth basketball — specifically he’d like to see Polson’s 3-on-3, which was shuttered during the pandemic, come back stronger than ever.

So this formidable starting five gathered to talk basketball and also to play a little golf.

“We played Polson Bay,” said Gervin, the San Antonio Spurs scorer. “And he (Murphy) shot 100, and (Birdsong) shot maybe 88. And I shot maybe 90.

“And that other guy (Gilmore) shot 118. So you can tell who played and who just can’t.”

Gervin — he includes “Iceman” in his autographs — won four NBA scoring titles from 1977-83, and still lives on 30 acres outside of his NBA city.

“I’m real proud of that franchise. Still love San Antonio,” said Gervin, then added: “I like this place, too.

“It was a good chance for me to see this part of the world, and I didn’t want to pass it up. I’m glad I did. I am really impressed. Especially when I breathe. The fresh air here is unbelievable.”

For an NBA nerd who — when his coaxial cable was strung from the back of his stereo just right — listened to Denver Nuggets broadcasts from Central Montana in the late 70s, this was as good as a view of the Mission Mountains. For Gervin, it was the first-ever trip to Montana.

Richardson has been back many times, though he noted not as many since Wayne Tinkle left the Montana Grizzlies to coach Oregon State.

He’s been the subject of at least two documentaries. Of the ESPN 30-for-30, he said: “I mean, it was OK. It was early on. I did one maybe about eight years ago with (Madison Square Garden TV), and it was really good.”

His historic ban may be familiar to non-NBA nerds, and while Friday things were kept light, Marengo noted Richardson owned it in a talk to kids at Pablo schools. “I played eight years in the NBA,” Richardson said, who landed the handle of Sugar Ray in his Knicks days. “But it should have been 18.”

You can hear him say much the same thing to his old high school, Manual High in Denver, in MSG’s “Beginnings: Micheal Ray Richardson.” He made history twice, the second time by being the first to be reinstated to the NBA (he continued to play in Europe).

Less known, probably, is Richardson’s coaching career.

Those two years with the CBA Cavalry? Back-to-back championships. When the CBA folded and the Cavalry joined something called the PBL? A championship in 2010 and a runner-up in 2011.

With the London (Ontario) Lightning of the National Basketball League of Canada? Back-to-back titles in 2012-13.

The 67-year-old still lives in Lawton, by the way. He has a 20-year-old son, (Michael) Amir Richardson, playing professional soccer in France.

You can see why Montana trips have less precedence.

“When I was here, Missoula was so small,” remembered Richardson, who played for the Griz from 1974-78. “There was only one airline, and that was Frontier.”

Frontier, the CBA, the PBL, the ABA. All have folded or been swallowed up. Wiser for the time, at least a couple CBA-ers are still soldiering on.

Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 758-4463, or fneighbor@dailyinterlake.com.