Iverson is a (insert noun) ...

I'm not saying he can't do it. I just don't know if he wants to do it.

 

Allen has three, maybe four, good years left. Great years, I'd say two.

 

I don't know how many years he has left but he has shown no signs of slowing down. Last season was statiscally the best of his career(31 points per game). This year, he's leading the league with 33.

 

then you better tell popovich and the spurs -- and most of the league's good defensive teams -- that they've been doing it wrong all this years. i'm sure pop will love the idea of his players sagging off more and more in his man-to-man sets. brilliant.

as for steals? they CAN be a part of good d. but more often than not, the gamble for a steal means a player is putting more pressure on his teammates and the leaving the team defense vulnerable.

your "concepts" of defense may work in high school and college ball, but in the association the speed, strength, quickness and athletic ability of the players is just too much. you start playing passing lanes and cheating and sagging, and you are dead.

what makes a good defender?
1) well, the ability to guard someone one-on-one. iverson can't do that.
2) discipline in rotating and funneling offensive players to certain spots. not an iverson strongsuit.
3) consistency within the team defense conepts. iverson would have to care to be consistent.

 

Iverson is . . .

. . . a guy who has really 'gotten it' over the past few years. Look at how well he represented the USA in hoops the last time he participated ('04?). He was everything everybody said the rest of the guys weren't.

Yeah, he can be a pain in the ass, and he isn't good with practice, and he has his regular 31 pts/7-28 FG nights, but that guy busts his ass every night he plays.

He's what, 160? Driving the lane against 270 guys? Night after night, injury after injury. He's still "Allen from the streets," same old guy as always. That might not always be great, but at least you can't say he sold out. He's the Eazy-E (currently a popular SJ cultural reference) of 'ballers: No 'polishing' the image or corporate makeovers, he's just him.

He's definitely not a perfect player. But I love that guy for his heart and rawness and never-say-die approach, and there's not many players I can honestly say that about. I know Simmons has a piece lauding Iverson today.

Totally fearless, always attacking. Love that. If I was an NBA'er, I would love fans or writers to say that about me. The slights I could live with, but if they said "he always left it all out there," that's an epitaph I'd be proud of, especially in this era of guaranteed contracts and pampered players.

He's definitely earned his 'icon' status, whatever you think he might be an icon of. People love, and are drawn to, him.

 

I think your second statement there is what makes me appreciate Iverson the most. He's not a saint, for sure. He complains a lot. His practice ethic, as we all know, leaves a lot to be desired. He's won one Eastern Conference title, and that's it.

But there is not a single player -- regardless of position, regardless of size, regardless of talent -- who puts everything he has into playing the game as Iverson does.

He leaves everything on the court -- every night.

You could say the same about Jordan, about Bird, about Magic. You can't say that about a lot of players. But you can say it about Iverson.

A Hall of Famer, and one of the best players in his era.

 

... one of the most divisive, and yet compelling, athletes of my lifetime.

There's a middle ground here, which seems to be impossible for some of you acknowledge. The one piece of the Iverson Mythology that has always bugged me is that it's ok to jack up bad shots and take chances on defense because he plays hard. I've written this many times here, and but I will repeat it again. You don't get extra credit for doing what you're supposed to do in life. Frankly, our standards shouldn't be that low. It reminds me of the Chris Rock joke where he says he laughs when he hears brothas occasionally boast that they're good guys because, "I ain't never been to jail." or "I take care of my kids."

Rock's response is, "N---a, you ain't SUPPOSED to have been to jail. And you SUPPOSED to take care of your kids!"

You don't get extra credit for doing what you're supposed to do in life. It's like asking a judge for leniency on a parking ticket because "I always pay my taxes." Um, yeah. So? If the market dictates that Allen Iverson should be paid $66 million, the least he can do is play hard every night. Which he does. So that's admirable, but it doesn't excuse everything, as some Iverson apologists would like you to believe.

Now all that said, the whole "we talking 'bout practice" rant is, unfortunately, used by far too many people as Example A of why they hate him. Far too many people use it as an opportunity to summarize everything that's wrong with the modern athlete. The image of him sitting behind the table complaining about working hard, braids and tattoos in full display, plays into far too many stereotypes. Especially, sorry to say it, the stereotypes older white males have about this current generation of black athletes. When you think about it, Iverson was essentially saying he didn't see the logic in having to run fucking wind sprints for a control freak like Larry Brown when he was already getting the shit kicked out of him on a nightly basis, and that's certainly something I can understand. Brown needed a scapegoat for why things were going bad in Philly, so he brought up the fact that Iverson's teammates didn't practice enough with him, serving up Iverson to the blood-thirsty, angry, finger-pointers in order to deflect blame from himself and maintain the myth of the Coach Who Plays The Right Way. Bullshit. I wouldn't want to run the three-man-weave and pass the ball to Eric Snow either if I were AI.

Think about this: Shaq probably hasn't gone hard in practice in five to eight years, and in LA, he was arguably more selfish than Iverson. Ran off coaches, sucked in big moments, bitched when he wasn't getting the ball, bitched about his teammates not being good enough prior to Kobe's arrival, won some championships, then basically sabotaged that team even though he was old, lazy and fat because he couldn't handle the fact that he wasn't the Alpha Dog. He coasted through games, wouldn't play defense if he wasn't getting his touches ("Don't ask the Big Dog to guard the house if he's not being fed"), didn't rebound, didn't work on his free throws because it was beneath him, and yet he remained, essentially, everyone's darling in the media.

The easy storyline went like this (especially after Shaq starting winning everything):

Shaq = funny, good guy, good teammate, plays his way into shape, but that's ok.

Iverson = too hip hop, too selfish, malcontent, won't practice, but I guess he plays hard.

I'd still take Allen Iverson on my team. I think Phil Jackson could make Iverson a winner. Some other coaches too. Pat Reily maybe. He and Garnett playing together would be very interesting. Iverson has his flaws, both as a basketball player and as a human being, but let's not get carried away pretending Larry, Magic and Michael did everything right their entire careers and erase all their flaws simply because they won titles, had far more talent around them, and had far greater physical gifts. Magic Johnson remains my favorite player of all time, but he ran off a coach, punked Norm Nixon (to the point where the Lakers had to get rid of him), and humped anything that moved for a decade in LA. Bird had a kid out of wedlock, couldn't stay healthy (despite taking considerably less punishment that AI) and was one of the biggest whiners of all time. Jordan was a degenerate gambler who punched Steve Kerr in the face, boned legions of chubby white girls behind his wife's back, casually dismissed inner city violence over Air Jordans while profiting off of slave labor in Asia.

I have a hard time pretending that Iverson is the anti-Christ simply because he sometimes goes 9-of-30 and half-asses it in practice the next day.

 

Just wanted to make sure that came through loud and clear.

Certainly doesn't. Does not make him a champion, either.

 

Great post, DD. (I may just have to insert that phrase into AutoText.)

It's a little ridiculous that the only thing shotty feels worthy of comment is the one line, though.

 

Two. And I really don't feel ridiculous for it, M_W.

 

I'm sure 9-30 night by Iverson are memorable. As are 8-26 nights by Kobe, or 7-22 nights by Steve Francis. The thing is we see the numbers and remember them. When Iverson goes 12-19 or 21-30, or 15-30, 16-17 from the line as he did earlier this season against the Bulls, it's expected.

He has the preconception that he's a star to fight when cynics get together, despite everything he's done for the Sixers. He's Allen Iverson. He should be shooting like that. When he doesn't, it stands out not only because of who he is but also because of what he is to the Sixers franchise. Without him, they are 0-3.

 

a person.