"If Allen Iverson was a few inches taller" every Iverson fan laments, "we would not have heard of Michael Jordan". This statement may seem to be a hyperbole to all practical people and the multitude of Jordan fans but I assure you all Iverson fans think otherwise. Allen Iverson was perhaps the best "little man" to have played the game, amongst the best to have not won a ring, and as widely acknowledged by his peers, one of the most competitive players of the game. Former league MVP, two-time allstar MVP and four-time scoring champion, his record speaks for itself. Ever since he arrived as the number one draft pick, he has been widely recognised as the most talented "little man".
He could do everything, flashes of brilliance from the early days of "The Answer" floods my head as I write this. His crossover and jump shot over Jordan, his posterizing of Garnett, his shot over Tyron Lue in Game 1 of the 2001 finals, to name a few. His innumerable next-to-impossible layups made you marvel at his ability and his commitment. For a moment, you stopped and wondered "How! How does he manage to do it?" You admired his toughness. He was harassed by much bigger men inside, he was banged up every night, every time he went down you hoped against hope he was allright. Even the widely known not so modest Shaq has paid respect to Allen's toughness. Infact, there is no part of his body which has been spared. http://www.nba.com/sixers/features/iverson_injuries.html And this was only till 2005. He might have missed a lot of games due to injury but he came back and played with the same intensity, commitment. Nothing seemed to slow him down. These were the things you loved about Iverson, this is why you cherished watching him play. But then there was the heartbreak of being an Iverson fan, the disappointment, the sheer agony whenever he was sidelined due to injury and to see his team lose its way, almost every season. Who was to be blamed - Iverson for giving it his all every game, the coaching staff and the rest of his team or the management for not being able to assemble a good support cast?
Iverson's off court antics and his image have also gained a lot of attention. He is rightfully credited for bringing in hip-hop to the NBA, if its a marriage now, the love affair began with Iverson's arrival. The NBA changed, the message delivered by its players changed, conrose and tattoos became the in-thing. Of course, the NBA benefited heavily from all this gain in popularity and this is another reason why the NBA should be mourning Iverson's loss. His jersey is still amongst the most selling.
But Iverson has always been portrayed as trouble by the media. Maybe he was a bit "high-maintenance" as former coach Larry Brown chose to label him. His rant of being the franchise player and his publicly expressed attitude towards practice did not do much to tilt the case in his favor. He has had far too many fall-outs with coaches in the past and even recently which just makes it all the more difficult for his fans to understand his perspective. Many Iverson fans have long since given up, some as usual keep hoping for that elusive ring. In all likelihood, even the Iverson fan is now as confused as the man himself, do they want to see him play like he used to, like he still can or would they settle to see him play a back-up role in a championship calibre team? Personally, I would give anything to watch him play, I still hope something would come along for him like I always have been.
Yet, no one thought it would end this way, it should not end this way.
the aroma of halwa
10 years ago