Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Me, Myself and Iverson

When Allen Iverson entered the League in 1996, I didn’t know too much about him. In The Netherlands it’s damn near impossible to see college ball (not that I mind), so I never saw him play at Georgetown. Since it was also not easy to find quality basketball magazines like SLAM, who gave AI ink before AI had any ink on his body, I could only judge AI by the stats he put up for those atrocious Sixers back then. The problem for me was that until 1999 I wasn’t able to watch live NBA games on television. So all those years before that, I only saw some game highlights on CNN, and sometimes NBA Action. I thought of him as a very talented yet egocentric basketball player, bad shot selection, and a ballhog with a very bad attitude. My opinion of Allen Iverson early in his career was based on stats and some highlight clips, nothing more. Looking back on it, the above could be summarized as “ignorance”.

Finally in 1999 I was watching live games, and two years later AI single-handedly carried the Sixers to the 2001 Finals. Watching all five games in those series, I finally understood the love Iverson received by so many of his peers, by SLAM, the people in Philly and many more. Before that I was like the others, the haters, who are oblivious to the talent displayed right before our eyes. Not knowing anything about him, his background, his passion, his fearless attitude on the court, I didn’t know shit. Those ’01 Finals opened my eyes and I went all Monkees because I was a believer from then on.

I always was excited when there were Sixers games on TV, no matter how mediocre the rest of his team was, they always had a chance to win because of that 6 foot lightweight warrior running all over the court. Always one of the leaders when it comes to scoring and minutes per game, AI sacrificed his body which made me wonder when I would see any decline in his game. It didn’t happen though, and after a rough period it was time for a change, and that change brought him to Denver in 2006. We all know what happened after that. Iverson still knew how to score, actually played better than I expected next to Carmelo Anthony, but this summer Denver tried to free up some cap space by trading away Camby for nothing, and not even attempting to re-sign Eduardo Najera. It’s contradictive, because if they wanted cap space, why did they trade Iverson to Detroit for hometown hero Chauncey Billups, who has a contract running ‘til 2011?

AI has played one game for Denver this season, and the rest of his season will be in Detroit. It’s a great situation for the Pistons, because they also signed Rip Hamilton for another three years, and have a lot of talent on the roster in the form of Jason Maxiell, Amir Johnson, Rodney Stuckey and of course veteran Tayshaun Prince for the next couple of seasons. With the signing of Iverson, the Pistons have a plenty of cap space to pursue LeBron and/or Bosh in 2010 (LeBron and AI have the same agent in Leon Rose by the way). Will they really let Iverson walk after his contract expires in the summer of 2009? From a financial standpoint, I understand what Joe Dumars is doing, but it would be a bit weird for Iverson if he indeed manages to win it all with the Pistons, and within a month after celebrating the title, he’s without a team. But I’m getting ahead of myself, we have a full season to go, and by no means am I saying that the Pistons will win it now. But who doesn’t want to see them battling for that Finals spot against the Celtics in May? I know I do, I know you do, and AI does too. I never should’ve judged Iverson only by his shooting percentage when he came into the League, because it said nothing about the one essential thing of his hall-of-fame career: his heart.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent, heart-felt (which is perfect, given its subject) piece. If the Pistons win it all this season, I'm pretty confident they'll try to re-sign Iverson for another season.

-Gerard Himself- said...

thanks Ryne. AI is what, 32 now? He still can beat anyone of the dribble, score with the best in League, being only 6'0. The Pistons have a great three guard rotation in order. with Stuckey being able to back up both the PG and SG position. I'm really interested to see them play this season. It might take some time to get comfortable with one another, but I'm pretty sure Joe Dumars made a brilliant move, going all Obama and making that "change".

Anonymous said...

Yeah I think I am very interesting to see what will happen to AI next. Obviously Dumars, made a safe move by acquiring AI. If the plan has backfired, then they will have great salary cap to maybe start building a new empire for them. But regardless of it, Im not sure if AI could still be resigned after this year even if they win the championship..

Btw, I made a crap settings on my blog thats why the post can never be found when clicked. Its now fixed... :-)

Joe said...

Good piece, it should be interesting to see who's the more succesful from this trade, my money's on Detroit.

I could be wrong, but they didn't give away Camby for cap-space, they gave him away to avoid the luxury tax. Swapping Iverson's $20 mil for Chauncey's $11 mil and Dyess' $6/7 mil also helps them cut down money-wise.

-Gerard Himself- said...

you might be right about Camby, my bad. Thanks for the comment by the way!