This article was difficult to write. Allen Iverson is not only my favorite basketball player, but my favorite athlete of all time. The drive with which he played the game of basketball was unparalleled, and his presence on the court is greatly missed, especially by the struggling Sixers.
Be sure to check out the full article, which originally ran on Philly.com,
here.
Allen Iverson was an extremely productive NBA
player. Anyone who had the pleasure of watching him effortlessly put up points
can attest to his abilities. He was that rare, once-in-a-generation superstar
who was able to transcend the league and leave one hell of a legacy,
controversy-ridden and all.
With an MVP, a Rookie of the Year award, 11 all-star
games and four scoring titles under his waistband, Iverson’s spot in NBA
history is secure. He was one of the greatest scorers the game has ever seen, piling
up 24,368 points over 14 seasons, which is currently 19th on the NBA’s all-time
scoring list.
As gaudy as Iverson’s numbers are (remember, he put
up all these points while playing in under 1,000 NBA games), the fact of the
matter remains that they could have been better.
Iverson’s career took a steep tumble after the
2007-08 season. During that year in Denver he averaged 26 points and seven
assists while playing in all 82 games for the first time in his career. After
the season however, Iverson was shipped to Detroit, and the downward spiral
began. Despite some solid play with the Pistons, Iverson lost tick to Rodney
Stuckey and other young players, and became unhappy with his role with the
team,; a situation that should have served as a sign to A.I. that times were
a-changing. The league had new breeds of superstar (LeBron James, Kevin Durant)
and superteams (Boston) to contend with, and Iverson’s me-against-the-world
style wasn’t the most appealing game plan, to put it lightly.
Unable to relinquish his alpha-dog status, Iverson
continued to bounce around the league’s landscape, stopping briefly in Memphis
and finally back in Philadelphia, searching for the a flame to re-light his
career torch.
Needless to say, the flame was never quite found,
which is why we find Iverson, following three years of NBA inactivity,
unceremoniously announcing his retirement at the start of another season that
he won’t be a part of.
It didn’t have to be this way. Hell, it wasn’t supposed to be this way. But, a plethora
of problems, decisions, and off-court issues, many of Iverson’s own doing, have
the future hall-of-famer facing his retirement from the outside looking in.