Allen Iverson remains the realest player in the game

MANILA, Philippines – Few other athletes have been as staunchly individual as Allen Iverson. When the NBA imposed a business casual dress code on the league, Iverson fought to wear fitted hats and gold chains. He was the game’s ultimate non-conformist, leaving league officials as off-balance as he left defenders with his cross-over dribble.

Iverson held the principle of “keeping it real” paramount in his life, for better or worse. To be anyone other than the man his parents raised in Hampton, Virginia, would be a disrespect to them, he says.

It was of no surprise to those who followed his 14-season career when he arrived at Tuesday’s media press conference at the NBA Cafe in Taguig’s Bonifacio Global City wearing a fitted cap, t-shirt that showed off his tattooed arms to go along with basketball shorts and Reebok sneakers.

There were no pretensions, no political answers. He was Allen Iverson, take him or leave him.

Asked what his impressions were of the sport in the basketball-crazy Philippines, Iverson’s reply was straightforward: “I don’t know anything about that. I’m being honest with you, I’m not going to lie to you and make it sound fly.” 

Iverson, now 39, is in the Philippines for “All In,” a charity basketball event on Wednesday, November 5 at the Mall of Asia Arena featuring members of the Ball Up team and NBA veterans Eddy Curry and Dermarr Johnson. The game will benefit Gawad Kalinga, a charity which specializes in providing housing for disaster victims and the impoverished.  

The event is being marketed around the 2001 NBA MVP, but his in-game involvement will be limited to coaching. Iverson has lost the passion to play the game which he innovated. He looks fit enough to still put up 20 points a game, but the desire is no longer there, he’ll freely admit.  

Passion is gone

“All of the passion that you saw from me throughout my career, it’s gone,” said Iverson, who averaged 26.7 ppg and 6.2 apg in a career that included stints with Philadelphia, the Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons and Memphis Grizzlies. “I honestly miss the game, I love watching the game. I can’t watch the Sixers play because I get emotional watching them because of all them memories and knowing that I can’t help. In this stage of my life, I don’t want it no more. I don’t want anything that comes with it. 

“I love just being a full-time Dad, being there for my kids. I lost a lot of time with my two older kids playing in the league, traveling all the time.”

Iverson entered the league in 1996 as the first overall draft pick by the Philadelphia 76ers, leading the team from cellar dwellers to the 2001 NBA Finals. He was an 11-time All-Star, and was twice named the game’s MVP, while leading the league in scoring four times and steals three times.

Along the way there were disagreements with coaches, trades around the league and a short-lived return to Philadelphia before he left the league in 2010 to test the international market. 

The contract Iverson signed with the Turkish team Beşiktaş in 2010 was worth $4 million over two years and included an opt-out clause after the first year if he wanted to return to the NBA. He’d only play in ten games before returning to the U.S. for calf surgery. 

After attempts to break back into the NBA resulted only in a D-League offer, he announced his official retirement in 2013. He was a “Sixer for life,” but his final competitive game wouldn’t be played at the Wells Fargo Center, but at BJK Akatlar Arena in Turkey.

A future in coaching doesn’t interest Iverson much, but he does want to mentor young players. While many of today’s NBA stars were playing pickup ball at the schoolyard, Iverson was blazing trails and fighting against the system. What he wants is to help young players coming into the league avoid the pitfalls that he encountered in some form. 

“All I want to do is advise. The knowledge that I have, I want to be able to put it to use. I want to be able to be someone to come in and give my opinion on what can turn the franchise around. That’s what I want to do when it comes to basketball,” said Iverson. 

“It’s a lot of other things, to speak to up-and-coming players and the little kids, give them my thoughts on how to try to make it in basketball. Things like that, to be able to have that voice.

“I would tell them not to put so much pressure on themselves to excel right from the beginning. To be able to let yourself grow, don’t feel like you gotta come right in and turn into a household name right from the beginning. Don’t be so hard on yourself, let it come to you.”

Iverson’s legacy in the sport can be felt in the number of players who have tried to pattern their style after him and the retired number 3 jersey that hangs from the 76ers home court. But perhaps his greatest impact may be in how he fought to be himself – from his do-rags to his Timberland boots – which has indirectly contributed to the greater freedom players enjoy today.

“As far as people being individuals, I think I had a lot to do with that because I took a major ass kicking for that, for me being myself,” said Iverson. “It’s a bittersweet situation but I’m happy that now other guys can express themselves the way they want to.  I feel good that I had something to do with that.” 

As Iverson’s handlers prepared to whisk him away to his next engagement, a reporter hurriedly asked him how they could watch him play again.  

“Go to YouTube. You can watch me play there all day.” – Rappler.com