The Fall of Allen Iverson

It has, unfortunately, come to this for Allen Iverson. The same guy who crossed Michael Jordan, thee Michael Jordan, in his rookie season on the way to a Rookie of the Year Award, the same guy who won an MVP award and took a band of vagabonds (George Lynch, Tyrone Hill, Eric Snow, Aaron McKie, I would go on but it’s too embarrassing) to the NBA Finals, producing my favorite playoff memories of all-time (and even won more games [one] than anyone expected against the Lakers), the same guy who has four scoring titles. This same guy is now begging for a job from the Memphis Grizzlies or facing forced retirement. How did this happen? Why does no one want Iverson?

The answer seems simple but it will hurt me to say it. Allen Iverson is not a winner. Nothing about him allows him to become a part of a championship formula. My favorite player that I have ever seen is destined for an NBA cemetery.

But in the end, this is the only way that it could happen, and it has nothing to do with off-court issues or even practice. It’s Iverson’s pride, offensive style, and inability to play with great players that has doomed him. Iverson is one of the greatest scorers of his generation but can only score one way. He must have the ball in his hands, for about 16 seconds to create his scoring opportunities. He invented the volume shooter/scorer role. Without Iverson’s progressive style of play, Jamal Crawford wouldn’t have a job. But how does that help him play with Carmelo Anthony? It doesn’t, which is why they never won playoff series. He is the ultimate alpha-dog, a star who believes he’s a star and won’t take anything less. That’s why the chemistry with Carmelo was never quite there and in some ways, may have held back Carmelo’s development into one of the best players in the league (check how Anthony evolved at the end of this season without Iverson), or look at his reluctance to fit in with the Detroit Pistons, which was an unmitigated disaster.

The fact is the 2001 Sixers were the perfect fit for Iverson, the only team in which he could thrive. He can only play with defensive-minded/offensively-limited guys because his offense only works when he is the ONLY guy who can realistically put the ball in the basket. He has to be the center of attention, the lone offensive threat to be at his best, which is why the team can’t be at its best. The 2001 Sixers undoubtedly was the perfect gift for Iverson’s career. He was at the top of his game playing the best basketball of his career, in a terrible Eastern conference that allowed him to win the MVP and take a terrible team to the Finals. They allowed Iverson to thrive on offense (because Todd MacCulloch and and Jumaine Jones really weren’t lighting it up, let’s be real) while playing pretty good defense to scrape through the Eastern playoffs and Iverson got validated as a great player with a bad team around him. But building a team around Iverson became impossible because no matter who you brought in, they didn’t mesh with Iverson (Toni Kukoc, Chris Webber, Larry Hughes, Glen Robinson, Keith Van Horn, just to name a few). And it became easy to blame the secondary star for not being the right guy and Billy King eventually lost his job because of it because he never brought in the right guy. But who was or could have been the right guy. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if Kevin Garnett and Allen Iverson ever teamed, the guy I always wanted. As much as I don’t like the job Billy King did, trying to build a team around Iverson’s unique skills was far from easy. And after seeing Carmelo and Iverson not working and whatever that thing in Detroit was, I’m not sure that it would have worked with KG. It’s no wonder that a contender doesn’t have any interest.

Think about it: if you’re building a championship team, do you need Iverson taking shots away from your Kobe or LeBron or Big 3, especially considering he’s not a true point guard, bogging down the flow of your offense. Iverson is almost like a black hole for your offense, the ball enters his hands and he’s going to do something with it, for better or worse. He could come off the bench of the contender and remake his Sixers days, play the role of scoring guard as the top guys rest, playing with guys like Sasha Vujacic or Brian Scalabrine but he refuses to do that. Iverson has completely pigeonholed himself. Singular in his focus and skills, refusing to open up or change one little bit. The same qualities that made him the tough little guy in Philadelphia, who’s singular focus was on the game, no matter what injury he was dealing with at the time, singular skill, getting to the rim, no matter the obstacle in the lane or in front of him to provide everything that the Sixers needed, pure scoring. Now those qualities have left him in his current predicament. There aren’t any teams out there built like the Sixers were, perfect for his style of style of play where he can play the lead role like he demands. He refuses to play a secondary role to anyone which is why he can’t play for a contender. This is a future Hall-of-Famer with something still left in the tank being virtually ignored, most of it by his own doing.

Iverson is a great player. But his greatness is limited to unique situations and it is not conducive to winning a championship. Iverson has always been willing to sacrifice his body for a championship but when it calls for sacrifice of his ego, Iverson cannot go that far. A great player lost behind an array of over dribbling and volume shooting.