I wasn’t even born for the 25 points per game he dropped at Georgetown as a sophomore, but I still own his Hoyas jersey and you better believe I’ll be wearing it on Friday when Iverson is enshrined to the Hall of Fame.
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As part of the next class of Basketball Hall of Fame inductees this Friday, Allen Iverson was supposed to join the likes of Shaquille O’Neal, Yao Ming, Sheryl Swoopes, and others, for a press conference Thursday. The four-time scoring champion said the delay was due to a “personal situation, family”. Widely distributing praise, Iverson said Larry Brown, the polarizing former Philadelphia coach, “molded me into an MVP and a Hall of Fame player”. “It’s always an fantastic experience, but just knowing him and what he stands for, I’m pretty excited”, Brown said.
“That’s the only thing that got me here, my teammates and my coaches”.
Yao ushered in a new era of worldwide basketball when he left China to become the top pick of the NBA draft in 2002. He personally put me in position to have a life after basketball.
Amusing at times and emotional at others, Iverson acknowledged that he made mistakes, attributing many of them to entering the league as a 21-year-old with the expectations of a historic franchise on his shoulders.
“I want my legacy to be bigger than basketball”. I thought: “How is this going to work?” You know what I mean?
“My speech centered around six people I have crossed paths with from the world of basketball that have taught me some life lessons worth sharing”, Greenberg emailed.
“I’m not sure there’s a better ambassador”, Izzo said.
Yao played for the Shanghai Sharks from 1997-2002 before joining the NBA’s Houston Rockets, who now boast the tallest and smallest Hall of Famers in Yao and 5-foot-9 Calvin Murphy. Four scoring titles, two All-Star MVPs, and one MVP season later, A.I. made it known that size is just a number (or series of numbers). Being born in the same year that he was drafted does make it a little odd that he’s my favorite National Basketball Association player of all-time, I suppose, but the aurora around him and what he meant to the game makes it hard not to love him. “Most people have Allen and I attached at the hip, not necessarily all good, but when I look back on everything that’s happened to me and my career, I think I was really, really fortunate to have the opportunity to be around him and get to coach him”. Would I have to look over at an interpreter on the bench every time we needed to say something to each other? He was named a three-time FIBA Asian Championship Most Valuable Player. “But I knew as soon as he was eligible, no one could deserve it any more”. I wanted to be Dr. J, but once I became seven-foot, I got to be like those guys. I never missed class again.
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“Among the hardest-working players I’ve ever been associated, Yao stands at the very top of the list”. After all, this is not China, we shouldn’t force our way of living to the American people. When players like Iverson – or Russell Westbrook, the next evolution of The Answer in many ways – have it rolling, they are unbelievable to watch.
