During NBATV’s Red Carpet Show leading up to the Hall of Fame Ceremonies, former Georgetown All-American Alonzo Mourning (C’91), himself a member of the Hall of Fame, said “I can put it in its simplest terms – pound for pound, the best player to ever play the game”.
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Iverson got a standing ovation before he could even be introduced prior to his speech.
Particularly popular on Twitter was Iverson’s nod to the musicians he listened to during his career: Biggie, Redman, Jadakiss, Tupac, and Michael Jackson.
“I’m glad that you blew your cover for me to recognize that you [weren’t] any good to my family or me”. He couldn’t believe Jordan was really right there in front of him.
Iverson was struck by the same realization that hits so many people at the moment of their greatest individual recognition: it’s the product of nearly everyone but them.
“Thank God for loving me and blessing me”, Iverson said, “to be the man that I am and having no regrets for the man that I am”.
Iverson thanked former Georgetown head coach John Thompson, who presented him along with Larry Brown and Julius Erving, for “saving my life”. “An incident happened in high school and all that was taken away”, Iverson said. “I was recruited by every school in the country for football and basketball”.
“After [an arrest in a Virginia bowling alley brawl scared off college recruiters] my mother went to Coach Thompson’s office and begged him to give me a chance”. “You got to have (guts) to pull off a move against a legend like that”.
Perfectly fitting, Iverson waited to acknowledge Philadelphia at the end. He could have kept it shorter. On this night, he mostly just wanted to deliver his message, in his own way.
He stood in a stairwell, just off the Springfield Symphony Hall stage, waiting for the go-ahead to exit the building and climb into an SUV for the afterparty.
“My relationship with the fans in Philadelphia is like no other”, he said, and the crowd replied with M-V-P chants.
He said the first time he played against His Airness, it was like he was looking at an otherworldly being. I walked on the court and I looked at him.
“Coach Thompson saved me my life”, Iverson said.
“I love Miss (Lorry) Michel so much”, he said.
“I love you, too”, Iverson responded.
“That’s the only thing that gets me here, is my teammates. It was my hero”.
Iverson’s that type of hero for so many people now. Still, he thanked two writers, Phil Jasner and Stephen A. Smith, who weren’t afraid to tell him the truth even when he screwed up. Iverson didn’t do much boasting, but he did imagine a theoretical barbershop argument that one of his family members or friends won by saying, “Look, my man (Iverson) is solidified”. “They supported me through my ups and downs”.
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That’s the Iverson way.
