“This is a special night for me”, Iverson explained when asked about his unusual attire.
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Since Iverson reached this major feat in his National Basketball Association career, attendees were left with the question, what’s next for The Answer?
“I was an alright basketball player, I had talent”, he said. Literally. But I got to Philadelphia and man, those were some big shoes to fill with a size 10 foot. Rocking nervously from side to side, as if he were preparing to blow by an unseen defender, he went through a long litany of “Thank-you’s” and “I-love-you’s”. “I thank him for blessing me to be the man that I am”. He thanked 76ers broadcaster Marc Zumoff, most of the team’s front-office staff, former owner Pat Croce. The incident, as it turned out, didn’t dissuade Thompson from offering him a basketball scholarship at Georgetown. “He didn’t even get his name on the back of his uniform”. Fans with No. 3 Iverson jerseys in the balcony cheered throughout.
“The Philly fans”, he said, triggering another raucous reaction from them.
“My relationship with the fans in Philadelphia is like no other”, he said. “They supported me through my ups and downs”.
Swoopes, one the most successful women’s basketball players in US history, became the Hall of Famer one year after her long-time national teammate Lisa Leslie was introduced on the same stage in 2015. It is hard to find a more deserving coach in the college ranks. “Once I started to listen to him and was coached by him, that’s when I became an MVP, I became an All-Star…and I followed his lead all the way”. He was presented to the Hall by Larry Brown (’02), Julius Erving (’93) and John Thompson (’99). Tawanna Iverson. Twenty four years. Captivating the Springfield, Mass., crowd with his sincerity and engaging personality, Iverson thanked an exhaustive catalog of friends, teammates, coaches, and family members. “And he just might have been”.
By all accounts, Shaquille O’Neal was the most physically-dominating big man of the 1990s.
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2016 lived up to its lofty billing with an epic three-hour induction ceremony Friday night at Springfield’s Symphony Hall, with Iverson and O’Neal stealing the show.
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But he and his large entourage were among the earliest arrivals at the classical facility where the Hall holds its annual, star-studded enshrinement ceremony. “I love y’all so much”. Just the best of me, I love you so much. “It’s the Hall of Fame”.
