Instead of missing the entire day, Iverson unexpectedly showed up during the breakout media availability. My mom went to Georgetown and begged him to give me a chance and he did.
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The internal anger that fueled him since those prison bars cruelly, perhaps unjustly, slammed behind him when he was just 17 years old appeared to have finally been purged. “Why can’t it be a monumental moment?”
Iverson, 41, was a 9-time NBA All-Star and 4-time scoring champion during his 14-year career.
Friday night when his son became a Hall of Famer, it was realized.
Allen Iverson took the stage late Friday.
Iverson looked unshakeable on the basketball court.
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. “That’s when I became an MVP, that’s when I became an all-star”, he said. “You got to have (guts) to pull off a move against a legend like that”. “How often does that happen”, Wang said.
Iverson’s career hit a roadblock in July 1993, when he was convicted of felony charges stemming from a February 14 melee at a bowling alley.
“I’m glad that you blew your cover for me to recognize that you [weren’t] any good to my family or me”, he said. He was listed generously at 6-foot, 165 pounds, and many rappers thought, if he can do it, why can’t I? And especially my fans. I still don’t know. “They supported me through my ups and downs”.
Last night, I saw Allen Iverson in his first appearance in a Georgetown University uniform. “Then I got one, then two, three, then four. That’s the only reason I’m here”, he said. All those guys sacrificed their game and sacrificed different things for me to be honored like this and what I’ve done.
Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball Director, was presented with the first-ever orange Hall of Fame jacket, which was designed by Haggar, at the press conference. Without those guys I wouldn’t be here.
Never change, Allen Iverson. One he wore with his navy Yankees hat and layered gold chains.
“I was a puppy”, he said. And he was always supportive of me … always gave me words of wisdom, just a great man. Years later, it is a topic that still gets to him.
“I’m just going to go be myself”, he said. “But some years some of them do stand out”. No other teams, no other schools were recruiting me.
However, it was Iverson’s speech that folks are talking about today. Only he didn’t picture himself reaching this level in basketball. “I honestly think that”.
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“When you see greatness in somebody else that loves basketball the way you do you always have the utmost respect for them and you can detect what type of basketball mind they have by the things they do and the things they accomplish, so I was always a fan of coach and will always be”, Iverson said. “I love y’all so much”.
