Few strived to be like O’Neal; Kids wanted to be like Iverson.
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Yao, who averaged 19.2 points and nine rebounds for the Houston Rockets, became a global ambassador for the sport during his eight National Basketball Association seasons.
“[Yao’s] career was cut short, and I think he didn’t achieve everything he wanted to on the floor”, National Basketball Association commissioner Adam Silver said at last year’s All-Star Weekend.
“I’m embarrassed when people always introduce me as being in the Hall of Fame”, Brown said. I’m cool with the person they raised.
He also was one of the most dominant – scoring 28,596 career points that rank No. 7 in National Basketball Association history and grabbing 13,099 career rebounds. But he was also a polarizing figure in a league struggling with racial issues, with his tattoos and cornrows and embrace of a hip-hop culture that was at odds with the corporate image the National Basketball Association wanted to project.
At the podium, the sixth of the nine men and women honored in the Class of 2016, Iverson stopped often during his free-wheeling, 25-minute speech to compose himself. As Iverson said Thursday, “I was a puppy”. On Friday he paid tribute to the player that he has idolized throughout during his ascent as an overachieving undersized guard: Allen Iverson. But I didn’t want to be him, I didn’t want to talk like him, I didn’t want to dress like him. “A man that my family loves, my teammates love and my fans love”.
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Outside of Michael Jordan, there is no one more iconic figure in the history of basketball than Allen Iverson, from both an on-court and off court perspective.
“I was a puppy”, he said.
“And I didn’t take constructive criticism the way I should have”.
He praised his Georgetown University coach, John Thompson, saying, “I want to thank coach Thompson for saving my life”, after a troubled youth. I nearly didn’t type all those names; it felt like a waste of time, but Iverson set the tone by listing seemingly everyone he ever knew. “I’m just playing, Nick. I’m still finding my way”.
The Class of 2016 also includes National Basketball Association referee Darell Garretson, ABA superstar Zelmo Beaty, Michigan University coach Tom Izzo, coach John McLendon, football Hall of Famer Cumberland Posey and Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
“You’re just the best to me”, he said. At worst, he was in the argument alongside Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, and the all-around play of a burgeoning LeBron James.
“It’s been a great life”, he said.
And he thanked an obscure Georgetown walk-on, Dean Barry, whom he said taught him the devastating crossover move that became his signature.
Players were ushered upstairs to a function room to answer reporters’ questions shortly after 3 p.m., and O’Neal soon launched into an imitation of Iverson’s notorious “Practice?” speech.
This is the third-straight year a former Hoya has been enshrined into the Hall Fame, following in the footsteps of Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo (C’91). You know what I mean? “Then I got one, then two, three, then four”.
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Brown is among three Hall of Famers who will present Iverson for induction. Asked about the delay, Iverson said it involved a “personal situation; family”. “Finally, when I reached here, it’s (fulfilling)”, Yao added. “Why can’t it just be good news?”
