The respect of my peers and love from the fans are my biggest validation.
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Allen Iverson entered the Basketball Hall of Fame Friday night in Springfield, MA, a location that likely feels as foreign as the suits David Stern once forced upon him and other players with a 2005 league mandated dress code.
Brown and Iverson have been closely linked since Brown took over as head coach of the Sixers in 1997, Iverson’s second season. The two viewed the game with different outlooks.
The “Celebrate” iterations of Iverson’s Question Mid and O’Neal’s Shaq Attaq are available now via reebok.com, and both retail for $275. “For giving me the opportunity”. Being a certified ass– for nothing.
“And I didn’t take constructive criticism the way I should have”. I still don’t know. I got him by running him at 5 in the morning. Asked about the delay, Iverson said it involved a “personal situation; family”. CSNPhilly.com spoke to Brown Wednesday evening about the upcoming event and what it means to be there to celebrate Iverson.
Iverson praised John Thompson his coach at Georgetown University.
“I’m so fortunate to be your son”. That’s why we can look at somebody like the 6-foot-3 Steph Curry and think of him as being “small”. “When you consider he’s going in with Shaq and Yao Ming and Tom Izzo, that’s a pretty incredible cast”.
Iverson stepped over Tyronn Lue, and he stood eye-to-eye with O’Neal. “And that’s insane to think that you’re the best football player in the world, which I did, and to be sitting up here as a Hall of Famer in basketball, you tell me God ain’t good”.
When asked what his career would have looked like if he was entering the National Basketball Association today, Shaq was as confident as ever, saying, “I’d average 40 points a game, without free throws”.
“A coach’s responsibility is to allow a player to play up to his potential each night”, Brown said. I thought of golf.
Shaq said Iverson’s crossover of Michael Jordan during his rookie season in 1997 was the definition of the kind of player Iverson was. During that time he competed against future Hall of Famers and later coached against them when he retired. He came over to the United States and actually was a really good player. I was lucky enough to get to know that side of him.
He described Bryant as “a guy that would push me to help me win three titles in a row. The naysayers, they helped me, too”. He thanked 76ers broadcaster Marc Zumoff, most of the team’s front-office staff, former owner Pat Croce.
The six-time All-Star averaged 19 points and 9.2 rebounds per game for his career.
They didn’t look the same, they didn’t play the same. No other teams, no other schools were recruiting me. “We were in every game”. It never was easy, but when you understand what he went through… And I’m looking at him. I’m sitting there and I’m saying, ‘Man, that’s Michael. I was poor all my life. “You never jumped off the bandwagon; continued to support me like true fans are supposed to”. “I’m hopeful I did that”. He was one of the best ever and one of the biggest powerhouse players in the National Basketball Association. “It was wonderful the impact he had on our kids, how mesmerized they were by him”.
First, I just want to thank God for loving me and blessing me. “I’m just playing, Nick”. I always came home and forgot about that once I saw y’all.
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Sheryl Swoopes won four titles in the WNBA and became the league’s first star. “And I want you to be proud of yourself and I want you to walk around and understand you are a Hall of Famer”. I got to Philadelphia and, man, those were some big shoes to fill with a size 10 foot. It’s such a special honor. “It’s what I wondered would happen to me if I didn’t”.
