[分享] Allen Iverson's Legacy
Source: http://perpetualpost.com/?p=2256
Allen Iverson’s Legacy
By Stephon Johnson and Howard Megdal
STEPHON JOHNSON:
“How the hell can I make my teammates better by practicing?”
Allen Iverson
You would think someone who has a career average of 27.1 points per game, 6.2
assists and 2.2 steals each season would get a lot more respect. But this is
Allen Iverson we’re talking about.
The above quotation is, unfortunately, how most people will remember him.
Despite all of his accomplishments (Perennial All-Star. Someone with enough
talent to lead an undermanned Philadelphia 76ers squad to the NBA Finals), he
’ll be reduced to a punch line. It’s disappointing considering he’s one of
the greatest players to play the game.
Many (including yours truly) were fans of Iverson from day one at Georgetown
University. One can easily conjure up images of Iverson feeding Othella
Harrington in the post and throwing Sportscenter-worthy alley-oops to Victor
Page. He dominated the college game, left early and took over the National
Basketball Association in the midst of the league’s last tryst with Michael
Jordan.
Iverson is one of the best, but his merits will always be debatable in
certain people’s eyes. Iverson ascendancy and popularity marked the
beginning of the NBA fully embracing Hip-Hop music and culture. It attached
itself to the league around The Answer’s rookie year. While Jordan still had
a few more years to dominate, Iverson’s crossover against MJ during his
rookie season marked the changing of the guard.
Not everyone was happy about it.
The crossover of Jordan, for some, also marked the moment style over
substance took over the league. In reality, there were always players who
emphasized style (it’s basketball after all), but still played hard and put
their body on the line when called upon to do so. Iverson’s association with
all things superficially “gangsta” made him a non-starter for most. The
cornrows, headbands and tattoos didn’t help his public image either. He was
“everything that was wrong with the league.”
Iverson marked the moment where the fair-weather/mainstream fan fell out of
love with the NBA. Iverson is partly responsible for the topic of race
becoming the elephant in the league’s living room. Iverson is partly
responsible for the dress code. Iverson is partly responsible for
Commissioner David Stern shoving NBA Cares commercials down our throats just
to prove to the mainstream that his guys “are just like you!”
When Iverson’s star started to descend several years ago, it happened right
when the league started to cut ties to Hip-Hop and plead for mainstream
acceptance. He’s the last of the Mohicans.
To this day, Iverson remains one of the quickest and fastest players to ever
step on a court. He’s also one of the toughest men, regardless of size, to
play in the NBA. We should be shocked that The Answer didn’t lose more games
to injury. He’s the very definition of a warrior (in the professional
sporting sense). Despite that, when his career is marked down to bullet
points ten years after it ends, all we’ll hear is the fight at the bowling
alley when he was 17 (that resulted in time being served at a correctional
facility in Newport News, Virginia), the crossover of Jordan, the cornrows
and tattoos…and practice. He deserves more.
The latest rumors have Iverson in serious talks with the Los Angeles
Clippers. As sad as that sounds, it’s sadder that we don’t take the time to
acknowledge one of the best little men to play big in the history of the NBA
(and all of sports). Iverson is a unique talent that, in my eyes, we may
never see again.
HOWARD MEGDAL:
I don’t disagree with anything Stephon said, but I just
wanted to further clarify the value Iverson brought to individual teams. Keep
in mind, I also loved Iverson from his first flash of national action against
Arkansas as a Georgetown freshman. He’s in the pantheon of athletes I
remember the first time I saw, and for good reason.
But practice or no practice, take a look at the records his teams put up, and
who was on them.
In Iverson’s third season, the Philadelphia 76ers reached the Eastern
Conference semifinals, besting the Orlando Magic in the first round. What
kind of talent did the 23-year-old Iverson have with him? The next five in
total minutes played that year for Philadelphia were: Eric Snow, Theo
Ratliff, Matt Geiger, George Lynch and a 20-year-old Larry Hughes.They beat a
Magic team with a healthy Anfernee Hardaway, Nick Anderson, Horace Grant,
Darrell Armstrong… even Dominique Wilkins off the bench (an old Dominique,
but still). Iverson made that kind of difference. In his third season.
Two years later, Iverson took the Sixers to the NBA Finals. The difference in
the two years? All improvement by Iverson. Don’t believe me? Check out his
supporting cast in the NBA Finals: Lynch, Ratliff, Snow, Aaron McKie and
Tyrone Hill were the only other Sixers to get at least 1,000 minutes.
And so it continued, despite playoff appearances, despite a Philadelphia
front office so inept they couldn’t find even one secondary star to pair
with Iverson, they let his very best years get wasted, and left him with the
reputation of someone who couldn’t win, in large part due to reasons Stephon
mentioned above.
Now, Iverson is no longer the defensive player he was, and doesn’t have the
same explosiveness- arguably the two skills that lifted him beyond other
guards of his time. Still, his peak deserves greater credit than it has
received, and I continue to hope his career is not left with the bitter
legacy of no NBA titles. He’ll be blamed, while the names of the
Philadelphia front office that surrounded him with nothing will all be lost
to history.
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