Iverson: I’ll Play Six More Seasons
AIAlthough it took him a couple games, Allen Iverson seems like he could be the answer in Detroit. Regardless of what uniform he’s wearing though, AI has made it clear that he intends to play six more seasons.
“I know you guys have put me in a rocking chair already,” Iverson said. “When the time comes and we have a game and you put that scouting report up and my name isn’t one of the first or second names on that scouting report and I can’t dominate like I used to, then I don’t want to play no more. I won’t do anything to tarnish my legacy.”
At 33-years-old, we still put him down as one of the ten fastest players in the NBA, and I’d have him on my squad any day.
With his contract up at the end of this season, how long do you see AI sticking in the League?
Source: Boston Herald
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November 21st, 2008 at 1:34 pm
s.bucketz says:
as long as he wants
November 21st, 2008 at 1:35 pm
BxBaller says:
At least 4 more years. I don’t want to think about the day A.I. or Kobe hangs up the kicks. I’ll be one sad individual.
November 21st, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Obama says to McCain "Hows my @ss taste"? says:
I agree with four more years. I think that if Iverson meshes well with Detroit and they do some damage in the playoffs that Dumars will re-sign him. I don’t even think it has to be a Championship or bust this season for Dumars to keep him, I think it that team just has to show that they can compete and gel together. Iverson will have to take less money then what he is worth to stay with a contender..but at least he could compete untill retirement, Iverson has a ton of money..so that shouldnt be a problem. Detroit will still have more then enough money to re-sign him and go after another free agent if they choose. Iverson has been such a freak of nature..I could see him returung close to how he is playing right now.
November 21st, 2008 at 2:05 pm
alex says:
“i don’t want to tarnish my legacy” – and what legacy is that?
November 21st, 2008 at 2:13 pm
JoeCozi says:
Notice how he doesn’t say anything about winning or teammates…it’s the ive show always and forever!!…even though I love T.O. thats who Ive reminds me of it’s all about him and honestly both their acts are getting hella old!!…when you forcing up shots as much as he does you bound to make any teammate with some game pissed off…Like I said before thats why he played scrubs his whole career cause nobody wants to play with him and look what happens as soon as he get to detroit teammates with game already complaining about the bullshit shot selection that foo has…for one game I’d like to see Ive run the point hit teammates with legit passes off screens curls, break his man down then drop off a nice pass not no bounce it straight down into the ground as youre coming down cause you can’t shoot the rock…for having so much handles ive can’t pass for shit and his timing is horrible!!
November 21st, 2008 at 2:16 pm
JoeCozi says:
The same dude that said he couldn’t make his teammates better…lmao!!…thats exactly what a star player is supposed to do!!!…”practice…how can I make them better from practice”…some people just don’t get it!!!
November 21st, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Akash says:
the legacy of being arguably the greatest player under 6 feet and for sure the most prolfic scorer under 6 feet he carried the sixers to the championship with a mediocre squad aside from dikembe dude has scoring titles mvps and has torched the league for so long. on and off he court he defined the NBA for a long time
November 21st, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Reverend Paul Revere says:
No matter how long he stays, it won’t be long enough.
November 21st, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Dunkadelic TV says:
Allen Iverson will play until he’s 38 or 39. A.I. and Kobe will be the only 2 players from the same NBA Draft to score over 30,000 points in their career.
November 21st, 2008 at 2:44 pm
control says:
Get this guy a crutch or wheelchair, he’s done.
He’s going to have a Jason Kidd like decline, next year or the year after he’s just going to be a guy who jacks shots (instead of what he is now, AI jacking shots).
Akash
AI didn’t carry 76ers to a championship. Guy still ain’t got any rings.
November 21st, 2008 at 2:45 pm
qUeSt??? says:
i believe he will play till 39 just like kobe. iverson is the type of player that no matter if he is 40 he will drop buckets.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:35 pm
rob stewart says:
It will be harder for AI to last long than it will be for Kobe. Kobe is a better jumpshooter and is bigger in height and size. AI has to rely solely on his quickness in order to survive. I would love to see AI till he’s 40 but i can already see a decline in his game. He won’t be the top guy on the scouting report in 3-6 years.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Obama says to McCain "Hows my @ss taste"? says:
JoeCozi…are you going to be up in every post hating on Iverson? I mean really?
“Notice how he doesn’t say anything about winning or teammates…it’s the ive show always and forever!!…even though I love T.O. thats who Ive reminds me of it’s all about him and honestly both their acts are getting hella old”!!
^ He didn’t mention his teammates or winning because thats not what the question was about. And I don’t even know what you are talking about with him and T.O.
“when you forcing up shots as much as he does you bound to make any teammate with some game pissed off…Like I said before thats why he played scrubs his whole career cause nobody wants to play with him and look what happens as soon as he get to detroit teammates with game already complaining about the bullshit shot selection that foo has”
^Iverson forces no more shots then anyother other scorer in the league. Im tired of folks acting as if he’s the only one. Iverson FG% actually was at a personal best last season..he actually shot the same FG% as Kobe..but I dont see anyone mentioning that. Carmelo Anthony had a whole commentary the othernight talking about how upset he was behind Iversons trade and although he is appreciative to have Chauncy there that he wish Iverson wouldn’t have had to leave in order to get Chauncy..he went on to say that he thought him and Iverson were making progress together and wanted Iverson to retire in Denver and that he was not only surprised by the trade but very upset by it. So while some players may have found it frustrating at times to play next to AI because of how he dominates the ball..the majority of players have not. Infact, i’ve rarely heard any of Iversons teammateds speak bad about him as a b-ball player and a person. Thats a bunch of crap that some of his critics both in the media and out like to imagine about him. Im not sure where you getting your info from as far as Detroit is concerned..the only person that is probably frustrated right now is RIP, other then that…all the other players like Tashawn Prince and Rasheed Wallace have benefited from Iverson on that team. RIP’s feelings are hurt because one of his closest friends are gone..he needs to man up and get over it.
“for one game I’d like to see Ive run the point hit teammates with legit passes off screens curls, break his man down then drop off a nice pass not no bounce it straight down into the ground as youre coming down cause you can’t shoot the rock…for having so much handles ive can’t pass for shit and his timing is horrible”!!
^IVERSON IS NOT A TRUE PG! After 13 yrs in the NBA why dont people understand this? And if you’ve even been watching the games..Iverson Iverson has actually been helping Detroit out the most by breaking down the defense and dishing. Lastnight was aterrible night for the Pistons…but when they played the Lakers they were on fire and Iverson was finding his man very well…some of you pick and choose games as to what you want to critisize dude about. Give critisism, yes…but make it fair.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Obama says to McCain "Hows my @ss taste"? says:
Control
Iverson carried the Sixers to the Finals, I beleive thats what ‘Akash” was talking about. He doesn’t have a ring..but neither does Nash (and quite a few other NBA stars), yet I see people on that dudes nuts everyother minute. Its hilarious. Isn’t Nash supposed to be the prototype PG that plays the game the ‘right way’? Hell Nash hasnt even been to an NBA finals yet. Does that mean Nash is a bad person, absolutely not, but people seem to have different rules depending on the player.
Theres really nothing wrong with Iverson. The dude had one of his best seasons last season and averaged 27 ppg and 7 assist…some of you folks just want the dude to fall off so you’ll try to talk it into existance. Its commen since that every player will decline with age…its human nature, but can anyone honastly say that they have ever seen a player of Iversons stature be as consistant and tough as he has over such a long period of time? I doubt it. If Iverson scores too many points then he’s a “ball hogg”…if he doesn’t score eough points then he “has lost a step or is washed up”. So which one is it going to be, because the haters can’t have it both ways. KG, Ray Allen, Steve Nash, Tim Duncan and so many other star players are all around the same age as Iverson if not older..hell even Kobe is 30 yrs old now. Yet the only person that people seem to talk about is Iverson its hilarious.
KG and Ray Allen along with Paul Pierces numbers have all went down because commen sence will tell anyone that when you are on a team with other stars playing as a team, you will sacrifice..did anyone say they were declining? No. But when Iversons numbers went down (due to playing next to another dominate scorer in Melo) and now because he’s playing in a different system in Detroit.. it wasn’t because he was ‘sacrificing’ its because he is ‘declining’ according to some of you. Its such a double standard. Iverson isnt as fast as he was when he first came in the league (that dude was lightning fast at first), and I dont know why anyone would expect him to be after 13 years…but he’s faster then 99% of the league (when you watch him play in person its like a video game), so what differense does it make? Let the dude live.
November 21st, 2008 at 5:22 pm
one66soul says:
AI will never win a chip as a Starter in this league, I can see him playing until he is 39 coming off the bench.
November 21st, 2008 at 5:46 pm
control says:
Obama says to McCain “Hows my @ss taste”?
Of course there are a lot of guys without a ring, if they were just giving them away then they wouldn’t really be all that important. Also, if you look at the teams who have won all the rings in the recent future, a majority of them won their rings by playing excellent team ball.
AI doesn’t get it about that team ball stuff. You say he’s not a true PG, but a scorer…but that isn’t where the problem is. The problem is WHEN he chooses to score. There are dozens of plays every game where he could make that one extra pass and get his team a basket, but instead he heaves up some low percentage shot. His teams would be better if he played differently, and that is how you get a championship.
Also, when you say “Let the dude live”, I hope you don’t think that anything anyone says about him on a basketball website is really preventing him from living the life. The guy is living better than anyone on this site, that is for damn sure. Ain’t none of us goin to change that either.
November 21st, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Obama says to McCain "Hows my @ss taste"? says:
Control
Regardless of what some of you try to say, untill now, Iverson has never been on a team good enough to win a championship. Charles Barkeley made a recent comment about that situation. He said something like “I played in the league for 16 years and out of those 16 I probably had 5 or 6 realistic chances to win a championship. Iverson had one good run to the Finals and was amazing, but its a team game. Guys like Myself, John Stockton, Karl Malone (he names a few more players) and even other great players in other parts of sports have tried hard but could only do so much by ourselves. Iverson has to understand that he has never had a team that was good enough to be a championship team and that is not his fault”. This comes strait from Charles Barkeley who has been one of Iversons biggest critics over the years. Iverson has a tendency to dribble the ball too much, yes..he has a tendency to make questionable shots (so does just about every other scorer in the league), he is a flawed player..but regardless, he has never realistically been on a team good enough to win a championship and that has nothing to do with him making the extra pass. That 2001 Sixer team was cool, and maybe 2002 and 2003 were decent…thats about it. Regardless if he made the extra pass or not, thats just the truth of the matter. Some of you act like he had these great teams around him his entire career and that he had so many chances to win the chip. The Nuggets were a fun team, but undisciplined, lacked heart, a true PG (which they have again), injuries all over the place and Coach Karl was a mess. They were still a 50 win team. But the blame needs to go around. Iverson can take his share of the blame along with that Sixers organization for not doing their part..but that Nuggets situation was not Iversons fault.
You said there are “a lot of guys without a ring and if they were just giving them away it wouldn’t be all that important”. Yet you’ll turn around in the same breath and blast Iverson for not having one. So again, which is it? I watched Iverson on the Nuggets and he actually cut back his on his game a lot there, maybe not as much as some of you might have liked..but he cut it back. And up untill lastnight against the Celtics, the Pistons have actually been doing a decent job of moving the ball and he had been doing a decent job in getting guys the ball and not dribbling the paint off the floor. Like I said, you guys pick and chose what you want to and dont acknowlege the progress that he at least has taken. The media is doing their best to continue making the guy look bad and put out bogus stories about something Coach Karl has said that was taken completely out of context. I cant think of any player the last decade that has had more of a load to carry on their back then Iverson..the guy has been caring teams so long he doesnt know anything else, so if he were having trouble trying to convert his game even more I wouldn’t blame him. Iverson has a tendency to do a lot of things, but I just dont think he is as bad as some of you try to make him out to be, some of you are over the top. Like the person who said “Iverson will never win a championship as a starter” thats just retarded. He may never win a Championship..but Iverson will retire before coming off anyones bench. And like I said, it doesn’t matter what he really does with his game, theres a double standard that will always be there anyway..he gets demonized for things that other star players get praised for.
And when I said “let dude live” I was basically talking about the media in general and their double standards, not people on this board, i’m just saying lets try to use a little commen sense. We can just agree to disagree on this issue.
November 21st, 2008 at 10:36 pm
control says:
Obama says to McCain “Hows my @ss taste”?
I appreciate what you are saying.
I ain’t knocking the guy for not having a championship, I am explaining that to win a championship, everyone on the team has to mold themselves to their role, for the best of the team. AI refuses to do that, he scores and only scores, and only will score. The guy has great passing ability, great court vision, but he doesn’t use those tools.
AI is an old dog though, ain’t nobody going to be teaching him any new tricks. Doesn’t matter what his environment is, that dog is going to be biting teammates as much as opponents. If a dog bites ya too many times…it’s time to put em down.