Allen Iverson was the turn of the millennia not only one of the best basketball the NBA, but by the way pop culture icon. His pozaboiskowa arrogance and style of wearing out, coupled with fantastic skills playing one on one and short stature made him a role model for many young basketball players in the US and Poland. Today we know more and more about alcohol problems that led to his downfall.
Three classic moments Iverson, best remembered years later, that his "crossover", which in 1997 froze Michael Jordan, the famous crossing over Tyronne Lue in a win over No. 1 of the Finals in 2001, but it was also his press conference of May 2002 With as much as 22 times used the word "practice" (training).
In the newly published biography Iverson journalist Kent Babb writes that the leader of the Philadelphia 76ers could be that day under the influence of alcohol. In the book, alcohol appears several times and he was supposed to be one of the causes of marital breakdown Iverson and the reason for that after the end of a 34 year old played in the NBA yet only 28 matches.
The press conference took place on 7 May 2002. A year earlier, Iverson and the 76ers reached the NBA Finals, where they lost 1-4 to the Los Angeles Lakers. In 2001/02, however, they won only 43 of 82 matches and lost 2-3 in the first round of the Boston Celtics 24-year-old Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker senior year.
Iverson won in that series averaging 30.0 points but hit only 38% of the shots of the game and ranked among barely 4.2 assists in the match. After the exits from the playoffs the 76ers coach Larry Brown openly talked about the fact that he does not know if he would be able to do something more with the team, whose leader leaves the workouts, and when to them is, it is not applied properly to work. Brown talked about it already during the 2001/02 season, and the press of Philadelphia watched and wrote about this topic, above all, Phil Jasner already died of "Philadelphia Daily News".
It is up to Jasnera Iverson came just his now famous "You talking about practice?". Iverson was not joking. I really felt that training does not mean much and that only count matches. In the book Babba is more about what happened that day.
Four days after losing to the Celtics Iverson is late for an appointment with Brown, then in the parking lot both quarreled about Iverson's future at the club. Brown shortly after the completion of the series said that every player the 76ers can be traded and did not exclude from this group Iverson. He wished to make it clear that there are no people in the 76ers irreplaceable. Iverson asked Brown if the parking lot does it mean that the 76ers are ready to replace it. Brown said he did not.
After this conversation Iverson and his friend went on unspecified place and then returned for a press conference to talk to the media.
Brown says in his book "My guess is that they went somewhere to fool around," then Babb adds that saying this former coach of the 76ers made a gesture of opening a bottle of beer. Then also speaks 76ers General Manager Billy King.
- I felt that something is wrong with it, but if we were sure that it is drunk, it never would let him to this conference.
Babb adds that few people present at this conference even before it started wondering if Iverson is drunk. King attempted to prevent its commencement, and team owner Pat Croce, who watched it on television, reportedly suspected that Iverson is under the influence of alcohol and in the middle of the conference asked his wife has switched off the TV.
- He was under the influence. If he was not, it umiałby come out of this as he began to speak. There would flow so much. They knew about those journalists who talked with him for years and were around him several times - says John Smallwood of the "Daily News", who was also then at this conference.
When Iverson ended his career in 2013, he said that he should not take part in that conference.
- In the course of this conference was not about the workouts, but that can be transferred with the Philadelphia 76ers. Nobody on that later did not speak. Nobody talked about what it really was the conference - Iverson said at the time.
Biography written by Babba "Not a Game: The Incredible Rise and Fall of the Unthinkable Allen Iverson," recalls yet another critical moments in Iverson's personal life, in which its share could have alcohol. Blogger Drew Maggary of the portal "Deadspin" Babba wrote shortly after the release of the book and asked him whether he thought Iverson was a bad man. Author wrote:
- Yes, I think a little bit, yes, but wish it was not so. Like many people, I grew up watching Iverson and really loved it. He was short. It was great. It had everything somewhere. I wanted to be like him. Even when I was doing "research" for the book, I could not decide whether to love him or hate. In the process of writing several times I wondered whether I was unfair to him. He seemed too much money, ill-treated his ex-wife, left the children alone in the hotel to go get drunk at the bar. There was a lot of such examples, but does that make him a bad person? I really loved his family, but perhaps his biggest mistake was that he was very loyal.
- A year ago, in July I found a few people who wrote to Iverson on Twitter, sharply criticizing him. One of them was a father from the state of Georgia. His son begged to go about it in order to participate in the training camp for young basketball players, organized by Iverson. I found this father and I contacted him. Apparently, every day of the camp promised him leading basketball players and their parents that Iverson finally appears. And every next day Iverson again was not. It turned out, even the camp leader had no contact with him for several weeks. I just hoped that in the end will be at the camp, signed his name. That weekend he had also appear on the evening organized by the Foundation LeSean McCoy. Apparently, he is sitting alone at the bar and drank.
My only contact with Iverson took place during the semifinals of EuroBasket 2009, which was played in Katowice. "AI then flew to Polish for promotional purposes. A few days before his arrival editors of" Virtual Polish "has set me a few minutes of an interview with Iverson. Do you believe in the fact that it happens? I had my doubts, already knowing how Iverson in a nonchalant approach to the media. It turned out that, like running that camp in Georgia, managers in Poland Iverson also had great influence on him and Iverson had washed out of the hall at half-time Spain with Greece. Only a few journalists managed to get partyzancko VIP Grandstand s and replace with the two sentences before he fled to the airport.
In 2016, Allen Iverson will be able to be included in the "Hall of Fame", ie to the basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield. As a former regular season MVP and 11-time participant Matches Stars should be in it without a problem. We will see, however, whether the revelations about his bankruptcy, problems with alcohol and personal life will have no negative impact on his potential nomination. They should not, because Iverson is not the only potential "Hall-of-Famer," which had personal problems, but that's how he survived his fourth decade now 40-year-old life cast a shadow over his career.
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