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Allen Ezail Iverson (born June 7, 1975, in Hampton, Virginia[1]), nicknamed A.I. and The Answer, is an American professional basketball player for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association. He is an All-Star point/shooting guard. A ten-year veteran at the age of 31, he is considered by many to be among the greatest guards of his generation and one of the most prolific scorers in the history of the game.
In 2003, Iverson was ranked 53rd on SLAM Magazine's Top 75 NBA players of all time.
After two outstanding seasons at Georgetown, Allen Iverson was the first player picked in the 1996 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. Iverson quickly established himself as one of the premier pointguards in the NBA. In his debut against the Milwaukee Bucks, he scored 30 points. He was named Schick Rookie of the Year and was a member of the NBA All-Rookie First Team.Iverson led the Sixers with 23.5 points (sixth in the NBA), 7.5 assists (11th) and 2.07 steals (seventh), leading NBA rookies in each category.Despite his outstanding play on the court, Iverson often experienced difficulty handling the media and pressure of his new celebrity status. He was criticized by players, coaches, and the press alike, who often pointed to his lack of respect for great NBA players and his selfishness with the ball, and often backed this up by emphasizing the Sixers' poor record despite his achievements.Even though his scoring dropped from 23.5 in 96/97 to 22 that year, Allen became more of a team player.In the 1999-2000 season, Iverson had his first trip to the playoffs, having played well in a year in which he set records, was the NBA scoring champion, and a starter for the All Star game - Iverson felt he deserved to go to the play-offs, He started all ten playoff games and averaged 44.4 minutes per game despite being hampered by a number of nagging injuries. He averaged 26.2 points, 4.5 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 1.20 steals per game, with a high of 40 points in the First Round opener at Charlotte on April 22.2000-2001 MVP season
Iverson arguably had his best season in 2001 - he led his team to win their first ten games, he started and won All-Star MVP honors at the All-Star game, was the NBA scoring champion for the second time, was the NBA steals champion, and ultimately led his team to an NBA finals appearance against the Los Angeles Lakers' Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant.Relationship with Larry Brown
For most of the early portion of Iverson's career, his head coach with the Sixers was Larry Brown. Iverson often praised Brown, saying that he would not have achieved so much in the sport without Brown's guidance. Iverson had a love-hate relationship with Brown, however, and the two frequently clashed, most famously after the 76ers were defeated in the first round of the 2002 NBA Playoffs. Brown criticized Iverson for missing team practices and Iverson defended himself with what would become a famous and oft-quoted monologue which some observers felt indicated a lack of appreciation by Iverson for the importance of practice.If Coach tells you that I missed practice, then that's that. I may have missed one practice this year but if somebody says he missed one practice of all the practices this year, then that's enough to get a whole lot started. I told Coach Brown that you don't have to give the people of Philadelphia a reason to think about trading me or anything like that. If you trade somebody, you trade them to make the team better...simple as that. I'm cool with that. I'm all about that. The people in Philadelphia deserve to have a winner. It's simple as that. It goes further than that ... If I can't practice, I can't practice. It is as simple as that. It ain't about that at all. It's easy to sum it up if you're just talking about practice. We're sitting here, and I'm supposed to be the franchise player, and we're talking about practice. I mean listen, we're sitting here talking about practice, not a game, not a game, not a game, but we're talking about practice. Not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game last it's my last but we're talking about practice man. How silly is that? ... Now I know that I'm supposed to lead by example and all that but I'm not shoving that aside like it don't mean anything. I know it's important, I honestly do but we're talking about practice. We're talking about practice man. We're talking about practice. We're talking about practice. We're not talking about the game. We're talking about practice. When you come to the arena, and you see me play, you've seen me play right, you've seen me give everything I've got, but we're talking about practice right now. ... Hey I hear you, it's funny to me too, hey it's strange to me too but we're talking about practice man, we're not even talking about the game, when it actually matters, we're talking about practice ... How in the hell can I make my teammates better by practicing? [1]— Allen Iverson at a press conference on May 8, 2002He said "practice" more times than he's actually practiced.
— Larry Brown speaking to reporters the next day
Nonetheless, when Brown left the 76ers in 2003, both he and Iverson indicated that the two were on good terms and genuinely fond of one another. As evidence, when Iverson went down and didn't get up during a playoff game against Brown's Pistons, now-rival coach Larry Brown raced onto the court and was the first one at Iverson's side. Iverson later reunited with Brown when Iverson became a member and co-captain of the 2004 United States Olympic men's basketball team.In 2005, on Stephen A. Smith's ESPN talkshow Quite Frankly, Iverson was asked to outline his problems with Brown. Iverson declared that he was privileged and honored to have had Brown as his coach, without any qualms, reservations or criticism; he described Brown as an overwhelmingly positive influence on his basketball career and in his personal life. Smith then played a clip of Brown describing "The Answer" as an ideal role-model for American children, and Iverson wept.[2]
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