Allen Iverson Is Still Great and Still Valuable

You think Allen Iverson is done? You think he is not valuable? You think he is selfish and cannot win? You think he destroys teams? Well you're 100 percent wrong.

Remember when Allen Iverson quietly averaged 26.4 ppg on 46 percent shooting from the field along with 7.2 apg a season ago? Chances are you don't remember.

Why? There's only two reasons

1. You try to forget because you hate this man or

2. You listened to the negatives. Its not you're fault if you are reason 2 because for Allen, there were not too many positives from the media.

Why? It's because of the tattoos, the braids (not anymore), the gangster rap album, the attitude off the court.

The hip hop culture that this man brought into the league changed the NBA forever. 

Not too many players had tattoos and braids and the heart to actually show off their love for hip hop before Allen jumped on to the scene as a skinny kid from the ghetto.

He brought his friends and basically told the NBA you cannot pick who I hang out with or how I dress or what my hobbies are. He was the first.

Players thought it was not right to be hip hop in front of people like David Stern and other major NBA executives.

But then came Allen who had braids, tats and rap albums (he did not even get to release it because the lyrics were too rough).

He did not care what they thought about him and suddenly made it right to be like this. Look at the NBA before 97 and look at it now how many players have followed his trends.

But the NBA had to get rid of this when it started. But there was a problem. You see if Allen Iverson was just a normal player doing the things he did off the court and the things he said, there would be no Allen Iverson in the league right now.

But the problem was Allen Iverson was not a normal player; he was dominant as could be. He was unstoppable and a nightmare for opposing teams.

He backed his off court issues and his lifestyle (the one the league hated and still hates) with his amazing numbers and ability to take over games.

He started by winning Rookie Of The Year in arguably the best draft class ever. He went on to be a 10-time All-Star, NBA MVP, four-time scoring champion, three-time steals champion, two-time All-star game MVP, selected to many All-NBA teams.

He has scored roughly 24,000 points, has about 5,500 assists and about 2,000 steals. For his career he is averaging 27.1 ppg and 6.2 apg and 2.2 steals per game and an amazing 41.4 minutes per game.

Pretty amazing what he has done. Oh I almost forgot he is barely 6 feet tall and weighs 165 pounds.

Now that is amazing. You find me a player that has done all this at such a small size. There is guys up to a foot taller that have not done these things.

He has one of the best careers in NBA history. He played through many injuries; he played hurt more than anyone in the league and is the toughest player to ever play the game.

He takes hits on every possession, gets back up, and does the same thing over and over. He is one of the greatest scorers this game has seen, and he is one of the top 30 players ever to play this game.

Nobody can do the things he's done at his size. So how was the league going to change someone like that. The answer was: they couldn't.

But there is one thing missing on that list. Kobe Bryant, who has an amazing career just like Allen, just got his fourth title about an hour ago. But people ask why does Allen not have one? Well the answer to that is: bad management.

Allen did single handedly take maybe the least talented team to the NBA Finals in 2001 and he even won a game by scoring 48 in game 1. But Allen failed to go there again. Ignorant haters out there started to blame him for everything bad that happened.

Whenever he would lose a playoff series even to this day, it is always Allen's fault. That goes back to his image making others hate him and the fact that he has one of the best careers in history by doing it his way has really pissed people off.

All these ignorant people did not realize that one of the reasons he does not have a ring is because when Allen was in his prime for 10 years in Philadelphia he did not have any help and no talent surrounding him at all. The best asset he had was a banged-up 32-year-old Chris Webber.

Chris helped them make the playoffs and finish seventh, but everyone is smart enough to know at that point in his career Chris Webber was not a championship player that could help Allen Iverson beat a dominant Pistons team.

Allen was so caught up in making the situation with Chris work that he actually went on to average eight assists along with 30 points, but Philadelphia never had the best coach in the league or the best duo in the league or the best bench in the league. Allen never had a good supporting cast.

Then in 2006, a season after averaging 33 ppg and almost eight assists, he got what he wanted: a good supporting cast. The man that had put Philadelphia on his back for 10 years and maybe kept the franchise alive had been traded to the Denver Nuggets.

The Nuggets had to make a quick move to save themselves and get into the playoffs due to the suspensions of J.R. Smith and Carmelo Anthony for 15 games. Allen came in did his usual thing averaged 25 points on just 18 shots and the lowest usage rate % for his career.

He co-existed with Melo, but those 15 games Melo was missing led them to a lower seed in the playoffs, which made them face the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs.

Again, Allen was blamed. Not George Karl's defence or Carmelo Anthony or the Spurs just being more talented. For some reason it was once again Allen's fault.

The following season Allen at 32 years old went on to do something no 32 year old under 6 foot 5 player had ever done which was average 26.4 ppg and 7.1 apg on 46 percent shooting. It was already hard enough to do that when his body was younger and now he was doing it at the age of 32.

Allen's usage rate was low with the Nuggets but he still managed to put up amazing numbers. Think of all the players over 32 let alone 30 that declined immediately.

Guys like Vince Carter, Shaq, Chris Webber, Steve Nash, Tracy McGrady (the list goes on) could not do that and they were not guys that were 6 feet, 165 either.

It was clear Allen was born to play basketball and was probably going to take a long time to slow down. No matter how many people said this is the year he would break down, he just answered back.

But that same season, he lead the Nuggets in a amazing Western Conference to a 52-30 record (only two fewer games than this season) But it was not enough and they had to face the eventual runner ups the Los Angeles Lakers.

Guess who was blamed? That's right the tatted up, hip-hop, so called "bad-boy" Allen Iverson.

Again, not George Karl's inability to make his players work in a proper system and not his inability to make them play defence or not Carmelo Anthony shooting horribly in that series.

It was not blamed on the team but once again it was unfairly blamed on Allen Iverson. This was looking good for the NBA: the man they had to sadly make the face of the NBA for so many years, and the man who had one of the highest selling jerseys in history, and the man who sold the second-most sneakers behind Mike was getting blamed, and they and media were the ones blaming him. It was looking great.

So The Nuggets thought it was all Allen's fault and traded him to the Pistons, who had made six straight Eastern Conference finals and had a great chemistry and great leader Chauncey Billups.

The Nuggets would go onto a great season with 54 wins and the Western finals were they failed to defeat eventual Champions the Lakers once again. But this time it was not Billups' fault. The media would just move on.

Oh yeah and Allen? He was again blamed for Detroit's sweep (the one he was not even playing in). He was blamed for Michael Curry's confusing rotations. He was blamed for Detroit failing without their leader, Billups.

Michael Curry made some weird decisions this year with Allen. For some reason who could not get one of the best players in history to fit into the team. He wanted Allen Iverson to be Chauncey Billups, and that just was not going to work, because they are such different players.

Chauncey helped the Nuggets, and suddenly people thought he was more valuable. But this is all again because of the media feeding faulty information into people's brains. Billups was going to help them because Billups is a point guard who can lead a team and has for six straight years, he was going to help them because they were already broken up.

He got added into a open offence and took over as the coach, George Karl just stood on the sidelines. Chauncey did great he transformed the Nuggets because that's what the Nuggets needed they needed a guy who could slow it down and run an offence.

Allen could not do that but it was not his fault because the offence was run through him for so many years. Allen's abilities were too good to fit into the Pistons structured offence.

They had a lot of talent but to much ego there was no way Rip,Tayshaun and Sheed were going to let a 33 year old guard who has had a better career than those three combined come in for their best friend and take over a team that was already so successful.

So Allen decided to make a sacrifice like Ray, KG and Paul thinking it would too bring him a ring. Allen's usage rate was way down and he was no longer in the top 20 in usage rate.

He decrease his shot attempts from 19 all the way to 14. Meaning realistically he could only average 30 (what they expected him to do) if he hit all 14 shots. It was damn near impossible.

Allen did make a sacrifice he decided to bring down his amazing career averages (which have booked him a place in Springfield at the Hall of Fame) all the way down just so that team would be happy.

But they still were not happy Rip, Tayshaun, and Sheed went onto having their usual numbers and Allen was forced to come off the bench and drop his averages all the way down to 17.4 ppg and 4.9 apg.

This led to people saying Chauncey was more valuable because he would not have done this. Obviously, Chauncey would not have done this because Chauncey did not have a dominant career to keep going he is not a first ballot Hall of Famer and he is not one of the greatest to ever play the game.

Anyone with that kind of career would have an ego or at least the right to ask if he can be who he has been for 13 years. The Pistons was not a great situation for Allen Iverson. But it was all his fault they lost.

Not their Rookie coaches fault or Joe Dumars fault or Hamilton's fault or young Stuckey's fault. It was his fault.

Eventually the Pistons were fed up with Allen and decided to piss him off even more by making him come off the bench. He played 3 games and averaged about 16 mpg. For crying out loud Will Bynum! was getting more playtime than the great Allen Iverson.

You know something is wrong with the coach when A.I. is not getting more minutes than Rip but when he is getting less playing time than unknown Will Bynum there is seriously something wrong with the management and coaches.

Lets look at some things Allen did for the Pistons. His $22 million contract is gone which can help them rebuild this dominant franchise.  That's pretty much it. But what did they do for him? They affected him.

They brought down his averages they brought down his value all because they did not use him properly and did not let him be him. 

The Pistons gave Allen a bad rep and helped the media do what they wanted to do: break down the hip hop so called "gangster'' and "thug" Allen Iverson by blaming it on him.

This season, the Pistons did not help Allen at all but he was willing to make his sacrifices. But when you ask a player like Allen to come off the bench, there is something wrong with you.

My point being, don't look at Allen's averages for this year and say he is slowed down. He is not near slowed down or "washed up;" yes he is 34, but think about the things he did at 32 and 33 is that not when he was supposed to be "washed up"? 

Not him maybe some other guys in this league that had good careers but not Allen. My point being Allen Iverson may have lost half a step because he is not the fastest guy in the league anymore but he is probably still top 10. 

Hey, every player who is over 32 loses a step when they get old it is natural. But Allen is not normal he is amazing. Allen did not slow down the Pistons and the media Slowed him down.

This summer Allen gets to choose where he wants to go. Rumors say he is going to Charlotte and reuniting with his old coach Larry Brown. Wouldn't that be great, Larry would use him the way he did with the Sixers back in the day and Allen could go back to being the Allen he was in Philly and Denver.

No matter where Allen goes and no matter what the media says or what haters say, this man will play harder than anyone every night. 

Allen Iverson will be back, people. Back with a vengeance.

Allen will be back with a team that he picks, and if that team lets Allen Iverson be Allen Iverson there are a lot of people that are going to eat their words.

Keep questioning Allen; just remember...he is the Answer.