The Allen Iverson Era Is Over

Sadly for Allen Iverson this is it. What was supposed to be a story book ending with Iverson winning a championship and looking into the camera and asking the haters " What can you say now". But some things are just not meant to happened and Iverson winning a championship was not meant to happened. Now with an ailing 4 year old daughter at home Iverson has left the Sixers and probably won't be returning to the NBA at all because no teams are going to be interested in him. Teams weren't interested when he played 57 games in Detroit last season and they aren't going to be interested in a guy who played just 28 games this season. Again this comes to the 2008 trade that sent Iverson to the Pistons and that trade hurt Iverson and his legacy more than anything else in his career. But Iverson will still go down as one of the 25 if not 20 greatest NBA players of all-time and he will for sure go down as the best little man ever. Pound for pound Iverson is arguably the best player ever.

The media waited to eat up the icon that brought the hip-hop lifestyle to the NBA and once he went to Detroit and started sacrificing his stats for the good of the team they ate him up. Iverson faced unfair treatment his whole career and he is facing that now. People used to say they wanted to see Iverson sacrifice his stats and once he did some were stupid enough to think that he was done. He was averaging 13.9 ppg and 4.1 apg with the Sixers this season even though that is much lower than his amazing career averages Iverson was still doing good for a guy who is getting 30 mpg and shooting the ball only 11 times a night. Iverson was used to greatness though and those stats were far from great no matter how many minutes he was playing or how many shots he was firing up. But one thing is for sure if it wasn't for Detroit treating Iverson like garbage none of this would have happened. But he is probably gone for good now and its no longer about what he was doing this season its about what he did his whole career and boy was it amazing watching this man play for 14 years in the league. 

Iverson's resume speaks for itself individually there is not one thing this guy didn't do on the basketball court. He will finish his career with an amazing 24,368 points in just 914 games played(16th all-time), 5,624 assists, 1983 steals and an amazing 37,584 minutes played. His career averages are an amazing 27.0 ppg(6th all-time) and 6.2 apg and 2.2 spg. In the playoffs Iverson is second all time in PPG next to Michael Jordan averaging 29.7 ppg in his playoff career. The numbers speak for themselves, since Michael Jordan left the NBA statistically Iverson was the best player.

He was the 1996 Rookie of the year in arguably the best draft class ever, 97 Rookie-Sophmore game MVP, 3 times lead the league in steals, 11 time NBA All-Star, 2 time All-Star game MVP, 4 Scoring titles!(Only Wilt and Jordan have more), the 2001 NBA MVP (one of the best individual seasons in NBA history) and 7 time All-NBA despite playing on some very bad teams. Actively in the NBA  Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal are the only players that have accomplished more than that. 

Iverson will be remembered for these accomplishments his whole career because the next breed of NBA players features only one guy that can probably accomplish more by the time his career is over and that is LeBron James. No little man in league history came close to putting up those numbers. Oh and if Iverson had a Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin Garnett or Tim Duncan in his prime he would have a ring on his finger right now. In his prime Allen Iverson was not fortunate enough to have that amazing side kick that he could team with to win a ring and that explains why Iverson isn't a NBA Champion.

You can't say Iverson wasn't a winner though. He lead a very crappy team to the 2001 NBA Finals and he even won them a game there by dropping 48 points on the Lakeshow and walking over Tyrone Lue. Iverson was not fortunate enough to have talent around him in his prime but he played harder than anyone every night laying his body on the line and doing whatever it took to win. Iverson played through so many injuries throughout his career and people were surprised this guy survived the league after the age of 30. He played every game like it was his last and he didn't let broken elbows stop him. Iverson maybe crippled by the time he is 40 years old because of the abuse he took in his whole NBA career. 

Allen left behind many memories, many scoring explosions and many exciting explosions but nobody will ever forget when he crossed Michael Jordan up. Iverson was a beast on the court and guarding him was like trying to hold water in your hands. Iverson in his prime was arguably the quickest player ever and had arguably the best crossover ever. Iverson was a freak of nature and there will never be another player like Iverson. Iverson pulled off nightly miracles and controlled the Philly crowd. People will miss the nights where he would drop 40 or 50 points and run around the Wachovia Center with his hand to his ear as the crowd screams his name. It was amazing watching this freak of nature embarrass defenders and drop 30 in his sleep.  

But one thing Iverson will be remembered for more than anything is his impact on the league. Iverson was a cultural icon and if you look around the league today there at least 5 players on each team influenced by Allen Iverson. Iverson is arguably the biggest trend setter in sports history he started the cornrows, tattoos, baggy clothing and the famous sleeve. He made the league hip-hop and made it okay to be yourself and represent your culture. The dress code was made because of this man. He did what he wanted weather anyone liked it or not. He even has the second longest running shoe line next to Michael Jordan and his jersey was one of the highest selling of all time.

Iverson was his own man and he was real. Iverson did not turn into an angel for the NBA and he did not change himself so the world would love him. He even made a gangster rap album in 2002. He spoke his mind all the time and was real. When he was the face of the NBA he talked badly about practice, he said he wasn't afraid of Michael Jordan, when he got benched in 2004 he told everyone his career resume, when the NBA made a dress code he spoke his mind and said he didn't like it because it was racist. Speaking his mind may have hurt him late in his career but one thing is for sure Iverson got his point across clearly every time he wanted to.

There will never be another Allen Iverson in the NBA or the sports world. He changed the game forever and he will be missed. You won't forget him though. Next time you see a player arriving for his game in a three piece suit thank Allen Iverson. He made the league what it is today and remember before there was King James there was the "Answer". Next time some young guy breaks a scoring record remember their trying to break Allen Iverson's record. Look across the league and see how many players he influenced. 

Allen Iverson had an amazing career that very few in the next ten years will be able to accomplish. He will go down as a sports icon and sports legend. Yes, the Allen Iverson era is over but how many players had an era? not many and how many players influenced and inspired as many people as Iverson did? not many.

Just remember you never know how good something is till its gone. Now the Era of Allen Iverson is over. 

But what an amazing Era it was.