One of The Top Ten Athletes of All Time: Allen Iverson

Allen, as Michael Jordan demonstrated when sick with the flu, gives everything he has at any given time. Yes, there have been basketball players who could shoot better & pass with more effectiveness, yet in his prime, AI played at a pace that no opposition had the Answer for. The other side of this view is that his teammates were not always equipped to maximize his impact.

Consider if you were the General Manager of a basketball team and were going to build your franchise around a single player. Often, it has been a big man, like George Mikan, Moses Malone or Bill Russell who was the lynchpin of a successful long-term run of championships with the Boston Celtics.  More recently, players like Magic Johnson, Lebron James, Larry Bird, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant have revolutionized the theory of building a team around a “big” man, since these athletes can effectively play many offensive or defensive positions, which subsequently motivates and inspire all players on a team. Allen Iverson is an exception to this transitional view, since at roughly 6ft tall, a team could still be built around a player like him, even as the average height of these exceptional athletes has increased.

Perhaps A.I. eclipsed the exploits of all players because he overcame all of these physical ‘disadvantages’ and if you decided to build your team for speed, his speed & tenacity would be unmatched.  Being divisive is an unfair knock against someone that spent the majority of his career with the 76ers.  His leadership traits, mental guile and keen understanding of the game, have been criticized and minimized simply because of a shortage of championship rings.

Allen Iverson was an example of many things that are still great about sports.  He was a fearless competitor and someone that gives 100% effort both mentally and physically.  I admire those qualities in A.I. and believe that the pace and quickness with which he has played has been astonishing to even the elite athletes he competed against.  His success as a little man in a league of giants has arguably influenced whole organizations in redefining their approaches to the game.  Other than personality conflicts with coaches, AI appears to be a teammate in the best sense of the word since he plays hurt, vocalizes his passion to succeed and leads by example.

In an era where team loyalty has declined due to free agency and the lure of money, Iverson toiled longer than most within one organization; his move to Denver simply came too late in his career.  He has competed internationally for his country and won. Both Coach Thompson and Coach Brown have had a strong influence on AI’s ability to thrive within sport and I think they have also limited his off-the-court mistakes.  Any reasonable fan should not ignore bad behavior and some may claim that AI’s off-the-court antics place his positive contributions in jeopardy.  In a culture where guns, drugs and violence have a pervasive sub-culture acceptance and privacy intrusions are over-the-top, one could put the various charges against Allen Iverson in context. While Allen may not have had all the Answers for all the issues in his personal life, I prefer to not charge A.I. in the ‘court’ of public opinion and anticipate that when his playing days are over that he will become a role model in his new endeavors.

I say role model because his allure is undeniable and the vicissitudes of his actions are more reflective of people and society in general than any manufactured images that corporations or the media attempt to implant in our minds like the recent fall from marketing grace of a golfer and Olympic swimmer. AI has been good for the game of basketball and this should carry over into other areas, if not into governance like the retired footballer, Alan Page.

Basketball can epitomize the concept of team as the likes of Princeton & UCLA define, but to win at the NBA level, it is necessary to adopt a war-like approach. This is why players like Dennis Rodman have been so pivotal to team’s that have won the prestigious trophy. Rick Pitino may have been one of the best NBA coaches but perhaps he did not embrace the nastiness of the game sufficiently? Phil Jackson on the other hand has long since dropped his tag of only coaching superstars and from his playing days, has effectively harnessed this semi-destructive part of the game into his team’s overall objective, which is to win.  Winning is both the only and final measuring stick for the best players.  Just ask John Stockton, Karl Malone, Ron Artest and a host of others.

Now, no one would select a team of five Allen Iverson’s to compete against five Michael Jordans or Kareem Abdul Jabbars but that makes his impact even the more remarkable. Also, consider that the likes of Scotty Pippen & James Worthy rounded out the team’s of some of the commonly recognized greatest players of all time.

A team with Allen Iverson & Dwayne Wade filling the guard positions, Larry Bird & Michael Jordan as forwards with Magic Johnson at the center position would, on paper give away size and suffer from foul trouble.  On the other hand, the ability of all of these players to read the game, impose their wills and compensate by any means possible along with speed of thought and feet would be almost impossible to overcome. 

Allen Iverson was a warrior.  His career need not be measured by statistics.  If you were going into battle, he is the type of athlete that you want on your side.  It is precisely this measurement of the man that transcends his status from a top basketball player to a Top Ten athlete.  A.I. could have been a top player in many other sports because he possessed the qualities that are so rare. While other speedy athletes such as the sprinter Bob Hayes have made a transition to another sport, whatever sport A.I. opted for, be it boxing, football, soccer or ice hockey, I submit that his speed & tenacity would have had huge influence on that sport. It is this transcendent hypothesis that clearly lands him among the Top Ten Greatest Athletes of All Time.

In conclusion, it could be argued that A.I. was not even the best little man in NBA history. A case could be made that Nate Archibald or Isaiah Thomas or another should hold that title.  My assertion is that A.I.’s sheer athletic prowess and an indomitable will to win, perhaps fueled in part by being undersized, and is manifested in A.I. more than 99.9% of superior athletes, surpasses his basketball accomplishments.  Yes, A.I. was the shortest player on record to win the NBA’s Most Valuable Player trophy in 2001 and he will be remembered as the crossover king.  As an athlete, Allen Iverson belongs in a peer group that is exclusive.

References:

The photos shared here courtesy of the following websites:

http://www.basketwallpapers.com/Images-05/Allen-Iverson-Pistons-Widescreen-Wallpaper.jpg

http://www.basketwallpapers.com/Images-06/Allen-Iverson-Streetball-Wallpaper.jpg

http://www.nba.com/sixers/features/iverson_injuries.html

Notes:

The poster of Allen Iverson’s injuries has been used as motivation for professional teams around the world to include professional soccer in Scotland.

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