Why Allen Iverson is a Unique NBA Basketball Player

The professional basketball player enjoys a unique place in modern society.  Of all the professional athletes, he is the one who gets the guaranteed contract for working with a ball, either placing it in a basket, or denying its admission.     Allen Iverson, the newest Detroit Piston, came into the league with two of the quickest feet of any player in history.  Two times he’s been awarded, the MVP award at the mid-season NBA ALL Star Game.  And Once in 2001, he is the smallest player to ever win the league MVP award, given to the best player for that year.

Iverson’s style is to slash to the basketball, take the pounding that he always seems to get, pick himself up and go to the foul line, shoot free throws, and currently has the third highest scoring average in league history behind “His Airness,” Michael Jordan and Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain.  That’s putting “A.I.” as he is also called, in unique company. Right now he is out when what is labeled as a back injury, but when you see the pounding he gets night in and night out, it’s probably safe to say that he needs to tend to an assortment of bumps and bruises.  He averages  41 minutes a game since he came into the League.  But when he comes back to action for his team, the Pistons, from his injury, he will be starting from the bench, for the first time in his career.  He probably has started his entire career playing basketball, so an adjustment is required of him for the first time in his life.

While coming off the bench is not the worst place to start games, in the NBA, where salaries in the millions of dollars is the norm, not the exception, still most star players prefer to start. It’s easy to see why, have you seen the start of NBA games lately?  They have all the fireworks, loud speaking home announcers, like John Mason, who is famous for his clever and inspiring introduction at the Palace where the Detroit Piston and Iverson play. 

That dislike probably stems all the way back to college if not back to elementary school.  All the guys wanted to start, if you didn’t start it was like you didn’t even play.  Never mind that some of the great players in the NBA history have been bench players. Why these Piston’s had a player by the name of Vinnie Johnson, nicknamed the “Microwave” and you know what that means, don’t you?   “VJ” was probably the best 6th man, in history:  Johnson’s website had this to say about his career in Detroit:  “Piston great Vinnie Johnson had his number retired to The Palace rafters on February 5th, 1994.”

“Vinnie joined the Pistons as a player in 1981 and became an integral member of Detroit’s back-to-back World Championship team in 1989 and 1990. Known as the “Microwave”, he spent 10 seasons terrorizing opponents with his hot shooting hand. The biggest shot of his career came in the last second of Game Five of the 1990 NBA Finals, clinching the Pistons’ second straight NBA Championship.”  Detroit defeated the Portland Trailblazers to win the championship. Johnson scored 10,146 points in his Detroit career, ranking him sixth on the Pistons all-time scoring list. He works locally as the Chairman/CEO of Piston Automotive.” (www.wikipedia.org)

Another great player coming off the bench ended up beating the Piston’s. In 2005, the Pistons were the defending champions from 2004, they had defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, in 5 games, but this was facing the San Antonio Spurs and they had a bench player who was exceptional, he was “big shot Rob,”  Robert Horry.  (www.wikipedia.org)

“In Game 5 of the 2005 NBA Finals against the Detroit Pistons, Horry provided more heroics in the fourth quarter to boost San Antonio to a win and 3–2 series lead over Detroit. After only scoring three points in the first three quarters, Horry added 21 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. The Spurs went on to win Game 5 96–95 after Horry hit a game-winning three-point shot in the final seconds. After winning the series in seven games, the Spurs won their third NBA Championship in seven seasons and Horry received his sixth championship ring. So evidently it’s not how you start the game it’s how but you finish.

The latest word from Iverson is that he is all right with his new role, coming off the bench.  He is on record as saying that he just wants to win a championship and if this will contribute to that process then he’s on board for that. Why it has come to this, that a great player is forced to come off the beach after being a starter all of his career, is due to the fact that prior to the new arrangement, the team had lost 9 games with Iverson starting and Richard Hamilton coming off the bench, something which was not to great to “Rip” as he’s known. Piston Coach Michael Curry, a former player for the team and a few others, and at one time was the players representative, decided to make switch around the same time as Hamilton, thought out loud, that it didn’t make him much sense to keep coming off the bench and the team was losing.  Regardless of who and why the re-change was instituted the Piston went on a winning streak with “Rip” back in the starting rotation.  The Pistons beat the defending champions, The Boston Celtics and the Orlando Magic in the same week.

It will be interesting to see how the new arrangement works with Iverson back playing his old game.  The Pistons can only go up from here because this season was beginning to look like a wash, or a waste.  That with a team who had played in the Eastern Conference Finals about six years in a row, which is quite outstanding if you think about.  It was definitely better than the Buffalo Bills, in the NFL.

The Bills won two consecutive American Football League titles in 1964 and 1965, but the club has not won a league championship since the merger. Buffalo is also the only team to win four consecutive American Football Conference Championships, though they failed to win any of the subsequent Super Bowls.

Here’s a shot out to the rest of the league, the Piston’s if they get this right could be tough to deal with in the playoffs.  Why, because, right now with “Rip” back in the starting lineup, he is the Piston’s leading scorer.  But it’s how he get’s those points that has defenders in the league frustrated.  Like former NBA Great sharp shooter, Reggie Miller, of the Indiana Pacers, who has since retired, they both run and run and run around picks, or blocks set up by their teammates, this makes it difficult to guard such a player, how can you keep up with him.  So now after players have been chasing Hamilton around the world so it seems, he goes out and in comes Allen Iverson.  Did I mention the 27 point average, and the gritty determination that prevents him from staying down and he’s basically willing moving target.  If it works, the Pistons just might challenge for their usual spot ending the season, playing in the Eastern Conference Finals.  But Iverson is not there for that, no he won’t stop until he get’s a championship ring, something that Richard Hamilton already has.