The Allen Iverson Saga Has Gone From Sad to Pathetic

Oh how the titans do fall. Allen Iverson found himself scrambling in the offseason this past summer for a job, a team, any team, that would take a risk on the 34 year old former league MVP and scoring champ. Five years ago no one would have guessed such a thing would be possible.

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I’m sorry Allen, but your antics have become tiresome and there is not one competitive team in the league that feels your incredible talent is worth the trouble anymore. You found yourself exiled from Philadelphia, a city that once embraced you as a titan. From there you found a fresh opportunity in Denver to play alongside a fresh group of promising young players, but your inability to share the ball and your mouth and your failure to participate in practices stretched their patience thin. You then found your way to a Detroit Pistons club that welcomed you with yet another opportunity to prove your worth but somehow that too wasn’t good enough. After only one season they couldn’t wait to get rid of you.

So now, Iverson becomes a sideshow in Memphis, a team that really doesn’t have any use at all for him except squeezing that last bit of marketability out of any following he may have. With an already promising back court in O.J. Mayo and Mike Conley, Memphis will likely bring him in off the bench. That’s not saying Iverson is no longer capable of scoring twenty to thirty a night, it’s just that everyone now realizes he cannot lead a team to a championship. Don’t agree? He’d have to prove me-and everyone else- wrong first.

The Iverson story is so comparable to that of Terrell Owens of the NFL that it isn’t even funny. Owens, like Iverson, has never really grasped how to put the team-any team he’s played for- first. Owens has had multiple chances throughout his career to prove he is worth the trouble and finally, this past offseason, he found himself, like Iverson, looking for a job that no one wanted to provide. He took a huge pay cut and joined a club that possessed no chance of competing for glory. Terrell’s season has been a major disappointment and it looks as if the sun will soon set on what could have- and should have- been a much better career.

So will Iverson’s season end up like Owens’s has? I wouldn’t bet against it. The Memphis Grizzlies have a group of young players that could turn into a solid core in the coming years. As they mature the Grizzlies, once they realize they don’t need Allen Iverson to sell tickets and jerseys, will part ways with the troubled player. This is Rudy Gay’s team, not AI’s. Marc Gasol, Mike Conley, Hasheem Thabeet and O.J. Mayo are his entourage and a darn good one at that. This team has the potential to be a force both offensively and defensively and, though it’s a bit of a stretch, if the youngsters can put it together on the court, they may just make some noise in the west.

It isn’t like Iverson has done much to change the opinions of others or prove to his new teammates that he is committed. He didn’t practice much over the summer, barely played in the pre-season and is missing the first game of the year due to a minor injury that likely stems from him being out of shape.

At least Iverson found a job, for now at least.