Iverson Needs to Retire?
People always love to bash Iverson because he has never won, cant gel with his teammates and has a “me” first attitude. All of those are opinions and one can think that at times when watching Iverson. People look at his stint with the Sixers and how would always hog the ball and take tons of shots. That Sixers built that team around Iverson and they needed Iverson taking tons of shots every game to win. Is it Iverson’s fault that management never surrounded him with quality players? Iverson took that team full of role players to the NBA championship game and beat the Lakers in Game 1. Granted they lost the next four games but Iverson did all that by himself. Iverson sold tickets, put fans in the seats and made it interesting to watch the Sixers play. Once Iverson was traded the Sixers attendance dropped and there was no incentive to see them play. Andre Iguodala is not franchise player yet the clowns who run the Sixers gave him a “max deal”. I will not talk too much about that is another post for another day.
The Sixers trade Iverson to the Denver Nuggets. While in Denver Iverson got his shots but the Nuggets never got out of the first in the playoffs. Yup, you guessed it. It was Iverson’s fault. The Denver situation is kind of hard to understand. The team was athletic, could run the court and score points. Their problem was defense. Sorry but one person cannot affect a whole teams defensive mind set. The Nuggets would drop 140 points and give up 145. I know you are going to make mention when Billups was traded for Iverson the Nuggets starting winning. Yes that is correct but its too early to be making any kind of statements. Wait till the playoffs to see how far the Nuggets go. I am not quick to say this or say that. All I say is wait till it counts.
When Iverson came to the Pistons he played his role. Took less shots and just did his thing while getting his feet with his new teammates. I felt the Pistons coach, Michael Curry, handled the situation wrong. He always insisted on putting Rodney Stuckey in the starting lineup. This created tension on who would come off the bench. In the beginning it was Richard Hamilton and as time went on eventually it was Iverson. Why didn’t Curry bring Stuckey off the bench. The kid is in his second year and is clearly the future so why the urgency and making sure he starts? Did Curry not think about starting Iverson at the 1, Hamilton at the 2, Prince at the 3, whomever at the 4 and Sheed at the 5? I felt this would have been the killer lineup for the Pistons. Michael Curry tried every possibility except for this one.
I am not making excuses for Iverson and his gameplay. Yes he shoots a lot. It woudn’t matter if he was efficient but when he is shooting 42% from the field it looks ugly. In his prime Iverson was dishing out 7 assists/game and that number could have been higher if he had better players around him. In Denver and Detroit Iverson was one of many problems on why those teams did meet their expectations. In Philly, he just didn’t have nobody to help him. Don’t you think if Iverson was rolling with Shaq he would have had better success? One person cannot win a title all by himself. Look at Lebron, the Cavs are going out of there way to surround him with the best available talent. Lebron is the second best player on the plant YET his employer sees that even he needs to have quality players around him to flourish. This is something the Sixers brass could not grasp. There is a direct correlation the Sixers success with who was running the organization. When Pat Croce was running the show the Sixers went to the championship. That offseason he left and Billy King took over. It was all downhill after that. Billy King has to be one of the worse GM’s in basketball when he was in charge. I never liked him as a GM and he put the Sixers into a hole that will take years to get out of.
Iverson needs to be on the right team that caters to his game. If Iverson ran with the Suns, Knicks, Mavs and etc he will be flourishing as we speak. You cannot put Iverson in a half court offense, it slows him down and the Pistons were exactly that. The closest he saw in a free offense was Nuggets and like I explained earlier for some reason it didn’t work. I always say to my friends that the day Iverson comes off the bench he needs to retire. This is something Iverson has said as well. He has made enough money throughout his career where he should live comfortably if he chooses to retire. People find it offensive that Iverson said that he would rather retire than come of the bench. I commend Iverson for his candor and keeping it real. I cannot stand when an older player who was once a superstar gets signed during the offseason or midseason for a reduced role. Its like Michael Jordan coming off the bench to play twenty minutes a night. Its like one of those children pictures where they say “Whats wrong with this picture?”. I don’t want to see Iverson getting burnt by the young guns just how Jason Kidd gets burnt on most nights. There is no need for him to tarnish his own image. Just like a boxer who stays in the game way past his prime Iverson has to make sure it doesn’t happen. If he cannot secure a deal where he is starting then he needs to step aside and let the younger guys take the reins. He will go down in history as one of the most players in NBA history. >
