Allen Iverson to Reportedly Announce Retirement from NBA Before 2013-14 Season

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...nce-retirement-from-nba-before-2013-14-season



Three years after the NBA decided it was done with Allen Iverson, the 11-time All-Star is expected to officially declare that the feeling is now mutual.

According to Tzvi Twersky of Slam, a source close to Iverson said a retirement announcement is imminent.

Iverson last played in 2010 for the Philadelphia 76ers in what turned out to be a farewell tour. By that point, he wasn't the same player that had wowed fans around the world with his fearless drives and brash attitude.

But nobody will remember the Answer as he was in his final years. Instead, people will celebrate his incredible toughness and truly remarkable athleticism. At just 6'0" and generously listed at 165 pounds, Iverson was never afraid to throw his willow-thin body into traffic. He took more hard falls and suffered more brutal contact than any player of his era.

Yet he kept getting up.



Through his first 11 years in the league, Iverson led the NBA in minutes per game a whopping seven times. With a career average of 41.1 minutes per game, he ranks fourth on the all-time list.

And his minutes weren't ordinary minutes, either. A.I. had the ball all the time and was constantly the focal point of every opponent's defense. He couldn't jog down the court without getting bumped, elbowed or hounded by at least one defender.

Despite the constant defensive attention, Iverson managed to put up some truly remarkable point totals. He led the league in scoring four times and will finish with a career average of 26.7 points per game.

Rarely efficient, Iverson probably benefited from playing in an era just before advanced stats began to condemn high-volume, low-efficiency shooters like him. Regardless of his debatable overall value, the Answer was on the short list of the league's most inspiring, entertaining players to watch.

Hi-res-55945968_crop_exact Thos Robinson/Getty Images

More important than all of that, though, is Iverson's iconic status as a representative of hip-hop culture in the NBA. The two areas are synonymous now, but there was a time when Iverson's tattoos, cornrows and throwback jerseys were the source of real concern among image-conscious NBA executives.

Never apologetic for the way he dressed or carried himself, Iverson was largely responsible for the infusion of a new attitude in the NBA.

You can also probably blame him for the league's dress code, which commissioner David Stern implemented in 2005.

Iverson's legacy, like his career itself, will be the subject of great debate. But now that it appears he'll be putting an official period at the end of his basketball sentence, the conversation about his place in history can begin.

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Thanks for the memories AI.

 

i thought he was already retired

 

one of my favorite players of all time

 

Transcendent talent and desire for sure, pitifully poor attitude (both on and off the court), shoot first point guard, never understood what it meant to be a leader, and his "practice" rant is still echoing in the hall of fame of abject stupidity.

Good riddance

 

seriously? AI didn't need to practice...back in the day he was just that good and he knew it...I will never forget that press conference...sure he had a memememememe attitude in a team sport but he was a fan favorite in just about every hometown city he played,,,his glory days are over

 

Yes Lippy seriously, as someone who played ball his whole life and got invited to NBA free agent camps (and quickly cut) I know first hand how vitally IMPORTANT it is for your star player to be the best and most committed practice player as well as the best leader/teammate/professional possible. The stories of MJ, Magic, and Bird pushing themselves and their teammates as hard as possible during practice and even game film time are legendary. I remember practicing in the Boston garden a day before playing Boston College, the Celtics had a game that night, and Bird was running laps at the top of the stadium with 5 other Celtics during our WHOLE practice, and he had a game later on that day!

That's the kind of commitment that separates the immensely talented (which AI was) from the true champions, and one of many reasons why MJ, Magic and Bird all have multiple rings and AI never really came close to winning one. I wont even mention his multiple bonehead run ins with the law that date back to his Georgetown days, yes, very much good riddance.

 

there are a lot of players in the NBA that will never get a ring...only one team wins each calendar year and clearly what we have seen is that it comes down to dollars/cents and stacking a team with talent...

it's funny to say a lot of players yet off the streets and out of college only few make these teams...AI represented something that we had not seen in the NBA...he wasn't a clean cut suit wearing player...he brought a diversity to the game that caught the commissioner off guard...

living in a city where he played I still to this day see little kids wearing his jersey....I loved to watch him play...he certainly brought a lot of passion to game time

 

I hear what you are saying Lippy, we are just coming at this from to very different points of view. While it is true there are a lot of factors that go into winning a ring, just stacking a roster with talent alone will NEVER get it done. There must be leadership from the top down and that is one thing AI never showed imo.

That is my main beef with him, never questioned his heart and desire in games, but his juvenile, lazy, dismissive, inarticulate, uneducated, me first attitude, always rubbed me the wrong way. It is no coincidence that he ended up divorced, broke/bankrupt, with a criminal record and with multiple kids by multiple women and child support he could not meet. It is these qualities (not to mention wasting his talent, how good could he have been if he actually worked on his game in practice and listened to coaches that were trying to help him?) that contribute to the negative stereotyping of Black men as a whole. I mean seriously, he was arrested on 14 felonies and misdemeanor charges, including assault, terrorist threats, and weapons offenses. Yes, most of them were dismissed but still, not the image anyone wants in their star player.

Im all for diversity, not every player has to be cut from the same mold, but I cant excuse AI's behavior simply because he played hard on game day.

 

When the only team that's calling is the Shanghai Sharks, you're already retired.

I was never a fan due to how inefficient he was offensively. In Philly he regularly averaged 30-31 points a season on 42% shooting. Terrible.

 

cosign. Dude played great from time to time but he sure wasn't a great player. I'll take Gary Payton Steve Kerr or Joe Dumars over that dude any day of the week. They understood hard work and team work. They played a role and didn't make the whole thing about them. Fuck his flashy crossover, like you said where did that get him in the end.

Dudes like him and Tracy McGrady are great examples of the old saying "hard work beats talent if talent don't work hard"
Both bums imo

 

slow down, lol Steve Kerr? ai for that would have dropped 50 on him , great talent no doubt, told this story a few times, seen that dude up close as a 15 yr old while in va bch him killing grown men on the court, can't explain how quick that dude was,, something one would have to see up close.
saw David Terrell plaxico Burris , joe smith and a bunch more coming up told all my home boys back home out of all those kids 5'10 kid would be the best out of them, he wasn't a team player never a point guard, still a hall of famer no doubt
Also you tube does him no justice unless you saw him on the football field people think I'm crazy but he would have been twice the football player, not a doubt in my mind a nfl hall of famer as a corner may be slot wr ,, or a returner

 

Steve Kerr got shit done. He was dependable. That's why he has rings and AI got YouTube clips.

 

Tdk I ain't about to debate wif yo ass ai and Steve Kerr,
Kerr played with mj pippen Duncan and David Robinson ai played with Eric snow

 

The point TDK was making was not that Kerr was a more gifted player than AI, just that he was a great role player, knew and did his job on a reliable basis, and by all accounts was a good teammate and leader. Coaches/organizations look for those kind of players to fill out championship rosters, not selfish, high shooting volume-low conversion percentage, malcontents who don't understand the importance of "practice".

 

Exactly. Everyone swears super stars do it all alone with no help. Smh

 

all i'm going to say is that you can't expect someone to be a leader if they don't want to be a leader...AI never wanted to be a leader...he didn't ask for that...he didn't want to wear a suit...he didn't want to practice...he was a non conformist in the NBA...there are plenty of teams that could have used him the last three years...I get it...if you can't stay out of trouble then you can't play the game...he became a liability...but let's not downplay just how good of a player he was in his prime

 

Lippy as someone who got a brief taste of the rarefied NBA air, every one there is immensely talented, practicing hard is an absolute must for everyone, or no matter your talent, you will not succeed. As far as being a leader, like it or not the best player (and yes, in his prime he was always the most gifted player on his team) on the team absolutely must set the tone and be a leader, otherwise that team is not going anywhere, and dysfunction and dissension take over the locker room.

Incredibly talented and gifted player, I would agree with you, but AI does not meet my definition of a "good" player, as he shot for a poor percentage for his career (although admittedly there were years when the Sixers did not give him much help and he had to shoulder an unfair scoring burden which led to forcing shots), did not make the players around him better, was almost always at odds with multiple head coaches, did not work hard to improve his game, did not take constructive criticism well, would pout at the mere hint of a perceived slight, and never became a student of the game. And that is not even mentioning all of his off the court troubles.

Bottom line, if I was a NBA GM I would never draft a player like AI, for all of the reasons above, and that is exactly why as soon as he lost a fraction of a step, he had a hard time catching on and lasting with a team towards the end of his career.

 

the NBA is a business...leadership is not something you learn...most great leaders were born to lead...it comes naturally to them and they are inspirational...I do not agree that the best player should automatically be the team captain or leader...just like in sales the person with the highest sales doesn't always make the best sales manager...maybe they are only good at driving their own business...but not necessarily driving a team...

as a GM I probably would draft an AI again because I am a risk taker...I don't follow the beaten path but would rather take the road less traveled...when I am hiring talent I don't always choose the perfect resume but rather the firecracker in the bunch...sometimes it pays off and every once in awhile I get burned...

greetings to you

 

Loki since you had a cup of coffee, and you did mention above, how efficient can a 5'10 2 guard be playing with barely decent nba player? Larry brown kept trying to force him into being the kind of player he was, his attitude yes lead to many of his problems and once he lost a step he was dinished,, hindsight being 20/20 ( I was screaming it back in the 90's) Philly would have gotten a lot more out of him had they just played stackhouse at the 3 and found a big enough defensive minded pg to guard the opposite 2 ( sorry e snow wasn't it) maybe he and stack learn to play off one another,, will admit prolly not lol but what they tried sure as hell didn't work, for the record he isn't in my top 3 little men ( I saw play) would take Isaiah Tim hard away Kevin Johnson Stockton g Payton all b4 him those cats were natural leaders tho and true point guards

 

One of the greatest to ever touch the rock.