| 21 November 2009
The Allen Iverson saga continue on with no end or Answer in sight. The hot rumor the past couple of days was that the New York Knicks were going to sign him, but that proved to be nothing more than speculation. The Knicks wisely passed on AI, noting that Iverson would just take minutes and shots away from their young, developing players. Things sure have changed in Gotham - if Zeke was still running the show he would have signed Iverson for about $500 million over 10 years. "It's crazy enough that it just might work".
Apparently, at least at this time, no other teams are interested in kicking the tires and giving Allen Iverson a test drive. This is not a result of his ability - no doubt, given enough shots, Iverson could still get a team 20 points a night on the regular. But, rather, teams realize that the negatives far outweigh the positives of having Iverson on your roster at this point in his career. Looking at it strictly from his play on the court, Iverson doesn't fit into many team's plans. Young rebuilding teams need to give their youngsters the minutes and shot opportunities to develop, and adding Iverson - a player that insists on minutes and shots - would be counterintuitive to that. That is why I was so against Memphis signing him in the first place. Adding a player of Iverson's ilk to a contender would be too disruptive to the team's on court chemistry. Contender's just need role players, guys who quietly go about their job on the court and don't tip the apple cart. Or, rather, the exact opposite of Allen Iverson.
The only situation where Iverson might fit is a team that feels they are on the brink of making the playoffs and just need to add a scoring threat. AI definitely could deliver that to a team. But when you add in the off the court issues - his demand to be a starter (his agent claims he would come off the bench in the right situation - good luck with that), his propensity to air dirty laundry in the media, his inability to realize he isn't a superstar anymore - it becomes much less appealing. This wouldn't be such a big issue if he didn't still carry the weight that he does with the fans and the Fourth Estate (proof - he's barely played in the past year yet I'm writing about him again). If fans and media didn't care about Iverson, he could complain all he wanted and not many people would even notice or care. However, since he is such a big name, any beef he has gets blown up to superstar proportions.
So Allen Iverson finds himself in a basketball purgatory of his own doing. Which is a shame, since he was such an exciting, dynamic player in his heyday. But, as I've preached before, this is the trap that stars fall into if they aren't willing to adjust their game, their mindset and/or their salary demands as the age and start to lose their superpowers. Once you lose these superpowers, you also lose the ability to act like a prima donna and get away with it. Just ask the man who said "I have a family to feed".
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