The Greatest Six-Footer We Will EVER See!
How does Allen Iverson not have a new team?!?!
I don’t know how a team hasn’t pulled the trigger. He might cause some problems here & there, but this could be a one-year rental. NBA teams love throwing money away and they still haven’t picked up the greatest six-footer we will EVER see play basketball.
Until last year, AI seemed utterly indestructible. Putting last year aside, for 11 straight seasons:
- He never averaged less than 22.0 points per game, led the NBA in scoring four times, and his worse finish was eighth.
- He led the NBA in steals for three straight seasons and his worse finish was eighth.
- He led the NBA in minutes played seven times and his worse finish was eighth (his rookie season).
Even last season he didn’t put up pedestrian numbers. In 57 games with the Denver Nuggets & Detroit Pistons, he averaged 17.5 points & 5.0 assists, while playing five minutes less per game than his career average.
By the way, he is ranked fifth all-time in points per game (27.1) & 16th in total points (23,983); he is ranked fifth all-time in steals per game (2.2) & 12th in total steals (1,964); and he is ranked fourth all-time in minutes played per game (41.4). We are talking about ALL-TIME NBA RECORDS right now! Not practice! Oh yeah, he has made the tenth most free throws…EVER!
His streak of top-8 finishes in points, steals, and minutes played for 11 straight seasons ended only last year! Also, until that season, he finished in the top-10 in assists for four straight years never dipping below 7.1 assists per game.
I understand it is not a numbers game with the former #1 pick. The biggest problems with AI are his attitude, teams wanting him to come off the bench, and how he handled the situation in Detroit last year, but he will sell tickets. Plus, he is possibly the most competitive player ever after Michael Jordan. His career numbers are 27.1 points, 6.2 assists, 3.7 rebounds, and 2.2 steals over 886 games. What? How is that even possible? We are talking about a Legend here…for cheap!
In 2000-01, his MVP season, he carried the Philadelphia 76ers on his back to the NBA Finals with the worse team ever assembled (trust me, click that link). These are the guys he had to work with…Theo Ratliff, Aaron McKie, Eric Snow, Tyrone Hill, and George Lynch. I am not talking about bench players! Those were his fellow starters and the 6th-man! By the way, the coach on that horrible 76ers team was Larry Brown who is the current coach of the Charlotte Bobcats. They lack a scorer to join Gerald Wallace, especially since they traded Emeka Okafor for rebounder/shot blocker Tyson Chandler. Give me one semi-decent reason not to sign him?
I know that Championship run was several years ago, but Luke Walton & Sasha Vujacic got handed $5M per year contracts and nobody batted an eye. They are like novelty players at best. Marco Jaric makes over $7M per year and he sucks (we’ll leave his girlfriend out of this argument). Erick Dampier makes over $10M per year and he doesn’t even play half the game. I mean check out the video above and what he has been doing since his days at Georgetown! He even carries Reebok Basketball all by himself.
We are not just talking about the greatest six-footer to ever play this game…we are talking about the greatest six-footer that will ever play this game!
Some teams like the Lakers do not need him, but teams like the Bobcats and Memphis Grizzlies couldn’t lose anything by picking him up. The Grizzlies are going nowhere this season and AI will help sell tickets and teach future perennial All-Star O.J. Mayo how to dominate the NBA as a scoring point guard.
Please AI…when somebody smart steps up, go show the other 29 teams that they are idiots for not believing!
Special thanks to Basketball-Reference.
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