Fraud that is exactly what Allen Iverson is, a fraud. How ironic is it that his back injury flares up once he is relegated to the Detroit Piston’s second unit. Many of the Iverson faithful would argue that he is truly hurt, or else one of the most durable little men to ever play in the NBA would be out on the court and not on his back for the next two weeks. I would have to agree with them that he is truly hurt, but I would have to say that his injury is more to his ego and less to his back. He still considers himself basketball royalty, and he just isn’t anymore. His skills have diminished, he is not as fast as he once was, and he just does not fit with his new team.
The me first Iverson’s inability to mesh with the team first Pistons has never been more evident that over the past 11 games. In that span the Pistons have lost all eight games in which Iverson has participated, and won the three games in which he did not play in. You may think that the previously skidding Pistons probably beat the likes of a Minnesota, or Memphis in their last three games, but that is not true. Two of the games that the Detroit Pistons have won without Iverson were against the Defending Champion Boston Celtics, and the high flying Orlando Magic. In the last three games, the Pistons have shown a glimmer of actually being a good team as compared to one that looks like a dysfunctional YMCA rec league team playing against an NBA team.
Iverson has always been and will always be what kids are taught not to be in little league, a me first player. We teach young kids to share the basketball on the court, and to look for the best shot possible, but this is exactly the opposite of what Iverson does. He hogs the ball, and dribbles the air out of it until the shot clock is about to expire. The majority of time, as the shot clock winds down and his teammates sit back and watch, Iverson chucks up an ill advised shot. These shots usually have no chance of going into the basket. When one of the shots that Iverson chucks up goes in, the crowd goes wild and he acts as if he could do it again, but the vast majority of the time he is not successful. Iverson’s arrogance never lets him second guess himself or his shot selection. To him he is who he always has been, and that is still the “Answer”, to Piston’s fans this year he is the wrecking ball that has destroyed their team.
Iverson is a poster child for the “spoiled American athlete”. He is exactly what is wrong with the selfish me first NBA. Allen refuses to sacrifice for his team as Richard “Rip” Hamilton did by willingly accepting a bench role. His stay in Detroit has been a disaster, and cannot end fast enough. The Pistons are a team that without Iverson went to six straight Eastern Conference finals, and with Iverson Detroit is a team that is struggling to make the playoffs. The only hope that Detroit has to fix its problems is to hope that Iverson stays away from this team forever and then they can get back to the hardnosed defensive style of play that has become their signature over the past six years. So please Detroit for your sake and the sake of your fans send Iverson packing when he decides his back is well enough for him to come back to the team and be a backup.
Johnson is editor and contributor to The Sports Information Hub and can be contacted at johnsonthesportsguy@gmail.com
Posts
