[外電] Top 50: Allen Iverson, no. 50
Source: http://0rz.tw/Nq54A
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Top 50: Allen Iverson, no. 50
The definitive ranking of the NBA’s best players.
August 28, 2009 8:00 am / by Lang Whitaker
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A few years ago, a friend of mine had the opportunity to spend a few weeks
with Allen Iverson. The Answer was doin’ work for Reebok, taking an
overseas tour to move kicks. It was just a few weeks before training camp
was starting, yet according to my guy, Iverson never set foot in a gym,
didn’t touch a basketball the entire time. (He also said that on the long
flight from the US to Asia, AI didn’t bring any magazines, books, music,
etc. — just a Monopoly board game, which he and his crew played incessantly.)
Upon their return from Asia, my friend shared with me Iverson’s apparent
lack of dedication to basketball. Of course, maybe AI had worked out all
summer and was taking a break. Whatever, we agreed that with training camp
right around the corner, it probably didn’t bode well for Iverson.
Then the season started, and Allen Iverson led the NBA in scoring at 30.7
ppg while averaging 42.3 minutes per game.
Allen Iverson has always been one of the most singular talents in all of
sports. We will probably never see anyone who can exactly replicate all of
his skills, ever again. Thanks to his size (or lack thereof), kids all over
the world look up to him as a prototype of what they, in a perfect world,
might become. They could be the guy out there with the ball in his hands
the entire game, scoring buckets at will, copping an MVP, getting to the
Finals, getting all the attention and adulation.
The truth is, they could never become Allen Iverson, any more than I could
become Michael Jackson. Even though Iverson has always physically reflected
the smallest the NBA has to offer, it’s the mixture of passion, emotion
and will that differentiate and make him impossible to replicate. Any short
dude can take a lot of shots. But not anyone can be Allen Iverson.
I’ve spent about a decade hanging around the NBA, and I still know very
little about Allen Iverson. Really, from what I’ve gathered, nobody
understands Iverson — who he is, what he’s like off the court. He’s
always been one of the most private people in the NBA, and in some ways
this has made him even more popular; not knowing what he’s really like
off the court makes him a blanker slate upon which we can project our
ideal superstar.
For years, in each edition of the Sixers media guide, Iverson listed
SLAM as his favorite magazine. And yet when we came calling each year
for a cover shoot and interview, nailing down time with AI was like
nailing an ice cube to a wall. If we were his favorite magazine, I’d
hate to see how he treated those he didn’t like. While most of our cover
shoots and interviews run at least an hour or so, AI always demanded we
make it happen in the shortest amount of time possible. He was always
willing to give us time, but he guarded his free time like he guarded
passing lanes on the perimeter. We did our best to simplify.
Incidentally, I believe AI still holds the record for the fastest SLAM
cover shoot of all-time for the cover of SLAM 55. The only way AI would
do a photo shoot was if we could make it happen at the last minute. So
one evening at a Sixers game, we set up a backdrop under the First Union
center in the hallway that connected the Sixers’ locker room to the court.
As the Sixers all ran out to the court for the introductions and lay-up
lines, AI stopped, posed for pics for about 4 minutes, then ran out and
joined his teammates. That cover shot was about as real as it gets.
I’ve always wondered if AI liked SLAM because we got him. When Iverson
crossed over Jordan, most of the media misinterpreted the moment.To many,
that crossover was emblematic of a new school of playground-bred hoops
crossing over into the NBA. Long shorts, tats, braids, passes off the
backboard…they were in the game to stay. One could even argue that the
mainstreaming (and ESPN-ing) of the entire Streetball movement of the
late ’90s/early ‘00s could be traced to that move AI broke off on MJ.
But to me, and I think to SLAM, that dribble was more about soul. Here
was this shrimp of a rookie with the guts to go one-on-one against the
greatest player to ever play basketball. And beating him. That, that
David slaying Goliath moment, that was what should have mattered most
from that play.
The past few years, just from our dealings with him, AI seems to have
mellowed a little bit. When we shot him last season for the cover, he
gave us hours instead of minutes. It was almost as though he recognized
that his time in the spotlight was winding down, that there may not be
many more cover shoots in his future. Perhaps it’s a stretch to posit
that Iverson is evolving as a person based on a couple of photo shoot
interactions, but really, that’s all I’ve got to go on.
It is much easier to evaluate Iverson as a basketball player. And as a
basketball player, Allen Iverson has yet to evolve. He still drives to the
basket (averaged as many FTA per game in ’07-08 as he did in ’98-99), but
he also still needs the ball in his hands to be successful. While Iverson
was tremendous as the hub the Sixers revolved around, teaming him with
Carmelo in Denver never quite worked; at least, it didn’t work well
enough to get Denver a title.
It’s obvious that he’s still at his best when he’s the center of
attention on offense. I think it’s safe to say that most casual NBA
fans would regard Iverson’s campaign in Detroit last year as a failure.
But look a little closer at the digits: Iverson tried to fit in, tried
to be a part of whatever the heck it was Michael Curry was selling.
Yet as long as AI and Rip Hamilton attempted to coexist on the perimeter,
the Pistons kept losing games. Then, Hamilton was out injured last season
between Dec. 26 and Jan. 13. The Pistons played 8 games over that stretch.
During that time, Allen Iverson averaged nearly 40 minutes a game and
scored 17.6 ppg. More importantly, the Pistons went 6-2.
Rip returned on January 13, went back into the starting line-up, and the
Pistons promptly lost 4 of their next 5. Around the All-Star break, the
Pistons went into a brutal 3-14 tailspin. Instead of giving in, Iverson
seemed to choose giving up, missing most of the second half of the season
with a vague back injury. It was almost as if after all those years of
warring with his coaches and the establishment, he was tired of fighting the
fight.
I hope he doesn’t go out like that. As of today we still don’t know where
Allen Iverson will end up next season. The two most likely contenders to
sign him seem to be Memphis and the BETcats. I’m not sure I’m ready to
see AI swallow the ignominy toiling in the basement again. I still think
New York would be the perfect place for him to play this season. Get
his swag back, score some points, win over the Gotham crowd. The Knicks
refuse to look beyond 2010, and AI’s probably not looking much further
at this point, either. But a D’Antoni/Iverson union in the greatest city
in the world could be something to behold.
Now, to Allen Iverson clocking in here at number 50. Do I believe Allen
Iverson is the 50th best basketball player in the NBA? No.
But is he the 50th best NBA basketball player? That is, are there 49 people
who are better than AI at playing the type of basketball that NBA teams
value right now? Well, maybe so.
But then, what do we know anyway?
After all, we never really understood Allen Iverson to begin with.
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蠻中肯的一篇文章! 不過上一季真的是把AI給害慘了( ︶︿︶)_╭∩╮.....
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