The Irony of Iverson

Allen Iverson is on the Memphis Grizzlies.

What do I say about this? This was the guy who revived interest in the Sixers for me - and a lot of other kids - at a point where they were dead. After a bunch of awful draft picks, they took Iverson first, and while he didn't win right away, we could see he was talented and passionate. He eventually got them in the playoffs consistently and to one Finals appearance. Now he's on the most disrespected team this side of the Clippers, and one that has been mostly terrible in its existence, and then traded away its only all-star ever to save money just when it had a decent team.

What happened?

The Pistons shut down Allen Iverson for the rest of the season just a few weeks before it was over. In danger of missing the playoffs, they had to cut him out for injuries, but also for nearly wrecking team spirit. He hadn't been happy coming off the bench or just being in Detroit in general. They thought they might just be better without him for the next few weeks. How could this happen to a guy who was always one of the better scorers in the league, right up until the time he arrived there?

There's a lot of irony in how badly the Iverson experiment failed in Detroit... irony for the people involved and irony for me. Every Philly fan remembers how close they were to trading Iverson to Detroit 9 years ago, right before his MVP / Finals season. That didn't happen because of trade kickers and contract minutia, but everyone can think about what could have been. If I remember right, the Sixers would have gotten back Glen Rice and Eddie Jones, two good shooters... but without much time left. Rice was finished shortly after he won the first of the Shaq-Kobe titles, and Jones never regained his late 90's all-star form. Iverson came back and the Sixers made the finals, while the Pistons looked lost. GM Joe Dumars would have to work magic to get that team in shape. It seemed Philly had dodged a major bullet.

But did they? The next year, the Pistons looked a lot better, and the Sixers began to slip. In 2003, they met in the second round of the playoffs. Despite having the lead in most games, the Sixers had some rough late moments and lost in 6 games. Larry Brown then left - for Detroit - and the Sixers fell even further into a hole that resulted in them eventually trading Iverson away. Detroit won a title under Brown and came close to repeating.

When Detroit and Denver made that big deal, it was like things had come full circle. Chauncey Billups, signed as a forgotten free agent after the botched Iverson deal, had made himself into one of the top guards in the league. But he was always in Iverson's shadow for popularity, and the Pistons figured they could try something different after a few years of very good regular seasons but no Finals. It didn't work.

The personal irony for me is that I still thought Detroit would be a contender after the trade and I liked the combination of him and their players, especially Rasheed Wallace. I updated my season preview to say that I thought this was a good roster for him. Specifically, I liked him with 'Sheed. In my old columns, back in the mid part of the decade, I always rooted for the Sixers to acquire Rasheed Wallace. I thought he was the perfect complement to Iverson. He could shoot and had offensive moves, but didn't mind being a second option. He was great on defense. I figured the best complement to Iverson would be a big guy that could shoot, so they could run the pick and roll. The Sixers actually did try to do this with Derrick Coleman and Keith Van Horn, but those guys were awful on D. Just awful. 'Sheed played D hard and made open shots, and again, he was much happier than other guys deferring. He ran into trouble in Portland once he became the go-to guy there. He didn't want to carry a franchise. He was better in Detroit because the guards carried the offense. To top it off, 'Sheed is a Philly native.

So, as much as I don't care for the Pistons, I was a little happy to see that Iverson and 'Sheed would come together. I also liked their roster to fit Iverson's game. The Sixers did well to match Iverson with a taller point in Eric Snow, who could defend the big guards, and the Pistons had Stuckey as a big point guard who could also shoot threes. Tayshuan Prince was a shooter and defender. They had McDyess as another big man to make shots, and Amir Johnson for rebounding and D. It seemed like the best roster for his talents. I knew it would be tough to mix him and Richard Hamilton, who also likes to come off screens, but that was the only problem I foresaw.

Well, you know how it went. His scoring plummeted, he didn't fit into the system at all, and they basically dumped him. They were happy to get rid of him and get the cap space. It wasn't just Hamilton that clashed with him; no one seemed to like him being there. I really misread that. Looking back, I'm not sure anything I predicted about him was accurate. I don't know if anyone really could have succeeded with him. Melo scored with him around, and their numbers were both good, but they never really meshed. My reflection of his career is entirely different. I thought he was a certain hall-of-famer and franchise player. Now he's scrubbing for a lottery team that I have grown to hate.

I guess I don't know what to think of Iverson anymore.