NBA icon Allen Iverson is legendary as a fighter and free spirit. Today he wrote headlines with a bizarre appearance 23 years ago – whose background was less funny.
“The Answer” Iverson is one of the most controversial legends in recent NBA history.
The bustling playmaker – at the same time style icon and part -time rapper – was very popular with the fans at active times, since he prevailed against far larger and heavier players with an unrestrained fighting spirit. And because he never put a leaf out of his mouth.
The 49-year-old, with his blunt manner, also frozen, but also often superiors, not least the then commissioner David Stern, with whom Iverson kept going.
A particularly legendary incident, which is still present as a meme on the net today, it occurred 23 years ago.
All Iverson after the best season in the crisis
It was May 7, 2002, the year after the eleven-time all-star had played its most successful season in the 2000/01 season: Iverson was elected as the most valuable player in the NBA and pushed with the Philadelphia 76ers to the NBA finals-where Iverson, legend colleague Dikembe Mutombo and colleagues only from the Los Angeles Lakers around Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal could be stopped.
But in the following season the Sixers crashed, only made it into the playoffs with oh and noise to fail in the first round on the Boston Celtics.
Iverson’s future was in question afterwards, a trade was under discussion. There were also allegations from coach Larry Brown that AI had failed to do several training sessions. Iverson’s reaction to this – in a press conference called four days later – is as bizarre as unforgettable.
“We’re talking about training! Training!”
Within around two minutes, the injury -plagued playmaker used the word training 24 times, again and again expressed his anger how much attention got the topic – instead of talking about how much he would have sacrificed himself in a difficult situation for the game and the team. “We’re talking about training! Training!” (“We talkin ‘About Practice! Practice!”)
Some journalists were amazed, others could not help but laugh. Some believed that Iverson was alcoholic. This is also claimed by Kent Babb in the biography “Not a Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson”.
Head Coach Brown gestisch indicated a sip from the bottle and said: “I assume, he left and kept around somewhere.”
Murder of the best friend shook Iverson
Iverson decidedly contradicted this. And ESPN journalist Stephen A. Smith, a close confidante Iversons, calls this claim “disgusting” -and speculated that Babb was deliberately wrongly informed by malicious ex -colleagues.
What was generally made by IVERSON’s appearance was the tragic personal situation in which Iverson was at the time: his best friend, Rahsaan Langford, was shot at the age of only 29 half a year earlier. Iverson struggled to cope with the loss – and it also had an impact on its shape. The murder process had started a few days before the unforgettable Tirade.
While the YouTube videos are limited to his anger speech, he revealed immediately how much the personal tragedy and the sporting disappointment shook him: “I am excited for one reason: because I was sitting here. Lost my best friend. He and this year. It all goes down the stream for me. I have to work … my best friend is dead.” And we have lost. “
Iverson’s NBA career ended in 2010 after further career stations at the Denver Nuggets, the Detroit Pistons, the Memphis Grizzlies and a comeback in Philly. In 2016 he moved into the Hall of Fame, and his number 3 has not been awarded by the 76s since 2013.
At the beginning of 2023, the father of five was in the headlines when he and ex-NBA colleague Al Harrington founded a company for the distribution of cannabis products. A documentary about Iverson is currently being shot for Amazon, produced by the former NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal.