The Allen Iverson Saga

[nogster]

Re: Iverson wants to go to Memphis?

i know if i was them i'd take him in a heartbeat... .

if it was to put bums in seats at the expense of team growth. then yes.

but if iverson goes to memphis. the growth of gay and mayo, conley and all the other young uns of this team will be stunted.

they already have one blackhole on offense in randolph, getting a.i as well....well there simply isnt enough ball for this team.

i think its a bad move for team chemistry and player growth.

[DTX3]

Re: Iverson wants to go to Memphis?

All I read was A.I. averaged more points than Kobe in the post-season like it actually matters. A.I. is overrated. Period. 4 rings to none(don't even know why the dude brought up Kobe in the first place). I already said he himself was selfish as hell.

[candiasis]

Re: Iverson wants to go to Memphis?

3 of those are shaq's, shaq had those rings w/o kobe imo he was that beastly, point remains kobe only did well when he got a completely stacked team, ai has been on teams with pretty so so rosters his whole career man. Put ai on that lakers team instead of kobe with shaq and they woulda won some titles too. Hell put ai on last years lakers team in his prime and he they woulda gone far. BUT he is slightly past his prime, wish he wasn't. Still has a lot in the tank (i hope) tho, and yeh im not gotta skirt around it he needs to step up his d and play more of a facilitator role man and sign with a contender.

[Kashanova]

Re: Iverson wants to go to Memphis?

All I read was A.I. averaged more points than Kobe in the post-season like it actually matters. A.I. is overrated. Period. 4 rings to none(don't even know why the dude brought up Kobe in the first place). I already said he himself was selfish as hell.

a.i. has never had half the support cast that kobe has had.

[Bornindamecca]

Re: Iverson wants to go to Memphis?

a.i. has never had half the support cast that kobe has had.

We can argue the minutia all day. Bottom line: do you think AI is as good of a player as Kobe?

[candiasis]

Re: Iverson wants to go to Memphis?

Post season statistics matter man, arguably matter more than regular season statistics because evryone plays d post season. Either way it doesnt matter iverson has amazing regular season stastics (4 scoring titles, 3rd highest ppg average in the playoffs all time etc).

[TMagic]

Re: Iverson wants to go to Memphis?

Damnit Born.

Look what you started...

[HMcCoy]

Re: Iverson wants to go to Memphis?

Post season statistics matter man, arguably matter more than regular season statistics because evryone plays d post season. Either way it doesnt matter iverson has amazing regular season stastics (4 scoring titles, 3rd highest ppg average in the playoffs all time etc).

I'm currently sympathetic to AI's fall from grace...but if you look at his postseason FG%...oy. The number shots he had to jack up to score those points is disgusting.

You do make an underrated point though...no GM ever found the right mix for AI or got him a big he could trust, which is kinda sad. DC would have been a great fit if dude could match Ivy's passion. By then Coleman was straight mailing it.

[candiasis]

Re: Iverson wants to go to Memphis?

Things is though iverson never reallly had a guy create shots for him, the guy is an underrated shooter, most of the outside shots he makes (including 3's) are made fading away or to a side and we've all seen the **** he's done in the paint. That means he was always the guy taking the bailout shot as the clock expired, and for a guard barely 6ft with collpasing d all around him, you're gonna miss a few. The thing though that gets underlooked is the putbacks/2nd chance opportunities his aggression created for his team mates. AI has worked hard to attack defences and draw out multiple defenders throughout his career, his speed is a nightmare for weak side help and defensive rotations (his high apg numbers attests to this), and tough contended shots and drives he often took created easy baskets for his team mates. It's like a type of assist i remember an announcer saying when talking about ai's game, but statistically its just a lower fg% for the guy. So too much importance can be placed on fg% for guys who had to carry the load offensively (like pistol pete or rick barry for example).

[Jukeman]

Re: Iverson wants to go to Memphis?

Things is though iverson never reallly had a guy create shots for him, the guy is an underrated shooter, most of the outside shots he makes (including 3's) are made fading away or to a side and we've all seen the **** he's done in the paint. That means he was always the guy taking the bailout shot as the clock expired, and for a guard barely 6ft with collpasing d all around him, you're gonna miss a few. The thing though that gets underlooked is the putbacks/2nd chance opportunities his aggression created for his team mates. AI has worked hard to attack defences and draw out multiple defenders throughout his career, his speed is a nightmare for weak side help and defensive rotations (his high apg numbers attests to this), and tough contended shots and drives he often took created easy baskets for his team mates. It's like a type of assist i remember an announcer saying when talking about ai's game, but statistically its just a lower fg% for the guy. So too much importance can be placed on fg% for guys who had to carry the load offensively (like pistol pete or rick barry for example).

yea I never understood that agruement about his FG%

but yet when he went to Den took less shots and had the best FG% in his career it gets ignored...

iverson had to take 25-30 shots as a sixer, when your the star player who's 6ft taking that many shots of course you selection is not gonna be good....Only one person could have made those sixers players better than they really was offensively and his name is Jordan......

Some people make the guy out to be that kid who just passes the ball to himself at basketball try outs...its funny..

[candiasis]

Re: Iverson wants to go to Memphis?

The guy coulda been an all star nfl qb, he's a great passer and has always had a remarkable natural feel for the game. He doesn't get presently referred to as a first ballot hall of famer for nothing, yet hes still got a few good years left.

[zfinley]

Re: Iverson wants to go to Memphis?

Part I honestly just don't get is what all this talk about him losing a step? I've read it a few times and it's true before the the trade he avg 26 PPG 45% shooting 6.7 Assist nearly seven thats more the KOBE what??? lol
The guy obviously hasn't lost a step he breaks about 4 people ankles in this vid playing for detroit. like i said before i don't blame any of the players it was truthfully just bad coaching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ8PqZpNEVI

[candiasis]

Re: Iverson wants to go to Memphis?

Yeh pretty attrocious coachign there by michael curry, although he prob had roster limitations imposed on him by joe d, but nonetheless he was quite bad. Funny how joe d said he would have his job next season after the 1st roudn loss, and then went and fired him anyway.

[zfinley]

Re: Iverson wants to go to Memphis?

I'm sure dumars was since I remember him saying something about telling Iverson to take 10-15 shots instead of 20 shots again like he usally does.

[Muzyk23]

Re: Iverson wants to go to Memphis?

Grizzlies hope to lure Iverson


Comment Email Print Share<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> var stobj = SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title:"Grizzlies%20chase%20Iverson%20but%20think%2 0Heat%20lead%20race", url:"http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4323159", published: "2009-07-12" }); stobj.attachButton(document.getElementById("espnst link")); </SCRIPT>
<CITE class=source sizset="21" sizcache="10">By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
Archive </CITE>
<!-- end mod-article-title --><!-- begin story body --><!-- template inline -->LAS VEGAS -- Memphis Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley thinks that the Miami Heat are "the odds-on favorite" to sign free-agent guard Allen Iverson but hasn't abandoned hope of acquiring the four-time scoring champion.
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Iverson
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In a halftime interview Sunday at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, where No. 2 overall draft pick Hasheem Thabeet made his professional debut in the Grizzlies' 86-57 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, Heisley confirmed to ESPN.com that he still wants to bring Iverson to Memphis.

"I think he's got three teams he's talking to," Heisley said, referring to the Grizzlies, Heat and the Charlotte Bobcats, who are widely presumed to be interested because Iverson's former coach, Larry Brown, has said he's open to coaching Iverson again.

"Obviously I would think that the odds-on favorite would be Miami, because Dwyane Wade would like to get with him and I think that would be where [Iverson and agent Leon Rose] would like to go. But we're still talking to them and we'll see what happens."

The level of Charlotte's interest has not been verified and it likewise remains to be seen how far Miami is willing to go financially to sign Iverson, whose free-agent options at 34 appear to be severely limited in this depressed economy. Iverson's well-chronicled reluctance to come off the bench and the drastic dip in salary he's facing after earning nearly $21 million last season during his tumultuous stint with the Detroit Pistons have likewise led to the perception that he might actually retire before taking any NBA job he can find.

Heisley indicated Sunday that Iverson is "only looking for a one-year contract," which actually would mesh with Miami's intent to add no players with contracts stretching past next season to preserve maximum flexibility to re-sign Wade and land him at least one marquee teammate in the summer of 2010. Yet it's believed that the Heat are reluctant to come close to the $5 million for next season that the Grizzlies are reportedly prepared to pay, since Miami is already in luxury-tax territory.

It could also be argued that what Heisley regards as Wade's public "plea" for Miami to sign the 2001 Most Valuable Player was merely a respectful response to a question about playing alongside someone who has achieved as much in the game as Iverson.

"With A.I., you look at a guy who is one of the best guys to ever put on an NBA jersey,'' Wade said in a recent radio interview. "A guy who can still score in the right offense, in the right flow. So you can never turn your nose up at a guy like Allen Iverson. I hear a lot of people that love and want to come to Miami, but it hasn't happened yet.''

So Heisley would thus seem to still have a shot to lure Iverson to Memphis in spite of his pessimism, given that his reported willingness to make an offer in the $5 million range is richer than anything Iverson has been offered thus far in free agency.

Although sources close to the situation say that Iverson is holding off in hopes of another opportunity materializing from a team closer to playoff contention, Heisley is clearly serious about committing to a one-year Iverson experiment in spite of the persistent rumblings that others in his organization don't want to take the gamble.

Iverson would almost certainly be the sort of drawing card at the gate that the Grizzlies have never had in an eight-season run in Memphis marked by notriously low attendance figures, but Memphis already has the developing O.J. Mayo at that position and will soon be adding Zach Randolph in a soon-to-be-completed trade with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Heisley, though, is undeterred.

"What appeals to me?" Heisley said. "He's one of the greatest players in the last 10 years in the NBA.

"Obviously I think he'd be a crowd pleaser in Memphis. But like I said ... we're in there but I don't know whether or not we're going to get him.

"I don't think that [money is the thing] that's going to decide it. I'm sure it's a matter of pride. He's probably looking for as much as he can get. But I think he's also looking for where he wants to be to showcase himself."



Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com.

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