Fear No One: The Allen Iverson Story.
The sporting world has rarely been without its share of polarizing figures. People whose high level talent can only be rivaled by their big personalities. There are only a select few players in the history of the NBA whose ability and star power could rival that of Allen Iverson. There are also a select few who have caused as much off-the-court chaos for those in the front office. He was a player you loved to have on your team... until you got on his bad side, be it by things that the front office did themselves, or the coaching staff underneath them.
Case in point, the final three years of Iverson's time in Philadelphia. In 03-04, Sixers' Interim Head Coach Chris Ford suspended AI for missing practice (leading to perhaps the most famous press conference in NBA history), fined him for failing to let him know that he'd miss a game because he was sick, and "insulted" his star by asking him to come off of the bench following an injury, leading The Answer to refuse to play.
Eventually, the end of Iverson's time in Philly would come a few years later, after Iverson and Head Coach Maurice Cheeks had a few clashes (just a year after Iverson had averaged a career high 33 points per game under Cheeks) and Iverson allegedly demanded a trade from the Sixers. He then spent the rest of his career bouncing here and there.
Denver for two seasons (which included a famous spat between AI and official Steve Javie), Detroit for a season, Memphis for all of three games and even a return to Philly, all followed by a 10 game spell in Turkey with Besiktas- and then, it was over. The career of a guy who could absolutely take over a game on both sides of the ball had ended in the most pedestrian way possible. Worse yet, it hadn't even culminated in an NBA title.
Iverson had one good shot at a title, making the 2001 NBA Finals against the vaunted LA Lakers. He dominated game one, scoring 48 points and shocking the basketball world as the Sixers took down the Lakers 107-101 and handing LA their first playoff loss of the season. It all went downhill from there, however, as the Sixers were swept the rest of the way despite a heroic effort from Iverson, who averaged 35.6 points for the series. And then, as quickly as the Sixers had approached the summit, they faded back to obscurity, failing to get past the Eastern Conference Semifinals in either of the next two seasons. AI's shot disappeared as quickly as it had come.
And that is what this story will aim to fix. Can Iverson finally get the championship that eluded him and to reach the summit of basketball? Or will it peter out the same way as his real life career did? Either way it is not going to be easy. We pick this story up in June 2002 just before the NBA Draft.
Platform: NBA 2K24 XBox Series X
Control: Player Lock: Allen Iverson
Rosters: 2K3 In Progress (RMJH4)
Draft Classes: 2003 (RMJH4)