Allen Iverson Willing to Play Any Role on an NBA Team
As we first reported in SLAM 150, an older and humbler Allen Iverson says he’s finally ready to be a role player, should a team take a chance on him again. We broke it, but let’s hear how CSN Philly roles with their own version: “If defiance helped Iverson achieve what he did in his pro career, humility spills from him now, 15 years after being the No. 1 overall pick in the 1996 NBA draft. He believes he can still play at the highest level and he is putting all of his energy into achieving that goal. ‘I just want to do whatever an organization wants me to do,’ Iverson said. ‘Everybody made a big thing about me not wanting to come off the bench, but I said that at that point because it never happened to me in my life and it was something new to me, and obviously I didn’t know how to handle it. But to be back on the biggest stage is my whole thing and I feel like I have a couple more years left in my career and I want to play. I sat through and watched the whole season and it was tough for me. Now I just try to do what I have to do to be physically and mentally able to get back on the stage.’ … As complimentary as Iverson is of the European basketball way, overseas still isn’t where his heart is ultimately. Looking back, plenty of Iverson’s draft peers are still playing – Marcus Camby, Ray Allen, Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash to name a few. But because Iverson relied solely on his gift of incredible talent and spent little time putting other facets into his game, he finds himself on the outside looking in at a world he probably took for granted. ‘Learning curves. Obviously I have a different work ethic than I did before and, honestly, it’s because I am older,’ he said, imploring of his changed ways. ‘I am not as fast and quick as I was, but I can run with the young boys and I can still do the things that I have always been capable of doing, and that is my whole thing with continuing to play. As long as I can continue to do the things I am accustomed to doing, then I will play until the wheels fall off.’”
Read the SLAMonline Discussion Rules before posting.