Allen Iverson Said He’s ‘No Mob Boss’, Had Lawsuit Dismissed

Allen Iverson, it turns out, is just as aggressive in the courtroom as he used to be on the basketball floor. The Detroit News captures an amazing scene from A.I.’s last court hearing: “Iverson sat for a combative deposition in August during which he spoke for the first time about a much-publicized Detroit bar fight that led to him being sued for $2.5 million in federal court. Iverson won the case Tuesday when a judge dismissed the lawsuit. The deposition pitted Iverson against Washington, D.C., lawyer Gregory Lattimer, who won a $260,000 judgment against Iverson a few years ago … ‘I die before I let you get me this time,’ Iverson tells the lawyer. ‘I’m as clean as the Board of Health man. I get sued for stuff I don’t got nothing to do with. I ain’t involved with. Ain’t nobody never said … I touched them,’ Iverson, 36, said. ‘I don’t do nothing to nobody, buddy.’ Lattimer had a quick reply. ‘The head honcho ain’t supposed to,’ he said. Iverson: ‘Yeah, I ain’t no damn mob boss. I don’t live my life like that. I got five kids. I don’t put that on their head. That’s a fairytale that y’all living in …’ … Iverson accused the lawyer of targeting him for a payday. ‘I know you lurking. I know you lurking, man. I know you lurking,’ Iverson said. ‘How the hell you live with (it)? You’ve been involved with three suits against me. You know what to do. You got a plan.’ Lattimer: ‘I just go to work every day.’ Iverson: ‘I know, and I’m the one that pay you, and you know it. But not this time jack. … I die before I let you get me this time.’ … Then, the men started using basketball references to describe the legal battle. ‘Well, I hear you, but you’re on my court …,’ Lattimer said. ‘Man, this is my court,’ Iverson responded. ‘This is the line and we got a ball in here. This is my court. I know I’m gonna win this one. I gonna move in front of you.’ ‘You wasn’t moving before,’ Lattimer said. Iverson: ‘Man, whatever.’ Lattimer asked Iverson about his off-court problems and checkered reputation and invoked the name of Iverson’s coach at Georgetown University, John Thompson. ‘John Thompson told me a long time ago that you’re one of the smartest kids that he (knows),’ Lattimer said. ‘So I don’t think you’re dumb.’ Iverson: ‘I’m a smart dude that made mistakes.’ Lattimer asked Iverson, who traveled to Detroit from his home in Atlanta for the deposition, if he was staying in Detroit indefinitely. ‘No, I’m gonna get back to my kids. But I don’t know. I might stay here and have some fun if I can. You want to go out?’ Lattimer: ‘That would be epic.’ Lattimer later said he’s a homebody. ‘See, I told you I knew you ain’t got no friends,’ Iverson teased. ‘The only way you gonna have friends is they read to you, read you bedtime stories or something like that.’ After nearly two hours, Lattimer said he appreciated Iverson sitting for the deposition. ‘Go to hell,’ Iverson said.”