Results tagged “Iverson” from Robert Littal Presents The Infamous BlackSportsOnline

You know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words? Well this picture can only be described in one word:

A lot of the things you hear about Allen Iverson aren't true, but pretty much everything you have heard about him in Detroit has been true. With that being said this was a bit harsh by the ABC Crew but for some reason I can not stop laughing at it.

I love the way they even included turnovers and Billups is almost beating Iverson in that as well.

Pistons 105, Celtics 95. That right there should put the "Iverson experiment" to rest, with the Pistons starting a two game win streak against two of the NBA's best in his absence.

It wasn't Iverson's fault, because he's not coaching the team. I don't know what Michael Curry's reasoning was for benching Richard Hamilton because Larry Brown was the last Pistons coach worth listening to. It could have been because he looked into Iverson's soul and saw angels flying in it. It could have been because he was afraid Iverson would have thrown a chair at him for the demotion. Either way, it didn't do anything to improve chemistry on the floor.

A few weeks ago when Detroit Pistons shooting guard Richard Hamilton came back from an injury, both Hamilton and Allen Iverson made it clear that they do not want to come off the bench. In an article written at the same time, I stressed that it might be better to have AI come off the bench because of his scoring prowess, and start Hamilton. Still, the answer, no pun intended, remains to be seen. Curry's decision ended up being to start Iverson, and bring Hamilton off the bench.

Losing 8 games of their last 11, the Pistons are still finding their way. Not a thought many Pistons fans as well as people around the league expected with Detroit being such a successful team in the Eastern Conference for the past five years.

But in the home game tonight against the Houston Rockets, I noticed something I don't think I have ever seen before.

Detroit Pistons starting shooting guard, Richard Hamilton returned from a nagging injury this week their game on Wednesday against the Indiana Pacers. He had a sub-par game, going 4/13 in thirty minutes, ending up with 9 points. It's a good thing starting shooting guard for the Detroit Pistons; Allen Iverson started and scored 23 on 19 shots.

See anything wrong with that?

The Pistons started Rasheed Wallace at center, putting Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton at forwards and Rodney Stuckey and AI in the backcourt. The Pacers are no powerhouse, but a front court of Danny Granger, Troy Murphy and Jeff Foster outrebounded and outscored the Detroit Pistons trio.

With such a small line up, coach Michael Curry will be writing his own ending as the Detroit Pistons head coach, as it will prove to be the decline of the Detroit Pistons. He has a choice to make... he has to decide whether to bring Rip or AI off the bench.

*I'd love to hear your comments on this*

Allen Iverson is one of those polarizing athletes that aren't as bad as he worse critic says he is and definitely isn't as good as his greatest fan would tell you. I don't know if I should be laughing or shaking my head at the latest A.I. escapade.

When Iverson was traded to the Pistons he and Joe Dumars had a very humorous exchange about "Practice" (see above video). I am sure Dumars had no idea that two weeks later that we would be talking about practice specifically A.I. missing practice.

It appears Iverson was more concerned about preparing Thanksgiving dinner than preparing for the Pistons next game. It is unlikely that the Pistons are going to make any noise in the playoffs, so this will probably be Iverson's only year with the franchise, but his legacy is still up in the air and these type of transgressions only make it harder for those in his corner to make a case that his reputation of being a "me" first player are unfounded.

George Karl "Frontin"

In professional sports for whatever reason the players are held to a different standards then their superiors. It's almost as if players have to be courtesy, respectful and take the high road while coaches can get their Singletary on whenever they feel like it.

Leads me to what George Karl did to Iverson after the Nuggets traded him to Detroit. Karl criticized Iverson after he left basically saying he has a shoot first mentality, wasted a lot of possessions and took too many bad shots. My problem with Karl is first off he's not a good coach and he obviously trying to save his ass with this bs. The Nuggets knew exactly what they we're getting when they traded for A.I. Earth to Karl - A.I. is not a point and I know Ol' Larry gave you the run down on what you we're getting. Or maybe Karl forgot that AI didn't single-handedly kill his best shot at the Finals to date in the 01 playoffs by "passing" the ball to Eric Snow in. They knew they we're getting a 2-guard in a point guards body, one of the best scorers to ever play the game, 3rd in NBA history in points per game. It's not about Iverson vs. Billups, because only one of them will be a 1st ballot Hall of Famer. Look Iverson came to Denver and played as advertised. His shot attempts actually went down, his percentage went up and he maintained his scoring. He became a more efficient player. Denver just got beat by better teams, losing to the Spurs and the Lakers in their last two post season appearances. Bottom line.

For Karl to make the statement he made about Iverson wasting possessions makes me laugh. If in fact he cared so much about precious possessions you'd think he actually change his flawed philosophy and slow down the ball. For a team that played no defense because of his style to run and gun and shoot early in the shot clock good, you'd think he'd play a slow down game to help his team play solid D and have better posessions. No, Karl is feeling the pressure because he's coming up short and he's now attempting to blame Iverson because the team never acquired a good point guard to truly take full advantage of what the AI-Melo tandem could have been.

Everyone wants to know what Joe Dumars was thinking by bringing in Allen Iverson. It has already been widely reported the financial implications in regards to pursuing potential free agents like Lebron James, D-Wade or Chris Bosh in the future, so I won't even get into that. I am going to tell you what isn't being reported.

Simply put the Pistons as they were currently constructed era was over. They weren't going to win a championship. They weren't going to beat Boston. They probably wouldn't be able to beat Cleveland, Chicago, Toronto or Philly either.

So this is a no lose situation for Dumars. He is trying to catch lightening in a bottle. I studied Iverson's play last year and the one thing that was apparent was that he is not the ball hog he once was and was way more willing to share the ball. Also his shot selection and FG % improve greatly in Denver when he had other scorers around him. While Iverson is not a traditional point guard but the amount of easy shots he got teammates in Denver says a lot about his playmaking skills. He was not the reason they failed in Denver at least he attempted to play a little defense.