Anybody Else Find Allen Iverson's Name Here Weird ......

[bigmike23]

because how did AI "inspire" black males to do all that? just because you and your boys in that small part of the east coast nobody cares about called the DMV looked up to dude doesnt mean all black males in america did. he inspired young black males to stand up for themselves? are we talking about AI or Malcom x now?

and in classic DC fashion always trying to turn a topic into race or how you grew up.

 

[DCAllAfrican]

because how did AI "inspire" black males to do all that? just because you and your boys in that small part of the east coast nobody cares about called the DMV looked up to dude doesnt mean all black males in america did. he inspired young black males to stand up for themselves? are we talking about AI or Malcom x now?


and in classic DC fashion always trying to turn a topic into race or how you grew up.

You say it as if race has nothing to do with the Allen Iverson dynamic.

And you are trippin to try and isolate my area as the only area that loved and worshipped AI.

 

[osh kosh bosh]

I'm from canada man, if you were my age, Iverson was the man.

If anything I just think he represented the youth hiphop culture of the time, so I don't think AI was strictly a racial thing.

 

[DCAllAfrican]

Hip Hop Culture is black culture. Lets stop with the politically correct BS.

 

[af1 1982]

Hip Hop Culture is black culture. Lets stop with the politically correct BS.

 

[truthgetsbusy]

because how did AI "inspire" black males to do all that? just because you and your boys in that small part of the east coast nobody cares about called the DMV looked up to dude doesnt mean all black males in america did. he inspired young black males to stand up for themselves? are we talking about AI or Malcom x now?


and in classic DC fashion always trying to turn a topic into race or how you grew up.

See I knew this was going to happen.....I honestly believe some of you have bad memories, just started watching basketball, or have some type of racial/cultural bias towards AI.

Allen Iverson was Virginia state player of the year in basketball AND football.,,,,as a JUNIOR. Thats was the beginning.

John Thompson one of the best coaches and MEN in college basketball loves AI. See that's the disconnect that alot of ya'll don't understand like DC was saying. The things AI did in the Big East were crazy.

Ok lets get the NBA. The 96' Draft can be considered one of the best ever......HE WAS #1. And he lived up to that billing. My dude was breaking WILTS records. Dude was dropping consecutive 40 point games as 6'1 rookie. Like really think about that. People went nuts off Brandon Jennings 55 point game. AI produced stupid numbers that whole year.

The marketing from Reebok was second to his raw competitive nature. He feared no one. Thats why he rocked MJ and the world took notice. Reebok was just promoting the product that was real and organic. Nothing forced. No gimmicks, no puppets, no multiple personalities, no fakeness. My dude AI was official and in 96-97 people loved him for that and many hated him for that too but everybody paid attention.

He literally crossed every guard in the 90's- 2000s. He made grown men look silly. And as a result. They changed the rules to say it was a violation.

AI and Rap went hand in hand. He was like a rapper that just hooped the way his following was. The durag, chains, baggy clothes, braids, and tattoos. It was all him and other followed suit. If you look at the NBA during AI's prime every team had a at least 2-3 players with braids. Do you think AI didn't have an influence on Carmelo before they even ever met? And these are his peers lets not mention the millions of kids across America. AI had white kids wearing durags and arm sleeves while their Pops just went My dude even made the headband popular again.

My High school coach once said "Iverson ruined basketball". This man had a point and he wasn't being 100% but he was saying players become crossover zombies and every kid was trying to get buckets instead of playing fundamental basketball. 6 foot guards thought they could be 2 guards now.

The MVP year was magical because it turned many "haters" or critics mainly older white people into fans. They learned to love AI and embrace him. The Sixers run was crazy. The Game 1 win vs LA was one of the biggest statement games. The whole series was David vs Goliath. When AI stepped of Tyronne Lue that was a moment we will never forget. That was the raw competitive F YOU natural that was AI.

Fast forward. The dress code was the AI rule. Stern realized that the hip-hop influence was too much on his sport and who was soley responsible for that? Iverson.

He literally birthed some dudes whole style. Look at Hot Sauce. This guy is a streetball player from Atlanta that molded his whole swag after AI. Even in that weak movie he did his name was "Juelz" which is AI's rap name. Look at Bobby Maze that played for Tennessee. Look at the thousands of players who were directly influenced by him. Then think about the millions of regular people who were influenced.

So he directly changed how the game was played and how the players looked ON and OFF the court. Thats a cultural icon. Lebron, Kobe, Wade haven't even done that and they can't. Remember when Ben Wallace was in his prime and Pistons fans would dress like him with fake fros and stuff? Well people and fans did that in every arena across the globe for AI not just his home team.

Influence can be positive and negative. He had both but his impact was second to only MJ.

 

[xtapolapacetl]

I am serious. I know it sounds out of line but I really don't think it is a universal understanding.
I should have said that only people that understand, "the struggle" understand how important AI was. If you grew up in Orange County I wouldn't expect you to get it.

"Struggle"? Really, you gonna take that route? Any "struggle" that this guy went through and apparently deserves to make him a top 5 most beloved athlete EVER is a five star hotel compared to what Jackie Robinson went through.

In fact, several basketball players have had tougher lives than him. I know that for example Ben Wallace did. He had a much tougher life as well as basketball career than Allen Iverson. Ben was the tenth of 11 children and his family were sharecroppers. He went to a second division college, was undrafted and had to switch teams several times. 8 years later he was the backbone of a championship team, something that Allen Iverson's high FGA, low FG% playing style which gave him the nickname The Canswer never allowed him to be.

And for the record, Tim Hardaway was doing crossovers, which were better than Iverson's BTW, when Iverson was some snot nosed kid.

 

[osh kosh bosh]

Hip Hop Culture is black culture. Lets stop with the politically correct BS.

I'm talking about the culture in terms of music, art, iconography, you are talking about socio-political struggles of young black men. Non black people may not be able to relate to the latter, but in 2001, they def could relate to the former.because that was the popular form of music amongst the youth around my way.

My middle school was mostly white, and mostly rocked white and black awnser 4's.,

 

[odog24]

he was a great player but unfortunately not that great of a person which is why hes not in the nba now

 

[shoeking2101]

"New verses crush the hood like i'm driving into somethin',
females on the kid like i'm iverson a sum'n..." - Drake

A.I. was that guy. Everybody wanted to be like him. His name up there isn't weird at all. He's A.I. The boy is iconic. Ballers dressed like him on the court from the sleeves to the braides, females loved him, he had the bad boy image, went hand in hand with America's biggest genre (Hip-Hop) and he produced like very few did in the history of the L.

And he did all of that at 6'0 155.

 

[nooera]

TruthGetsBusy.. what a post Mad respect

 

[hermoon]

 a toast to tha god!

 

[flasheightzero]

Give me some context for this picture. It looks like family feud, where they survey a random group of people and compile the top 5 answers. This survey had to have happened in the early 2000s during Chuck's peak, because guaranteed if you ask 150-200 people on the street TODAY who the "most admired athlete OAT" you'd gonna get a bunch of Phelps, Usain, Lebron answers along with the Jordan Ali Ruth trifecta. People are slaves to the moment. This question isn't "who's the athlete YOU admire most," to answer "most admired of all time" you're extrapolating what other people think based on your own ideas about what is admirable and your estimation of whether that idea is common to others, which is skewed by the people you commonly interact with and the ubiquity and portrayal of that individual in the media.

You guys are arguing about how influential he was, the question is about how admired he was. Sure you can emulate someone you admire, but those things aren't the same. I'm not saying Iverson hasn't been influential or wasn't widely admired, he certainly represented what can be crudely called a "culture shift" with his tattoos, hairstyle, clothing, flashy ballhandling, general persona, etc. But was it that he drove this change, or was he just at the forefront of the change which was happening regardless and so in retrospect we anoint him the transformational force out of convenience? It's easier to explain change as embodied by an individual, it's hard to explain big pictures. Honestly I don't have good contemporaneous memories of it so I couldn't tell you. But here's a quote, "if you want to totally misunderstand why something is supposedly important, find the biggest fan of that particular thing and ask him for an explanation. He will tell you everything that doesn't matter to anyone who isn't him. He will describe paradoxical details and share deeply personal anecdotes, and it will all be autobiography; he will simply be explaining who he is by discussing something completely unrelated to his life."

personally I do think he was both admired and extremely influential during his peak, nowhere near OAT though. and does anyone remember this Simmons mailbag? Philly's favorite son.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/061214
I have to finish my clerkship applications so naturally I'm up writing this instead of that.

 

[dipsetgeneral]

A.I.

#TheReturn?

 

[wavycrocket]

Fast forward to 1:10. As somebody stated earlier, AI's impact on the game was crazy. I mean wade is only 5 years younger than AI, but here he says thats' the player that influenced him.

While I'll agree that he made ISO ball more prominent, he also introduced crafty ways to get buckets at the end of shot clocks with an array of crossovers that hasn't been seen in a while. Could Iverson have been more efficent and been a better teamate? In hindsight of course. But at that time he was winning in the playoffs with a mediocre team and doing it his way playing like 40mpg. AI is definitely appreciated. 

 

[chris316]

AI was one of the reason why I watched the NBA in early 2000 since MJ hasn't made a come back yet.

 

[deuce king]

Yerp.
I hate to use this word because at 22 i consider myself a grown man, but Iverson personified the word SWAG. The baggy uniform, the rows, the handles, his attitude, just everything about him screamed im a cool *** dude and i dont give a **** what you think about me. It was and still is SO appreciated. And dude was just amazing to watch on the court. I got to see him play live and up close ONE TIME at the Fleet Center (TD/Boston Garden) when he was still in in Philly for the first time and it was so dope

**Mike Lowrey**..........................."Now that's how you suppose to drive post....................from now on [COLOR=#red]NooEra[/COLOR] THAT'S HOW YOU POST!!"

 

[airjordan jb23]

AI

I can easily see why his name is up there... Post Jordan era, he was one of the biggest names in sports. His attitude, style, play, etc were all appreciated.

 

[tripda6]

"brought the hood to the game & they love him for the braids & tats"

 

[memo]

I only liked AI when he went to Georgetown. He should have changed his game up and matured, but he obviously didn't care about winning a championship. His APG average was horrible for a point guard.   

 

[jhawk826]

he was a great player but unfortunately not that great of a person which is why hes not in the nba now

Iverson not being in the league has nothing with him being "not that great of a person" which is false in its own right. He's not in the NBA because he was unwilling to accept that he was no longer the guy in addition to having an influence that David Stern was no fan of; he was blackballed because of it.

 

[wavy bone]

I only liked AI when he went to Georgetown. He should have changed his game up and matured, but he obviously didn't care about winning a championship. His APG average was horrible for a point guard.   

He didn't care about winning a championship? Please shut up.

He wasn't a point guard either genius. He played the 2.

 

[D StaXX]

I only liked AI when he went to Georgetown. He should have changed his game up and matured, but he obviously didn't care about winning a championship. His APG average was horrible for a point guard.   

Sit down.
A.I. had EVERYBODY rocking braids, headbands, and both finger and arm sleeves.

 

[memo]

He didn't care about winning a championship? Please shut the **** up.
He wasn't a point guard either genius. He played the 2.

i looked at his stats on wiki and it said he played point and guard so that's why i made the mistake, since his FG% wasn't good i figured he played point guard more.

he may have wanted to win one, but looking at his stats and from what I read he didn't care enough, which is the difference between good players like AI and Melo, and legends like MJ LJ and Kobr.

 

[wavy bone]

You went to wikipedia to support your argument?

How old are you? Did you actually watch the sport back then or were of proper age to comprehend it?