The State of Allen Address

I was never thrilled with Allen being traded from Denver to Detroit early in the season. I knew things were not meshing well in Denver and I figured they never would, but, deep down,  I knew Detroit was not the answer for The Answer. Detroit is such an established team. A team, that up until next week, when they inevitably lose to LeBron and his "supporting cast" (his words, not mine), hasn't lost a first round playoff series in seven straight years. A team that had successful chemistry together for years, a team that only years ago were celebrated as the best team in the NBA. Key word: Team. Trading away the unselfish nucleus of that team (Billups) and getting in return a guy who doesn't exactly know what the word team means, can never mesh well. You see, Iverson employs the same logic as LeBron; he has "supporting casts."

And that is not to say that logic hasn't worked out in the past for Iverson and will quite possibly work out this season for LeBron (whose birth certificate I would like to see, I'd like a little proof that he is younger than me). If you look at Allen's career, the year he was most successful (00-01), was the year that the Sixers decided make him the star of the show. Get rid of the Jerry Stackhouse's and the Derrick Coleman's and add in players like Matt Geiger, Aaron McKie, Eric Snow and Raja Bell and all of the sudden, you have a "team." Players like Tashaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace and Rip Hamilton, guys who have more hardware than Iverson, just aren't as likely to be bit players in his million dollar movie. There in lies problem number one.

Problem number two; coaching. Iverson barely listened to Larry Brown, one of the best and most respected NBA coaches around, you think he is going to listen to Michael Curry? Yea, I didn't think he would either. And, what's worse, I don't think Curry had a clue as to what he was going to do with Iverson. He tried to put Rip on the bench, but like I said before, players like Hamilton aren't going to be cast aside without a fight. So Curry went to plan B, bench Iverson. This plan is also known as, end Iverson's career with Detroit.

This is where my disappointment with Iverson sets in for possibly the first time in his career. I know what you are thinking, weren't you disappointed when he threw his wife out of the house naked? Maybe a little bummed when he used the word "practice" 25 times in the span of a minute? Or possibly a little irritated when he put out a rap album. No, I'm sure his wife deserved it, and they shouldn't be talking about practice (that's hearsay), and if Shaq and CWebb can have rap albums, so can Allen. But, where I draw the line is his attitude in the past few weeks. Announcing that he would be sitting out the rest of the season and the playoffs with a back injury. An announcement that coincided with Curry's decision to bring Iverson off the bench.

I understand his frustration. I mean, here is a guy who has averaged 41 minutes a game for his career, 45 in the playoffs. Becoming a bench player is a difficult, but very real adjustment. Let's face it, he isn't 25 anymore and from the way he has played, his body has aged far past his 33 years. His chance to win a championship that he could take full credit for was in 2001 and it didn't happen then, and it sure as hell wont happen now. Here is a man who says that all of the other accolades don't matter, all he is looking for is that ring. But when a team asks him to do his part, to play his role, he decides maybe those personal awards mean a little more than he originally thought. 

I understand that he really does have an injury to his back. But come on, anyone who has watched Iverson in the past decade knows that he would play through anything, no matter the pain, as long as he believed in the outcome. In Detroit, he lost that belief and for the first time he missed a portion of a season with a bruised ego and a strained vagina (he must have gotten that injury from Chris Webber - that guy strained his vag more times than Jenna Jameson). I think it is pretty clear that Iverson will never wear a Piston's jersey again, and that is fine with me. But when the time comes to sign with a team for next season (and I really believe he will) he needs to be realistic and remember that the heyday is over, but his contribution to a championship can still be very real, it just may be as a member of somebody else's "supporting cast."

I definitely keep the faith alive that someday very soon, we will have moments like this again.