He cried while answering an innocuous question and sneered at another, smiled, gave many thanks, boasted, offered loooong contemplative answers, and wore jeans, a T-shirt, layers of gold chains and a Yankees cap to go with the official formal sport jacket presented once he rolled in late, all in 31 minutes Thursday afternoon, all at the Hall of Fame.
All Allen Iverson.
The day before he would be enshrined with nine others in the Class of 2016, Iverson as if nothing had changed at 41 years old and 6 ½ years removed from his last NBA game, just as unvarnished as his personality and play as flammable 76ers scoring guard that put him on the path to induction.
It was like an A.I. refresher course. He missed an informal ceremony with other inductees or family members because of what Hall officials said was a travel problem, showed up for the end of the media session, was asked right away about the absence, cited a family issue, and then….
“That’s the first thing you want to know about things? God, man. Why can’t it just be great, man? Why can’t it be a monumental moment?”
Perfect.
Iverson to the end, he was raw emotion, bravado, the underdog and the hero, thoughtful and defensive, ricocheting everywhere as he contemplated the final step of a turbulent playing career. National pride, the hurt, sense of accomplishment, faith — they were all there.
And this was just the preliminary. Imagine once he is on the actual stage Friday night about a mile away at Symphony Hall for the induction ceremony, with Larry Brown, Julius Erving and John Thompson a few feet away as his presenters and A.I. at the podium trying to capture his basketball life in speech.
It was only a light-hearted, stress-free event for everyone else, including fellow NBA headliners Shaquille O’Neal and Yao Ming. Not so for Iverson. A guest — not a reporter — asked him about the importance of teammates in his career, and it was over.
A 15-second pause.
The answer strangled in his throat.
The words, when they did emerge, coming out wobbly and halting as he tried to keep his composure.
“That’s the only thing that got me here,” Iverson said. “That’s the only thing that got me here is my teammates. My teammates and my coaches. That’s the only reason. That’s the only reason I’m here. All those guys. All those guys sacrificed their game and sacrificed different things for me to be honored like this. Without them, it wouldn’t have happened. Without my coaches putting me in a position to succeed. Mike Bailey did it on my high school level. Coach (John) Thompson did it on the college level. Larry Brown molded me into an MVP and a Hall of Fame player. Without those guys I wouldn’t be here. I didn’t do this by myself. There were so many people. So many fans who came in there and cheered for me night in and night out, so many people that supported me and believed in me. They made it so easy for me to believe in myself because I didn’t want to let them down. I wanted it for my fans and my family and my friends to be proud of me. So it was easy for me to go out there night in and night out there to fight.”
Contrasted with Iverson being asked about the rarity of wearing a sport coat.
“I’m uncomfortable,” he said, then let out a big laugh.
“This is a jacket, when it comes to suits, I would always remember and cherish because of the significance of it. My thing is, it’s so many little guys, and I’m not taking about size and stature or anything like that, it’s so many younger people that’s going to learn from this experience. That’s where I’ll get the love in my heart from, the fact that little young guys can look at the obstacles that I had to go through to become a Hall of Famer and know it’s not so bad when it comes to them trying to accomplish the same goal. That’s what makes me feel good at this point. What makes me feel good is all of the people that rooted for A.I. get a chance to say, ‘He did what you never thought he could do. The critics. He did what you never thought he could accomplish. This is a moment that me and my fans and my family and friends can share together because we always believed in the dream.”
And there was Iverson dissecting his relationship with the city of Philadelphia.
“I wasn’t a fan of the Sixers. My dad was a big Mo Cheeks fan and he wanted me to be drafted by the Sixers. My thing was, if that could make my dad happy then that would make me happy, you know what I mean? So when it came into to fruition, I was ecstatic about it. I really didn’t know anything about the city. I found out the relationship between me and the Philly fans and the city throughout the years, just knowing that they always kept supporting me throughout my trials and tribulations, all my downfalls, my ups and downs in my life. They watched me grow as a man, as a father, and I have just the utmost respect for them people for not giving up on me. But on the other side of that, they know that I gave them everything I had night in and night out. I don’t think there will ever be another relationship like the relationship with me and the Philadelphia fans. The only thing that comes close to that is probably Mike and the fans in Chicago. We have that mutual love and respect for each other.”
And the similarities with O’Neal in what they meant to an era.
“I don’t want you take it the wrong way and it probably will be the wrong way because Allen Iverson is saying it. But our similarities are, I think, that he was the best dominant big man in the world and you can argue it all you want to but it’ll go down as me being the best dominant little man in the world. That’s our similarities. That’s why I love him. That’s why he will always be in my top five of the best players to ever play the game. A lot of people at times don’t want to admit what they don’t want to admit because the person that they don’t agree with as far as everything off the field or off the court. But in their heart, they know. With me being a Hall of Famer, all of the people that criticized everything about what I’ve done in my career, they can’t take this from me. All the barbershop talk and all that stuff, the ones that support me can always say, ‘Well, this guy was immortalized by being a Hall of Famer.’ You can’t take that away from me.”
And playing on the Olympic team when 2004 when many other NBA peers skipped it.
“That was a very touching situation for me because when everybody didn’t end up going, me and Tim Duncan went. We went. We went to represent our country. That’s no shot at the guys that didn’t go. I totally understand why they didn’t. I totally understand and all of them still remain my friends. I still have the utmost respect for all of those guys. But me and Tim went. And when they had the next Olympics, as great of a season that I had, arguably one of the best seasons that I ever had being an NBA basketball player, I wasn’t invited to go. That’s something that — I wouldn’t say it hurt me to this day because I don’t lose any sleep over it, but the acknowledgement is there. The hurt will always exist because I felt that I was a team I truly should have been a part of. I should be obviously saying that I have a gold medal at 41 years old.”
And the football career that wasn’t.
“The craziest feeling that I have is the fact that when I have my conversation God, to me, in my heart, and people can vouch for this, I thought I was the greatest football player that God ever created. I honestly think that. I say to myself, and I have conversations with Him, like, ‘And I’m the Hall of Fame for being a basketball player?’ If I thought that he gave me all the talent in the world for being a football player and thought I was on my way to the NFL, had all the tools and recruited by every team in the whole country, and I end up at the end of the day being a basketball player? That’s why I know God loves me.”
Iverson was everywhere, late to the event but, really, as if he had never left the NBA. He was pure A.I.
“I can’t tell you how many, because I don’t know,” Iverson said when asked about what emotions he expects Friday night when he officially becomes historical. “But how many nights I cried from criticism and people critiquing everything about me and my life and the choices that I made and the mistakes that I made. To be able to say after all of that, still to be recognized as one of the best ever to play the game was, and it still is, just a great moment for me, my family, my friends, my teammates, my coaches. I just think it’s the best. And especially my fans. You know me. The real true ones. The ones that never gave up and never felt that I wasn’t who in my heart I know I am.”
