Last week the world learned that Allen Iverson was going to be inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame. Iverson’s career had a lot of great moments, both on and off the court. I mean the man single handily took an NBA team with Dikembe Mutombo to the NBA finals. Here are his 20 greatest moments and quotes to celebrate his Hall of Fame career:
1. Dissing on national television
That man he completely disrespected on national TV by stepping over was Tyron Lue. Lue is currently the coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers (actually, he is the assistant. LeBron James is the coach of that team). Throughout the past few months, this moment has been turned into a meme. Iverson gave his thoughts on it, “Yeah, I don’t like it. You know what I mean. It’s funny. You know what I mean. That’s my man. You know what I mean? I don’t like when people tease him about that. You know what I mean.” Yeah, AI, we know what you mean.
2.“I’m going to always be a Sixer til I die.”
As a Knicks fan, I can’t get fully on board with the whole “pro Philly” thing, but Allen Iverson is a Sixer and always will be. Yeah, he went on to play for the Pistons, Nuggets, and Grizzlies in the twilight of his career, but when you think Allen Iverson you think Philadelphia 76ers. I love when athletes say stuff like this.
3. “My whole thing was, just being me. Now, you look around the NBA and all of them have tattoos, guys wearing cornrows. Now you see the police officers with the cornrows.”
Allen Iverson would have got into the Hall of Fame just based off pure statistics, but that doesn’t give his NBA career full justice. Allen Iverson is one of the most influential NBA players of all time. I mean the man was the first one ever to wear a shooting sleeve, and now 65% of the league rocks one. He brought cornrows into the league. He was so revolutionary he inspired a white kid from the suburbs (me) to ask his barber for cornrows.
4. “They’re targeting guys who dress like me— guys who dress hip-hop. Put a murderer in a suit, and he’s still a murderer. It sends a bad message to the kids.”
This was Iverson’s response after David Stern decided to change the dress code policy for NBA players in 2005. If you wanted to condense this comment into four words, it would be “Fuck a dress code.” Also, IVERSON IS FOR THE KIDS.
5. “I don’t even have money for a cheeseburger!”
Iverson shouted this towards his wife during a divorce proceeding. His estranged wife than handed him $61. According to my calculations, Iverson can buy 25 cheeseburgers at McDonalds with that.
6. “A jump shot can get you a shoe deal, a big house, a supermodel, fancy cars, a bunch of yes men, a Swiss bank account. But none of these things can get you a jump shot.”
Did I forget to mention that Allen Iverson is also a philosopher? He was the Socrates of the NBA….what a quote.
7. “I would rather win than have good sportsmanship”
Someone needs to show this quote to the soccer moms who are forcing their son and daughters leagues to stop keeping score because they don’t want to hurt anyone’s “feelings.”
8. “The basket looked like an ocean, and I was just throwing rocks in it.”
I had this feeling once….but it was in an intramural game.
9. “I would never want to coach” “Why?” “We would never practice”
Practice? We talkin’ about practice?
10. “That’s what my money bought you? That’s what $2,000 bought you?”
This quote is taken from one of the funniest stories involving Iverson. After the Sixers had lost a series to the Boston Celtics in the 2002 playoffs, he gave a Celtics ball boy $2,000 and told him to buy “as much Corona as possible” (he obviously didn’t know the cost of beer). The ball boy came back with four cases of beer, to which Iverson responded with the quote above. So, yeah, Allen Iverson once paid $2,000 for four cases of Corona. Some would call him a pussy for asking for Corona, but that’s irrelevant.
11. “I got white friends…I mean, my lawyers.”
12. “Man you know I can’t even touch the backboard now…I ain’t lying….Like I can’t even touch the backboard. It is over.”
13. “This is one of my most remembarable…did I say that right? How you say it? Memorable? Whatever man. Ya’ll know what I’m talking about. I’m going to remember this game.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2TXF0DT_TI
There is no correlation between having the greatest crossover of all time and knowing proper English…..speaking of cross-overs.
14. Allen Iverson Crossing Up Michael Jordan
15. “I thought we’d be discussing about me not leaving Philadelphia and they just kept asking me about the practice, so I lost it”
Maybe you know nothing about Allen Iverson. Maybe you’ve never watched the NBA. If this is the first time you are being educated on the greatness of Allen Iverson, I hope you come away with one thing: he HATES practice (more on that in a bit).
In 2011, Iverson was arrested for a traffic violation. No big deal, right? People get pulled over for a traffic violation all the time, but Iverson took this one a bit personal. Here are three quotes from the police report:
16. “Take the vehicle, I have 10 more”
Absolute power move right here.
17. “I make more money than you will in 10 years”
This is by far the worst thing you can EVER say to a police officer. I went to high school with a kid who once got stopped by the police for public intoxication. The cop was going to let him off with a warning, but the kid decided to go on a tirade about how the cop is making 30k a year while he is going to graduate with an engineering degree and make 6 figures out of college. So, yeah, he ended up in the back of the cop car.
18. “Police don’t have anything else fucking to do except to fuck with me”
19. 6’0” Allen Iverson dunks on 7’0” Marcus Camby
There is no quote for what Iverson said when he was hanging on the rim, but I think it’s fair to assume it was something along the lines of, “how them nuts taste, Camby?”
20. “We sitting here, I supposed to be the franchise player and we in here talking about practice.”
In all seriousness, congratulations to Allen Iverson on his Hall of Fame induction. I remember always picking the Sixers on NBA Live 04, because I knew I could drop 50 with Allen Iverson. I remember wanting to rock the corn rows as a kid, but my father having the tough talk with me about how a white boy from the suburbs can’t rock the corn rows. He was influential, and one of the best players of my generation. The induction ceremony will be special, and I hope he gives us one last “Practice?” for old times sake.
P.S. Allen, if you are reading this: DO NOT CRY DURING YOUR SPEECH. You do not want the Iverson Crying Face to replace the Jordan Crying Face.
Jack McGuire writes at bigdaddyscourt.com. If you like his work, please feel free to connect with him on Twitter @BigDaddysCourt (he will follow back).