Allen Iverson was a larger-than-life figure during his time in the NBA, and he had a big cultural influence on fans and players alike. AI did things that shouldn’t have been possible for a man his size, as he won 4 scoring titles despite standing at just 6 feet tall, and his career scoring average of 26.7 points per game ranks in the top 10 all-time.
While Iverson accomplished a lot in the NBA, the one thing that is missing from his impressive resume is a championship. He got close in 2001 as he took the Philadelphia 76ers to the NBA Finals, but they lost out to the Lakers led by Shaquille O’Neal in 5 games. That was it for Iverson, as he would never even have a sniff at the trophy again, with 2001 being the only season that he managed to reach a Conference Final during his career.
He never got to team up with another superstar during his prime, which played a part in him never getting over the finish line, and who knows what might have been if he had more help during the early-2000s. Long after his retirement, he was asked during an interview in 2015 about what would have been his all-time Big 3, and he named himself along with O’Neal and Michael Jordan, stating that they would go 82-0 even if the interviewer was playing with them!
via Bleacher Report:
Your all-time Big Three?
“Wow,” he says dreamily. “Me, Mike and Shaq.” He looks at me. “We’d go 82-0 even with you in the backcourt.”
That would be an incredible trio right there, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a way to stop three of the greatest scorers in NBA history. There is only one basketball, though, which might make things a bit difficult, but these guys would have figured something out.
It is a shame that AI did not get more opportunities to shine at the biggest stage of the sport, and he has to take some blame for it too. Dahntay Jones, who played with Iverson, revealed why teammates clashed with AI, and you wonder how differently his career would have panned out if he had a different attitude towards the grind that came with the game.
