Even decades after his retirement, Allen Iverson still speaks about Michael Jordan the same way a young fan might with awe, admiration, and genuine disbelief that he ever shared the same court with his idol. Appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the former MVP opened up about how meeting Jordan for the first time left him completely starstruck, to the point where he says he “embarrassed” his own friends.
“All I wanted to do was watch Mike. That was my hero. He was my vision. He was the reason why everybody knew who Allen Iverson is today, because of him.”
“I remember the first time I was just staring at him, just looking at him like, ‘That’s him.’ You know what I mean? Just staring at him. I was in awe. I think that was the first time I was really starstruck. What I remember the most is, he didn’t look real to me.”
“That was the first time I saw a human that didn’t look real. I talked about it in my Hall of Fame speech — it was like he had this aura, like this orange force field around him.”
“And it’s like that now. It’s so embarrassing when I’m around him because I’m still starstruck. You know what I mean? I’m embarrassing my friends. My friends gotta tap me like, ‘Chuck, okay man, calm down. You’re embarrassing us. You’re a superstar too.’ And I’m like, ‘No, not like this.'”
It’s an honest, heartfelt confession from one of basketball’s fiercest competitors: the same player who famously crossed Jordan over as a rookie in 1997, in one of the NBA’s most iconic moments. Iverson has said many times that the crossover was never about disrespect; it was about testing himself against the greatest player alive. And now, almost 30 years later, the respect he has for Jordan still burns just as bright.
That moment of humility also highlights what made Iverson so beloved. For all his toughness, swagger, and street-level authenticity, Iverson has never been afraid to show emotion or admiration for those who inspired him. His reverence for Jordan, even after all these years, is proof of that.
So while the world remembers Iverson for crossing up Jordan and launching himself into basketball history, Iverson remembers something much simpler: being a kid from Hampton, Virginia, standing in awe of his hero, so mesmerized that he forgot, for a moment, that he’d become a legend himself.
