If Iverson wants minutes at his age he would have to be a pass first player like Steve Nash is but we all know that's not gonna happen. Maybe he's too "good" to be asked to sit on the bench but you have to ask yourself this: Would you sell out your future franchise players just to make a guy like Iverson happy?
in the Year 2000! and his MVP award was the 00-01 Season. This is TEN YEARS LATER. And yes, his departure from Philadelphia was not an amicable one. By the end of his run, he was a constant hindrance to the team, couldn't get along with the coaches, inhcluding Larry Brown and Jim O'Brien, and left on bad terms. my whole opinion is based on Iverson putting himself before any team he plays for. and regarding his minutes last night: this was his first game since may of last year. I repeat my point: can't this guy shut his trap and let the coaches decide what is right for the team? Final Opinion: he is not the same player he once was.
He should just accept that He is in a different situation and just play His role. 5 games from now, It wont be his butt hurting but his gigantic EGO!
AI is probably the worst player in NBA history to get be a HOF first ballot. He's probably the worst player in history to get in the HOF period. A lot of people point out to his glowing "averages", but you only need to look at his career FG percentages to know that he sucks. A typical "Iverson" game would result in a loss, and yet because he shoots 20 times and makes 9, then that's supposed to mean something. Iverson is a ballstopper in every sense of the word, he dominates the ball so much that his temmates lose interest and stop playing their best. Any other player wouldn't sniff a midlevel contract with his kind of production, but because he scores via cross overs, dunks and fadeaways, and he is a little guy who gets to the line alot he's deemed as a person who gives it his all and who has a lot of heart, nevermind that he's lazy, doesn't practice, and suddenly developed "back problems" when he was benched by his team. He gets a lot of credit for supposedly taking his team to the finals, but that team was carried by their defense and rebounding, things which AI has no hand in. Mango is right, that kind of team doesn't exist anymore, mainly because that kind of team sucks and would be obsolete in today's NBA.
You're totally right. In his last full season in Denver he only shot 45.8% from the field, which put him a head of other players that suck, such as: Vince Carter, Andre Iguodala, Kevin Martin, Rashard Lewis, Brandon Roy, Chauncey Billups, Ray Allen, and Antawn Jamison. Oh, and he was .1% behind the suckiest player of them all, Kobe Bryant!
You selected one year of data which I thought might be <i>cherry picking</i>, so that forced me to do some research. Also, you failed to provide <i>Links</i> which could have been to discourage others from doing player comparisons. <b>I like <i>Links</i>.</b> OJ Mayo wasn't on your list of names, but increased minutes for AI would likely mean reduced minutes for Mayo and that is why I included him. <center> Career Percentages Code: FG % 3 PT % [URL=http://www.nba.com/playerfile/allen_iverson/career_stats.html]Allen Iverson Career Stats[/URL] 0.425 0.313 [URL=http://www.nba.com/playerfile/vince_carter/career_stats.html]Vince Carter Career Stats[/URL] 0.447 0.377 [URL=http://www.nba.com/playerfile/andre_iguodala/career_stats.html]Andre Iguodala Career Stats[/URL] 0.469 0.324 [URL=http://www.nba.com/playerfile/kevin_martin/career_stats.html]Kevin Martin Career Stats[/URL] 0.453 0.391 [URL=http://www.nba.com/playerfile/rashard_lewis/career_stats.html]Rashard Lewis Career Stats[/URL] 0.458 0.391 [URL=http://www.nba.com/playerfile/brandon_roy/career_stats.html]Brandon Roy Career Stats[/URL] 0.463 0.362 [URL=http://www.nba.com/playerfile/chauncey_billups/career_stats.html]Chauncey Billups Career Stats[/URL] 0.416 0.388 [URL=http://www.nba.com/playerfile/ray_allen/career_stats.html]Ray Allen Career Stats[/URL] 0.448 0.398 [URL=http://www.nba.com/playerfile/antawn_jamison/career_stats.html]Antawn Jamison Career Stats[/URL] 0.456 0.347 [URL=http://www.nba.com/playerfile/kobe_bryant/career_stats.html]Kobe Bryant Career Stats[/URL] 0.454 0.341 [URL=http://www.nba.com/playerfile/oj_mayo/career_stats.html]OJ Mayo Career Stats[/URL] 0.440 0.383 </center>
Well, that's interesting. How about the fact that from the age of thirty on, Allen Iverson had a marked and sustained increase in his shooting percentage? In 05-06 he shot 44.7%, 06-07 45.4% with Denver, and 45.8% in 07-08. Here's a link for you: http://www.google.com BOLD ITALICS UNDERLINE
Thank you for that link because I used it to navigate to Patrica Bender's web site. <center> Current Player Contracts Code: Allen Iverson ......... 9/10/09 1 $3.5 million '10 </center> You can roll out as many stats as you like, but the deal that Iverson took was for one year with Memphis. Very few of those who follow the NBA expect Memphis to be a serious Playoff contender in the 2009 - 2010 Season. Teams in the NBA have access to the stats that you have provided and likely have crunched even more numbers than that in terms of what AI means to a team (both positive and negative). The Spurs, Magic, Celtics, Lakers, Mavericks, Cavs, Blazers and similar teams did various things (Trades and/or Free Agent signings) this summer and it appears that signing AI for 3.5 million wasn't a high priority for them. If AI was a College Freshman and felt that the coach that recruited him had lied, then it would be more understandable about his frustration for being slotted for limited minuted and coming off the bench. AI has been around the NBA long enough to be able to assess a situation properly if he wanted to. Memphis made a trade to get Mayo and a rational person would realize that he would be the starter until he played his way out of the position. Why AI signed with Memphis and expected to start and/or play significant minutes is a mystery that only he can explain. Perhaps AI should negotiate a <i>buyout</i> with Memphis and see how much interest the Spurs, Magic, Celtics, Lakers, Mavericks, Cavs, Blazers and similar teams have in promising him a starting slot and/or significant minutes.
I love this. The greatest thing about it is that these shooting percentages seem to have little to no real meaning in regards to how good the player is overall. The worst two players on that list (Kevin Martin and Rashard Lewis) have some of the best shooting percentages while Chauncey Billups, a finals mvp, has a career 41.6 fg%. And you can get Iverson minutes without pulling out Mayo. A team as sorry defensively as they are might as well play small sometimes and have all of their better players on the court for as long as possible. Gasol and Randolph can still play but guys like Steven Hunter and Hamed Haddadi shouldn't.
