Why Is Allen Iverson Considered To Be so Great? He was a chucker..

He has a lifetime player efficiency rating of 20.9 - higher than Paul Pierce, Steve Nash, Gary Payton among others, and about the same as Clyde Drexler (21.1)

Not bad for an inefficient chucker with nearly 40k minutes in the NBA.

 

That's pre-injury Vince and Ray at the peak of their powers. Both of them tied the all-time record for 3's (9) in a playoff game that year. Vince was good for 30-50 any given night. Reggie was still putting up 30-40pts in the playoffs. Ray, Sam Cassell, Glen Robinson, Michael Redd, Tim Thomas is a pretty solid squad IMO. So is Reggie, Jermaine Oneal, Jalen Rose. All those teams had better talent.

AI was doing it with CAREER 5-7ppg players around him. It'd be like if you surrounded KD with clones of Kendrick Perkins in his formative years, then bashed him for becoming a chucker. That's the only way they could win!

 

His supporting cast was worse.

 

It doesn't work like that in real life.

 

You're referring to his prime years when posting and say no one wanted to play with him and then proceed to list his final years in the league, past his prime, five years later, as examples. LOL. C'mon man..

AI was not a shooter, a big, or a big guard, those are the kind of stars that age better into role guys with championship teams. They can just stand and shoot or rebound and defend, without needing to be go to stars. that's the point of the AI story, despite not being any of those things he still did his thing. Again, is it was that easy for guys like that to score 30 a game, more would.

When AI was in his prime, stars weren't leaving teams as much as they are now. Back then, star duos and usually a semi-star type was the thing, not the big threes. Deke and AI were a strong duo, they just needed better role guys.

Who's the one that brought up shot attempts, as if they were just there for whoever wants them and would easily translate into more points? You did. That's why i asked why other players just didn't do it.

 

Although I agree that AI is a tad overrated and never should have won MVP over Shaq, late 90's early 00's NBA was a really weird era with super inefficient guards. The onus was to get the highest PPG regardless of efficiency. Everyone wanted to be MJ without his talent and shot as much as him. Jerry Stackhouse averaged almost 30ppg for crying out loud. Beginning 04-05 or so, as the league calmed down a bit and guards started taking better shots as a whole, AI did shoot mid 50's TS% till he got too old.

 

Yes, if Ray Allen was able to lead the league in usage rating like Iverson and score 30 PPG he'd be in the discussion for GOAT - but he didn't, and wouldn't - because his efficiency level would have decreased as his usage increases like all players. So it's really not remotely relevant.

 

He played with Melo, Nene, Camby, Kenyon Martin, Andre Miller, JR Smith. Not a bunch of chopped liver. And he never won more than 50 games a season when he was with the Nuggets.

People said he led a crappy team to the conference finals in a crappy conference. When he went to a talented western team, he didn't make that team much better.

The Iverson debate has been around for a long time. I've always said that he was no doubt a great basketball talent. But his style of play is only great for a one-man offense (and his defense is overrated due to his stealing numbers) and thus not conducive to winning in high level competition.

Using PER to measure his success is flawed. That is a system that ranks Robinson over Chamberlain, Duncan, Jabbar, and Olajuwon.

 

I agree with this. Again, another guy I didn't care for put he was one hell of player. Fun to watch and had no fear. Many say that D-wade plays the biggest for a guy his height and I agree but there is one guy who played bigger and that is Allen Iverson. The FG% when combined with FT% is really the stat you want to look at. He took a beating and went to the line a ton. She-Mac could have learned a thing or two about heart from this guy.

"Practice, you talk'n bout practice?" What an idiot! See, don't you I didn't like him.

 

I meant


See, I told you I didn't like him.

 

At what age did he play with them? AI was never going to age well. He was a small guy, who got beat up a lot, who wasn't a sharpshooter, who relied on his quickness to score. While bigger guards and bigs start to decline more rapidly at about 34-35, someone like AI would feel that at around 32-33 years of age. Once he left Philly, it was too late to win anything, with him as a primary guy.

 

Home come you only listed the second half of the list?

 

This. Allen Iverson was a beast.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgXR32plW_k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlM1qerBLSM

 

@eddiewinslow

-Nobody was joining anybody in that era of the NBA. The old stars were still productive, the new stars were all in their "the man" phase. Guys were LEAVING each other to be the man back then (Shaq, TMac, Stephon Marbury, Kobe if he'd had the choice).

-You can say what you want but those sixers teams would've run through a brick wall for AI. He was their Barry Sanders, or Adrian Peterson. He was giving up his body for those teams. You'll never hear any of those guys say a bad word about him or playing with him.

-Kobe on that team blasts everyone for being scrubs. He was an antisocial hypercritical loner gunner back then and no team in the team NBA would've rallied around him. 1st or 2nd round elimination. TMac 1st round elimination. Vince possibly quits on the team mid-season or cracks under the Philly media pressure. Ray Allen gets smothered with double and triple teams due to the lack of ANYONE on the team who can hit an open shot.

-Who was he ball-hogging from? Aaron Mckie and Eric Snow both had career seasons with AI. He turned 5ppg guys into 10ppg guys. Eric Snow is career 20% from 3. Nobody on those teams could create, and their ability to finish was spotty at best. Do you have any idea how insane it must be to carry an offense with no inside game against playoff D while sharing a backcourt for 30+ minutes with a guard shooting 0% from 3? Yes ZERO percent. He was terrified to shoot it, and when he did, he missed them all.

I really don't like defending AI but he probably did the best with the worst hand of anyone. Only Minny era KG and Cleveland era Lebron comes close. Both had more talented teams but worse coaches.

 

you grew up watching him? and you couldn't figure out why his team made it to the finals?

that must mean you didn't watch him

 

He was 31-32 in Denver. His individual stats didn't decline much during those two years, averaging about 25 ppg, 7 apg, and 2 spg, still star numbers. So I don't think the aging argument is valid. The team did not win much more from his stellar individual performance. That's the whole point.

 

He was a leader and inspired his team and inspired his city.

Nobody boos Iverson in Philly.

Can't say the same about the other you mentioned .