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| Allen Iverson Crossover |
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Tags : allen iverson crossover nuggets nba moves highlights post up |
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Affichage : 2156885
Durée : 58 s |
| Allen Iverson College Mix - Georgetown University |
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For those who were there at McDonough Gymnasium on
August 4, 1994, few will forget the arrival of a
6-0 freshman guard who needed no introduction. The
rumors of Allen Iverson's arrival to the Kenner
Summer League were true, and by game's end,
Iverson had scored 40 points. By the Sunday
afternoon final, before an overflow crowd inside
the gym and a crowd of those outside who could not
get in, Iverson finished a combined 99 point
effort in three days against some of the best
collegiate talent in the city. This, of course,
from a player that had not played organized
basketball in over a year.
The Allen Iverson years had begun.
A brief profile can't do justice to tell the story
of one of the greatest pure athletes ever to
attend Georgetown, a man without peer in his
talent over two years at the collegiate level.
Just a year before his Kenner debut, few would
have imagined Allen Iverson ever playing college
basketball.
Iverson was not only a 31 point a game guard for
Bethel HS, but a football player of tremendous
skill. As a quarterback and defensive back his
sophomore season, he produced nearly 1,600 yards
offense and 13 INT's. By his junior year, he
accounted for 2,204 yards, 21 touchdowns by rush
or interception, and 14 touchdown passes. In a
region which has produced NFL quarterbacks such as
Michael Vick and Aaron Brooks, there are those who
will still say "Bubbachuck" Iverson was better
than both of them. Schools such as Arkansas,
Kentucky, Duke, and three dozen other top programs
across two sports were vying for perhaps the
greatest two-sport star the Tidewater had ever
produced.
When he led Bethel to the state title, someone
asked what it was like to win the title. "I'm
going to get one in basketball now," which he did.
In late February, 1993, en route to the state
title he had promised, Iverson was one of a large
group of Bethel teammates at a Hampton bowling
alley when a fight broke out between students from
rival schools trading racial insults. Three people
were hurt in the aftermath. Despite conflicting
testimony from eyewitnesses and no clear evidence
linking him to the crime, Iverson was one of four
black students arrested.
Racial tensions were heightened when the
prosecutors passed on a misdemeanor assault charge
and charged Iverson with three counts of felony
"maiming by mob", which carried a 20 year prison
sentence. Despite video evidence which did not
place Iverson in the crowd at the time of the
fight, he was convicted in a racially charged
case.
The 20 year sentence was later reduced to five,
and Iverson was granted clemency by Gov. Douglas
Wilder three months later, sending Iverson to a
detention program at an alternative high school.
(The original charges were thrown out by the
Virginia court of appeals in 1995.)
In the spring of 1994, with Iverson still in
detention, his mother approached John Thompson
with a plea to help her son get to college and
start a new chapter of his life. Though Thompson
had passed on a number of troubled players in the
past, he offered Iverson a scholarship in April of
that season, contingent upon his completion of
high school and his legal release, which was
granted 48 hours before his Kenner debut.
By his debut in a Georgetown uniform in November
1994, Iverson had been the subject of intense
national media attention. In the Hoyas' annual
exhibition with Fort Hood, Iverson scored 36
points, five assists, and three steals in 23
minutes. Local columnists were in awe.
"Hang his number up in the rafters," wrote Tom
Knott of the Washington Times. "He's better than
most of the point guards in the NBA right now."
"I saw Lew Alcindor, Austin Carr, Moses Malone,
Alonzo Mourning, Albert King, Ralph Sampson and
Patrick Ewing play in high school," said the
Post's Thomas Boswell. "Now, I have two memories
on my first impression top shelf. The man who
became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Allen Iverson."
Iverson opened the 1994-95 season in Memphis, TN
in a 97-79 loss to defending NCAA champion
Arkansas, scoring 19 points. Six days later, he
scored 31 in a nationally televised game with
DePaul, followed by 30 four days later against
Providence, leading the team in scoring 22 times
that season. His only game under double figures
for the season (and his career) was a game where
he played only ten minutes in a loss at Villanova,
a game Georgetown coach John Thompson threatened
to forfeit when a group of Villanova students
paraded through the Spectrum in black and
white-striped prison garb, with a sign comparing
Iverson to O.J. Simpson.
"You accept certain ribbing, but there is a line,"
Thompson said after the game. "I canî–¹ condone
any Christian university sitting and watching that
happen...If that happens [again], Iî–² going to
walk. Itî–¸ that simple." Such fan behavior was
not seen thereafter.
Later in the season, with President Bill Clinton
in attendance, Iverson scored 26 as the Hoyas
routed Villanova, 77-52. He followed it up with 21
to beat Syracuse, 28 versus St. John's, 31 in a
Big East tournament opener with Miami (a game that
saw Iverson outscore the entire Hurricane team at
the end of the first half), and 27 versus
Connecticut in the semis. In the NCAA regional, he
scored 24 in the loss, but held Jeff McInnis to 1
for 8 shooting. By season's end, Allen Iverson had
been named Big East Player of the Week nine times,
Rookie of the Year, a second team all-conference
selection, and honorable mention All-America
recipient. Having led the Hoyas in points and
steals en route to the school's first NCAA
regional appearance since 1989, Iverson was
already a star. By 1996, he would become nothing
less than a sensation.
The leaser of a talented team that featured four
future NBA stars, Allen Iverson dominated the
1995-96 season as no Hoya has done before or
since. Adept at the crossover dribble that became
his NBA trademark, lightning quick to the basket,
and able to score on opponents at will, Iverson
was largely unstoppable. Even more impressive was
an effort to improve his shooting touch, for
despite averaging 20.4 points as a freshman in
1994-95 (2nd all time for a Georgetown rookie),
Iverson only shot 39 percent from the field, 23
percent from three, and 19 percent from three in
Big East play. For his sophomore season, his field
shooting increased to 48 percent, his three point
mark to 36 percent. The results were striking.
In the pre-season NIT versus Temple, Iverson shot
50 percent for 24 points and a career high 10
rebounds. After a 23 point effort against Georgia
Tech, he scored a career high 40 against Arizona,
one of two 40+ point games that season. In Big
East play, Iverson could ring up points with ease,
such as the game where he scored 21 points in only
20 minutes against Rutgers.
In the final three months of the season, Iverson
led the team in 21 of the team's 25 games: 40
against Seton Hall, 39 against St. John's, 34
against Providence. He scored 30 in a wild win
over Memphis, and followed it up two nights later
with 26 in an upset of #3 Connecticut. For the
game, Iverson totalled 26 points, 8 steals, and 6
assists, including a soaring dunk past Ray Allen
and the Huskies. It was the highest ranked team
any Georgetown team had defeated since 1988. His
best performance of the season might have been a
37 point, 8 rebound, and three steal effort
against #6 ranked Villanova, playing only 27
minutes. The 106-68 win represents the sixth
largest margin of victory and the largest margin
ever by a Georgetown team against a top 10
opponent.
Iverson was capable of an off game; unfortunately,
two came at particularly inopportune times for the
Hoyas' hopes for a national title. Entering the
1996 Big East Final with a #1 seed on the line,
Iverson shot 4 for 15 and the Hoyas lost by one,
76-75. As a result of the loss, Georgetown was
seeded #2 behind top ranked UMass, and in the
regional final between the two teams Iverson
struggled with a 6 for 21 effort in the loss. For
the season, though, his statistics were
astonishing: his 926 points broke the then-record
by 124 points. He set new single season marks in
field goals, field goal attempts, three pointers,
three point attempts, steals, minutes, and scoring
average (25.0), the latter of which ranked 7th in
the nation that season. The Big East's defensive
player of the year, he was named a consensus
All-American amidst numerous other awards.
If he could somehow have stayed four years,
Iverson undoubtedly would have shredded the
Georgetown record books. But whatever hopes
existed for Iverson to resist the lure of the NBA
were short lived, particularly with the news that
one of his sisters had fallen ill. Seeing the
opportunity to take care of his family's medical
needs, Iverson announced for the NBA draft soon
after the end of his sophomore season, becoming
the first Georgetown player in the Thompson era to
do so. The compact that had bound so many great
Hoya players to a four year commitment--from Ewing
to Williams, Mourning to Mutombo--had now been
broken.
The first pick in the 1996 NBA draft, Iverson
signed a $3.9 million contract with the
Philadelphia 76ers and a ten year, $50 million
deal with Reebok. His effort on the court is well
known and respected, but for all the media
portrayals of Iverson as the anti-hero, an icon of
a "Hip Hop Nation" that ran counter to the NBA's
carefully constructed marketing image, or as a
symbol of all that is allegedly wrong in
professional basketball, he remains remarkably
well-grounded.
Married for six years and the father of two,
Iverson is fiercely loyal to his teammates and to
his childhood friends. He considered it an honor
to play for the U.S. Olympic team in 2004 when
other NBA stars passed on the offer, and maintains
a number of charity events to benefit his local
community. In comparison to his NBA career, his
years at Georgetown were largely free of the
intense media and personal scrutiny, providing at
least two years where he could grow as a person as
well as a basketball player.
His arrival and exit at Georgetown is still a
source of debate in some circles, but his
performance on the court is not. Allen Iverson
found a home, even briefly, at the Hilltop, and
remains one of its brightest stars. "In my heart,
I know I'm a basketball player," Iverson said
following his 2006 NBA trade, "being that I know I
can play with the best of them."
From that first Kenner League game on 1994, no one
has doubted it since.
Tags : allen iverson answer sixers 76ers nba rookie reebok mvp nike iguodala slam dunk highlight crossover commercial mix |
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Affichage : 351450
Durée : 169 s |
| Allen Iverson vs Michael Jordan (Final NBA Game) Part 2 |
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Michael Jordan's coach pleaded with him to go back
in the game, and the opposing coach made sure
Jordan had the chance to end his career with a
basket.
Jordan's last shot was a free throw, and like his
final appearance in an NBA uniform, it was good.
One of the greatest players in NBA history played
the final game of his illustrious career Wednesday
night, not in the setting that he would have
preferred but in a special atmosphere nonetheless.
Jordan's final moment on the court ended with him
receiving applause and a lengthy standing ovation
from nearly everyone in the arena -- including the
coaches and the other players.
He soaked it all up with a wide smile and a wave
to the crowd after exiting for good with 1:44
remaining in the fourth quarter of a 107-87 loss
to the Philadelphia 76ers.
``Now I guess it hits me that I'm not going to be
in a uniform anymore -- and that's not a terrible
feeling,'' Jordan said afterward. ``It's something
that I've come to grips with, and it's time. This
is the final retirement.''
Jordan finished with 15 points, four rebounds and
four assists in 28 minutes -- drawing several
adoring ovations from the last sellout crowd that
will ever watch him play.
``The Philly people did a great job. They gave me
the biggest inspiration, in a sense,'' Jordan
said. ``Obviously, they wanted to see me make a
couple of baskets and then come off. That was
very, very respectful, and I had a good time.''
Jordan's final points almost looked scripted, with
Eric Snow of the 76ers fouling him in the
backcourt for no apparent reason except to send
him to the line.
``Coach (Larry Brown) told me to foul him, get him
to the line to get some points and get him out of
there,'' Snow said.
Both foul shots went in, and the Wizards committed
a foul one second later so that Jordan could be
removed from the game and receive the proper
send-off. In a rare scene, the 10 players who
remained on the court turned to Jordan and
applauded, too.
The 40-year-old Jordan would have preferred to end
his career in the playoffs, but the Wizards never
clicked during his two years in Washington and
finished 37-45 in both seasons.
But that was merely a footnote on this stirring
night, the last time the basketball public was
treated to one of the greatest athletes in history
playing the game one last time.
Jordan finished his career with 32,292 points --
the third-highest total in league history, behind
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone. His final
career average of 30.12 goes down as the best in
NBA history, just ahead of Wilt Chamberlain's
30.07.
``I never, never took the game for granted. I was
very true to the game, and the game was very true
to me. It was just that simple,'' Jordan said.
With the Sixers ahead by 21 points with 9 1/2
minutes remaining, the crowd began chanting ``We
want Mike.'' The chant grew louder as the period
progressed with Jordan remaining seated, and fans
ignored the game to stand and stare at the
Wizards' bench, wondering why Jordan wasn't
playing.
This being Philadelphia, they eventually booed.
Jordan finally pulled his warmups off and
re-entered the game with 2:35 left for his brief
final appearance.
``I played here. I told him I at least have to be
able to come back (to Philadelphia),'' Wizards
coach Doug Collins said. ``I told him to go back
in for a minute. He said, 'I'm stiff.' I said,
'Please. They want to see you.' He said, 'Larry
Hughes is going to foul out soon, so put me in
then.'''
Earlier in the game, Jordan showed his age.
There was a play in the first quarter when he
looked like the Jordan of old, except for the
result. Starting near the foul line, Jordan ducked
his shoulder, lowered his head, stuck out his
tongue and drove to his right, the ball rolling
off his fingers ever so softly as it arched toward
the net.
Rather than going in, though, the ball hit the
front rim and missed -- one of several of his
shots that came up a few inches short.
One of the exceptions was Jordan's final shot of
the first half -- a one-handed dunk that came
after he received a nice pass under the basket
from Bobby Simmons.
Jordan hit his first two shots of the third
quarter but didn't do much else positive in the
period. On an alley-oop pass from Tyronn Lue, the
ball hit him in the fingertips and bounced
harmlessly away. A lazy crosscourt pass was picked
off by Aaron McKie, leading to one of
Philadelphia's 31 fast-break points. Jordan's
final field-goal attempt was a missed layup with
8:13 remaining.
``I'm not embarrassed,'' Jordan said, ``but it's
just not ... I've had better feelings in terms of
playing a competitive game.''
The standing ovation that Jordan received lasted
about three minutes, with Jordan smiling, nodding
and chewing gum throughout. The group Boyz II Men
sang ``It's So Hard To Say Goodbye'' between the
first and second quarters as a montage of Jordan's
career highlights was shown on the scoreboard.
Tags : allen iverson kobe bryant lebron james wade mcgrady o'neal jordan kidd pierce carter anthony marbury nba mix ad |
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Affichage : 2171051
Durée : 584 s |
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