Allen Iverson
(Kalb: #33, Simmons: #29, BBR: #37)
Allen Iverson was an incredibly talented player, the shortest man ever to win the scoring title, which he did four times, and a player who fell just as quickly as he rose to prominence. Other than his shooting percentage, he was a very solid all-around player.
As I said above, Iverson won 4 scoring titles, in 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2005, all with the Philadelphia 76ers. He had his highest scoring season in 2006, when he put up 33 per game, but that year he was beaten out by Kobe's 35.4 per game, one of the highest averages in history. Iverson's signature season was the second season in which he was the scoring leader, and his stats from that year's regular season and playoffs are listed below:
Iverson (Regular) - 31.1 pts, 3.8 reb, 4.6 ast, 2.5 stl, .420 FG%, .320 3P%, .814 FT%, 42.0 min
Iverson (Playoffs) - 32.9 pts, 4.7 reb, 6.1 ast, 2.4 stl, .389 FG%, .338 3P%, .774 FT%, 46.2 min
Iverson was everything to the Sixers that season, and led the league in steals as well as scoring. He also led Philadelphia to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Lakers, but he played nearly every minute during the postseason and found a way to increase his already impressive averages. It may have been the only time that he saw any sort of playoffs success, but it was a season for the ages.
Iverson led the league in minutes per game 7 times, scoring 4 times, and steals 3 times, and in each of his first 12 seasons averaged at least 22 points, 3 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 1.9 steals, and 39.4 minutes played. Those numbers alone are pretty impressive, but those were the minimum numbers he reached in 12 seasons.
One of Iverson's biggest struggles was clashing with his coaches over attitude problems. He is infamous for his distaste of practice, and his feud with Larry Brown was very well chronicled. The 76ers actually traded him during the 2000 offseason, but because of a problem with another player's contract, the deal was cancelled, and Iverson went on to lead the team to the Finals. He finally wore out his welcome in Philly in 2006, then in Denver, Detroit and Memphis over the next three years, before finally disappearing for good one year ago.
Iverson and Pierce were pretty even during their playing careers, with Iverson being a little more up-and-down than the more consistent Pierce. Pierce was the #2 player on two Finalists, while Iverson was the best on one, so that comparison is a wash. The real reason that Iverson takes this spot over Pierce is that he was better in 7 of his first 13 seasons than Pierce, but Pierce is looking like a pretty good pick to be better than Iverson in his 14th year, so this ranking is likely to change by next summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment