Iverson thinking about retiring

A. No one wants to sign a player synonymous with losing basketball and wasted possessions.

B. He's complaining about being a bench player because bench players are asked to be efficient in a limited amount of time, an unheard of concept to Iverson.

C. He might still have some value as a "finisher" in this league, someone who can make plays and hit big shots down the stretch, but he needs to get into a "groove" to do this which once again means more minutes.

D. A career 42% shooter with a horrible assist to turnover ratio, LOL @ casual NBA fans overrating him because of his success in the weakest era of NBA basketball ever.

 

AI is an incredible player but he's part of a dying breed. My guess is he'll end up in Charlotte to reunite with Larry Brown before calling it quits.

 

AI really punctured himself with these remarks. I expect some sort of retraction or clarification. But the most of the damage is done.

I'm curious to see where he ends up next season if he doesn't retire. Any team with sense won't want him as a starter and AI could be a very good gun off the bench if he would get his attitude together.

 

Thought he was a FA after this year. If so, why would he try to get traded?

 

The guy took a team whose next best scoring option was Dikembe Mutombo at 11.7 pts per game to the NBA Finals. Overrated or not, that's a freaking accomplishment.

 

Too much is being made of an off-hand comment.

 

Let's camp out here, if we can. I agree with you. That era post Jordan, Hakeem, etc. was seemingly the weakest period of NBA basketball in my lifetime (I'm 34).

any other takers on that??

 

Agreed, but for one player to do that in any era is amazing. At that point in his career, he was not overrated. Now? yes he is.

 

yeah, i'm more interested in the "weakest era" argument than the iverson argument. since we're in an iverson thread, i'll stop.

 

I'm going to take issue with this on 2 grounds. First, AI is a poor shooter for his career because of the shot volume. But he reformed and was an efficient scorer on 05-06 (Philly), 06-07 (Denver), and 07-08 (Denver), in the 45-46% range. He's back to being a poor shooter this season, but I think that reflects his changed role.

And I think the immediate pre-Bird and Magic era in the NBA was historically very weak, weaker than the post-Jordan era.

 

I'm younger than you and wasn't around for it, but I think you were born into a weaker era than the late nineties, early 00's. My dad claims that the NBA would have disappeared if not for Magic-Bird.

 

I think the problems with the NBA before Magic and Bird came into the league were not as much about the quality of play as about the drugs, the lack of revenue sharing (which nearly bankrupted some teams), and the poor marketing.

 

Those were definitely problems. But the Washington Bullets won the championship in 78, and the Sonics won in 79, behind some pretty mediocre lineups.

 

I can't help but read this as 'I need to start, and I need to take a whole bunch of (the team's) shots to get myself going'.

Not an attractive option.

 

After seeing Rip accept his role coming off the bench earlier in the season, I thought A.I. would not be complaining about minutes.

I doubt he retires though, he's struggling but he's not struggling to the point of retirement.

Unless he just doesn't love the game anymore, which I doubt.

 

iverson helped lead a comeback in the last game, then Coach took him out the 4th and put Stucky in. Pistons ended up losing that game.

 

I would take him over Brooks right now. Better scorer, passer, defender! PG is our weakest position right now.

 

So how does that equate to Iverson's success? We wont know if he was genuinely good or just a product of lack of talent. I

 

He's not a PG. Iverson has always been a one man show. He passed the ball only because he has to.