Iverson refelcts on his Piston career
Posted by pistonsnation
AI sees his days in Detroit more clearly now
Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press recently had a chance to talk with Allen Iverson at a Southfield T.G.I. Fridays. Yes, Iverson is still in town but he’s just tying up all his loose ends before embarking on the next chapter of his HOF career.
I wish the article would have had less back story and more insights from Iverson about his Piston tenure. There were a few notable and candid quotes that I’ll pull from the article though.
AI calls the 5 months he spent here the most ‘miserable’ of his career and that his back injury was legit and not just him bailing on the team.
As for what went wrong here in Detroit he cites ego and also points to the popular assertion that Michael Curry just was not prepared to be an NBA head coach after a mere one year as an assistant.
I personally was hard on Iverson throughout the season on this blog, but I’d also point out that some of our fan frustrations should be directed towards Joe Dumars for selling us (and Iverson) a bill of goods on the November 3rd trade:
“It was sold to me as we were going to go for it,” Iverson said. “I was told that things had gotten stale around here.
“Now? I don’t know. I think it may have been about the money.”
May have been? Especially with the way the season turned out it’s safe to say it was all about the money.
For those who might think that there’s any lingering animosities between Rip Hamilton and Iverson over the 6th man saga, that’s not the case. Check out this AI’s Tweet from a few months back[*]:
we just got to the club…we met up with RIP and Tayshaun
Iverson is currently an unrestricted free agent. There’s been rumors of interest from teams such as Chicago, Miami, Memphis and a reunion with Larry Brown in Charlotte. The biggest question mark for the Answer will be is there actually a team out there that can somehow fit him in and be succesful? But, like here in Detroit Iverson sees himself as a starter or bust. When asked if he’d take a role as a spark of the bench:
“I don’t know. I think I would retire.”
Tags: Allen Iverson, Charlotte Bobcats, Chicago Bulls, Detroit Free Press, Detroit Pistons, Joe Dumars, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Twitter
This entry was posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 1:46 pm and is filed under Allen Iverson, Former Pistons, Free Agency. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Actually, if you look at the timestamp, that “we just got to the club” tweet was sent on March 27, the night before the Pistons played the Wizards in DC.
July 5th, 2009 at 3:06 pmDang it. Good catch Matt, thanks. I’ve made an adjustment.
In the Freep article did say they’d hung out recently:
“He described Hamilton as a good friend and said he hung out with him recently.”
Come to think of it, March 27 was the night AI sponsored that party with Sheed: http://bit.ly/j5bDe (apologies for the self-link …)
July 5th, 2009 at 5:19 pmI think that allen iverson,would be a great team player with d-wade with the miami heat. He has a great chance to win a ring with miami
July 5th, 2009 at 7:37 pmThe article could have been much more. It was basically a puff piece. AI is trying to salvage his career.
July 6th, 2009 at 9:32 amangela, I totally agree to you.. ai,,, run w dywade,,,
July 6th, 2009 at 5:23 pmWhat an idiot. So much for saying I’ll do whatever the coach tells me to do. Iverson is a whiny over-rated ball hog baby. The guy would rather retire than come off the bench. What a baby. He’s getting older and he is slipping, physically. The guy needs to be more of a pass first rather than shoot. If he got teammates more involved, he’d likely been to several conference finals.
July 7th, 2009 at 9:55 am