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I don't mean to dredge up old thread, but there is a featured article about Allen Iverson on the Yahoo frontpage that brilliantly summarizes the AI factor and everything that was discussed in this thread:
"Suddenly, Larry Brown is playing clearinghouse for Allen Iverson’s(notes) character and coachability.
The calls from curious front-office executives about Iverson, Brown says, are coming to him. For everything that Charlotte’s coach implies has been misunderstood about A.I.’s disastrous season with the Detroit Pistons, Brown sounds as disingenuous as ever while making the case for the NBA’s most fascinating unsigned free agent.
No one is making calls on Allen Iverson. No one. Why? They all know the answers about The Answer.
If your team’s a contender, Iverson proved with the Pistons that he wants no part of fitting into a system. If you’re a bad team trying to develop young players, he’ll stunt growth. Here’s the problem: Iverson is just good enough to still be dangerous.
So why would they call someone who worked with him six years ago, when he was a different player in a different time? As believability goes, this is like Brown’s boy wonder, John Calipari, pitching the NCAA that he had nothing
Here’s why it’s so hard to believe Brown: How many calls have gone to Iverson’s most recent employer, one of the basketball’s most respected front offices?
“Not one,” a Pistons front-office source said.
No one has called the Pistons because there’s no mystery about Iverson. This has to be one of the most fascinating falls in modern NBA history – a $20 million-a-year player spiraling this fast without an injury, an arrest, something. He was still popular enough that fans voted him as a starter in the 2009 NBA All-Star Game. Now he’ll be fortunate to get three of the worst franchises in the NBA – Charlotte, Memphis and the Los Angeles Clippers – to offer him a modest, one-year contract.
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