610WIP Sports Radio host Howard Eskin, is reporting that the Philadelphia 76ers have agreed to terms with free agent guard Allen Iverson.
Iverson has a long history with Philadelphia, as the Sixers originally drafted Allen with the first pick in the 1996 NBA Draft. He spent 10 years in Philadelphia, becoming one of the NBA's most prolific scorers ever. AI won rookie of the year in 96-97, he won the NBA scoring title 4 times(98-99, 00-01, 01-02, 04-05), he made the All Star team ten times in his career, was a two time All Star MVP(01, 05), and the NBA MVP in 2001. Iverson lead the Sixers to their first NBA Finals since 1983 in 2001, but they lost the series to the Lakers in 5.
This history also had a lot of negative things involved. Iverson has several off court legal issues, including a 2002 arrest for assault and gun charges involving his wife. AI blatantly was defiant of his coaches and management, and was extremly difficult to deal with. AI's love for late night clubbing, lead to poor practice habits that brought up this very famous sports blow up.
Iverson's style of play has also been considered selfish, and has only been successful in terms of team wins under Larry Brown. Brown surrounded Allen with all defensive minded hard working hustle players, that allowed Iverson to take 30 plus shots every game and win.
Since Larry Brown's divorce from the Sixers, Iverson's game has declined yearly. While his points per game have still been somewhat impressive, the overall team success has not been there.
After one year in Denver the Nuggets traded away Iverson for the more conventional point guard Chauncey Billups, and vastly improved. Iverson then took a very good Pistons team, and made them struggle.
With all the past problems, and the declining skills, why would the Sixers want Allen Iverson back?
One reason is starting point guard Lou Williams has a broken jaw, and is expected to miss the next 8-10 weeks. Another reason may be the struggling Sixers who have lost 6 straight, have major issues with attendance. The Wachovia Center has 11,000 people show up on a good night, and bringing Iverson back to Philly could spark some interest in the team. Management is probably seeing this as a big financial gain, and not so much of an answer to the woes of the team.
The deal is reported to be for 1 year(or rest-of-season)non guaranteed contract at veterans minimum(around 1.3 million). The NBA will actually reimburse the Sixers part of the contract, so in the end the Sixers will be responsible for only roughly 600 k. The Sixers will also be able to drop Iverson by January 10th, if there are any "disruptions", and then they would only be responsible for paying him for each game that he played.
Howard Eskin says expect the deal to be officially announced sometime tomorrow.
Seems like very little risk for the Sixers, but I doubt there will be much reward for the fans in the end. This is a bad basketball team, that will still be really bad even with Allen Iverson.
More to Come?
Iverson is not the only Sixer the team has been looking at. Besides looking into several other point guard options, the Sixers have also looked into the possibility of bringing back another player from the past, Jerry Stackhouse. That is exactly what this team needs. A washed up swing man(don't they have enough of these types?)
No comments:
Post a Comment