The sideshow has been shut down. And they never even put the big top up.
Everybody knew Allen Iverson was signed by Memphis in September in order to sell tickets and bring some buzz to a moribund franchise. Everybody knew Iverson wasn't going to crack the starting lineup.
Check that. Everybody knew except Iverson, who, at 34, has declined significantly as a player. He was in a disbelieving state that he was going to show up in Memphis, become a starter and average his usual 25 points per game.
The Iverson experiment was doomed to fail, but nobody realized it would blow up before Thanksgiving and before he even played a home game. Then again, those associated with the Grizzlies can be thankful on the holiday they have ridded themselves of "The Cancer.''
The Grizzlies are about to waive the guard after he agreed Monday to terminate his contract and give up much of the $3 million he was due for this season. If he can't make it in Memphis, one has to think his NBA career is over. That is, unless a team quickly moves to Iverson's native area, Tidewater in Virginia, and erects a big top.
I had written when Iverson signed in September he would be nothing but a sideshow in Memphis. But don't liken Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley to P.T. Barnum. He didn't even get a preseason home game with Iverson.
Iverson missed the entire preseason and the first two regular-season games, both at home, due to a hamstring problem. His only three Memphis games were on the road when he came off bench and complained loudly about it. He eventually took what was called a personal leave before ties were severed 1 1/2 weeks later.
Some believed at the time of Iverson's leave he had the same chance to be seen again walking down Beale Street as Elvis. I'm now putting my money on Elvis.I like Iverson, whom I covered during his Dec. 2006-Nov. 2008 stint with the Denver Nuggets. We greeted each other when Iverson returned to Denver two weeks ago, one day before he would make his Grizzlies debut at Sacramento after returning from his injury.
Unfortunately, Iverson is delusional about his current abilities and about what NBA teams need. He now conjures up memories of Norma Desmond, the one-time silent-film star from the classic 1950 movie Sunset Boulevard, who refuses to acknowledge she's yesterday's news.
"I am big,'' Desmond says when told that she "used to be big."
"It's the pictures that got small.''
Actually, if Iverson had been willing to be a supporting actor, he have could remained an effective NBA player. But Iverson torpedoed much of those chances last season with Detroit when he complained about being a reserve.
With that in mind, top NBA teams were as wary about A.I. as they are now about H1N1. His only option became the lowly Grizzlies, who, while grooming youngsters O.J. Mayo and Mike Conley, had no apparent desire to make the shoot-first Iverson a starting guard.
Who knows what went on in that late-summer meeting when Memphis brass met with Iverson in Atlanta, where he makes his offseason home? You'd think it would have come up about Iverson's starting chances. But maybe the Grizzlies were so desperate for a box-office draw they simply sat back and sipped iced tea while talking about Iverson's glory days.
Iverson had plenty of them. The NBA likely never again will see dominant scorer at his diminutive size of 6-foot, 165 pounds. He won four scoring titles, had a career average of 27.0, and almost single-handedly led Philadelphia to the 2001 NBA Finals, when Larry Brown was the only NBA coach to effectively utilize Iverson's great skills.
Iverson did have an impressive season with Denver in 2007-08, when he averaged 26.4 points just shy of his 33rd birthday. But that turned out to be his last hurrah.
Iverson began to come down with nagging injuries in training camp the following season. He shrugged them off, but Nuggets officials knew age was finally catching up with Iverson, and they craftily sent him to the Pistons in a deal that landed point guard Chauncey Billups.
After years of not taking ideal care of his body, Iverson finally proved mortal while averaging 17.4 points for Detroit. It was the Rolling Stones, after all, who sang Time Waits for No One.
"Time can tear down a building or destroy a woman's face,'' belted out Mick Jagger, whose face also lost the battle with time.Time also can slow down Allen Iverson, even if he doesn't believe it.
But we'll see what Iverson's next move will be. Maybe he will retire or maybe he'll head overseas to a team looking to sell some tickets.
Perhaps to France. Then they can call it Cirque Du Iverson.
Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@fanhouse.com and on Twitter @christomasson.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
I know Iverson isn't a team player but i am getting a little sick of the bashing by writers. So those great players on the awesome 2-8 grizzlies are all better than Iverson?
YEP
Never was an Iverson fan..palyed the game like an individual instead of a team player. That being said I feel sorry for him, it's always depressing when you realize you're not the same person you were even 5 years ago and that your body is too used up to carry on playing the sports you love.
Happened to me last year, at 32 I played in a tackle football game just like old times...christ I almost broke my hip and couldn'nt catch up to even the slighest of overthrown balls..lost like 15 steps from my heyday..sad day.
dude you have to be the dumbest writer who doesnt like Iverson,the really great grizzlies with iverson on the bench where really tearing it up out there,Allen is a really great player and he will get back on a team who will have a coach with half a brain will not have allen on the bench,(give me a brake,)anybody who thinks Allen is all done is crazy,you dont have to like him as a person ,but as a true basketball fan even if he isnt on your team ,you want to see Allen Iverson out there playing,I promise you if the Knicks pick up Iverson they will turn there loseing season around and be a tuff team again,wake up Iverson haters he is not done and when he gets on a decent team beware cause he will be lighting up your team down the road,
As a Sixers fan I have seen Iverson from his very first game. He always played the game with heart. I never saw a bad interview with him. Every year he would address the press about being a team leader that the young players could look up to, that he needed to give up the ball more to his team mates, be on time for practice and work hard. Then the season would start and the ball would stop with him, he would never give the ball up and then you find out that he missed or was late for every practice that was held. He became the worst thing you can be in basketball a Coach killer. He helped chase Brown out of Philly, he Randy Ayers fired, followed by Chris Ford. Then Jim Obrien quit because he was impossible to control and then the Sixers dealt him to Denver. This should have been his wakeup call but sadly he just played himself out of another team. Then going to Detroit and causing all kinds of problems there. When A.I. questions a person like Joe Dumars it is both sad and funny. Funny because no one in the world is going to believe him vs A guy like Dumars.
He winds up in Memphis the only team to offer him a contract. You think maybe he can resuurect his career there, by being the upstanding citizen, and then maybe a contender will take a shot at him next year as an imposrtant role player. But again or i should say still he is impossible to control.
It is a shame that a player who had so much heart and talent goes out of basketball this way, but it is mostly self inflicted
I use to watch the sixers.recently tried to watch the junk they put out on the floor.To me it is unwatchable.If the sixers are smart and they are not they should consider takeing Iverson back.practice or not.ftheyanks
Dude, it's the way you describe his stint in Memphis as a "sideshow". They had a legitimate chance at making something happen, with a re-energized, almost dedicated version of Zach Randolph (the new Derrick Coleman)and a band of young, long-armed, talented players like Mayo and Gay. Iverson's issues are with MINUTES! During the league leading scoring years, he also averaged the most minutes played by a player. He has never liked sitting! He has never liked to come out of a game! I need your job, just write a bunch of "opinions" with no basis in reality. The problem was that Lionel Hollins does not like Iverson as a player and that's why this all fell apart.
The team has sucked for three years, the team has been gromming players for threee years. news flash (not working) should have giving it a try.
He averaged what he did in Philadelphia because he averaged averaged - what?- 32 shots per game. It was amazing the amount of talent that Larry Brown shuttled in and outta here in an effort to find a supporting cast for Iverson. A cast who had to be willing to hustle, play defense and watch Iverson take all the shots. Watching 4 other guys stand around and play defense while Iverson (I-person)did his thing got really really old. The number of good players that got run out of town because I-person couldn't mesh his game with theirs was amazing. He literally made the rest of his teammates look bad. It was really surprising that Denver agreed to take him. Detroit I suspect only bought an expiring contract. I-person be gone
hey chris get out from under your desk and play . since you think allen is so wrong for a 2-8 team . go in there and show your stuff.. oh wait yup your a clown in the circus
I think Iverson should get 27 more tattoos and then he can really join a circus side show (along with 50 more nba guys)
ignorant
in philly iverson was an amazing one man show who never made anyone around him better. he never tried and he never wanted to. growing up i wanted my son to look up to players like jordon and irving and he did. those you could respect because they were amazing players who realized it was a team game. never iverson.
AI has never been a team player. If he wants to play so bad, perhaps he can start a new league where it's Player vs. Player. Then he could blame nobody but himself for his dwindling skills.