“Basketball Is Soft!”: How NBA Legend Allen Iverson Dismissed A Sport As A Child In Which He’d Later Become Hall of Famer

It’s been nearly 13 years since Allen Iverson last took the floor as an NBA player. But his career might never have started but for his mother’s intervention.

NBA basketball has seen a number of legends grace the league over its 76-year history. From the likes of George Mikan – the league’s first superstar – to LeBron James, dozens of greats helped evolve the game.

But even LeBron James never became the one-in-a-million cultural icon that Allen Iverson was in his heyday. The 20-year veteran remains the biggest name in basketball today, but I suspect Iverson has more hip-hop music namedrops.

The reason for that was simple. In addition to being a superstar talent on the court, Iverson was unabashedly himself off the hardwood. He began dressing up like hip-hop stars pre-game and brought the cornrows hairstyle to the sporting mainstream.

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His impact on fellow players was such that to curb his outrageous sense of fashion, commissioner David Stern instituted a dressing policy for players in 2005 as he felt the league was becoming ‘too thug’.

Given his 4 scoring titles, his NBA Finals appearance in 2001 and his dominance whenever he took the court, it would seem that The Answer was always destined to become a basketball star. But he revealed in an interview years later that his career might never have come to be.

Allen Iverson said he thought basketball was a soft sport as an 8-year-old

Speaking to celebrated Sports Illustrated writer Jackie MacMullan, Allen Iverson revealed how he got into basketball as a kid:

“I was like 8 years old, and I’ve always been a football player, and one day I came home and my mom was like, ‘You going to basketball parks.’ And I was like, ‘Basketball? I don’t like basketball. Basketball is soft.'”

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“But she worked with a guy that ended up being real inspirational in my life, basically the type of guy that God sent to me. She talked to him about how good I was, so he came to our neighborhood and he seen me play, and he was like ‘He got it.'”

The Answer was also a football star who could’ve probably played in the NFL

Playing for Bethel High School in Hampton, Virginia, AI was a two-sport star in high school. Not only was he the star quarterback, but he also played the cornerback and running back positions. Iverson was also a kick returner.

His dynamic athleticism and ability to change direction at the drop of a hat would’ve come in hugely handy had he stayed on the NFL path. However, because of the 15-year sentence he earned as a high school senior (that was later retracted), AI’s college football path was cruelly cut short.

For a man described as more dynamic than the great Michael Vick on the gridiron, it is amazing that Iverson carved a career in a different sport.