Allen Iverson revolutionized the guard position forever, allowing smaller guards to be the superstars of a team.
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Allen Iverson is one of a kind. There was no one quite like him before, there sure aren’t any afterward. If we talk about the guard position, Iverson changed how everyone would look at it forever.
While there were Jerry West, Michael Jordan, and a few others who were the leaders of their teams and superstars in the league, there weren’t more. And if you look for guards under 6’3 you wouldn’t find any who was a superstar before AI.
The shooting guard position was a straight NO for anyone under 6’5 at the very least. That changed as soon as AI debuted in the league in 1996. He played both one and two guard positions throughout his career according to the need of the hour.
A former Knicks point guard, Gregg Anthony, who guarded him several times says, “For a guy to be 6’ foot, 165 pounds, I don’t know if there’s anybody more physically intimidating than Allen Iverson.”
The story of Basketball without Allen Iverson is incomplete
Iverson wasn’t just a little guy who could score, he played college basketball with the Georgetown Hoyas for two years before he declared for the NBA. That’s where he put the NBA on notice of his brilliance on both sides of the court. While setting the school record for career scoring with an average of 23.0 PPG, he also won Big East Defensive Player of the Year awards both years.
And he carried that brilliance into the NBA. The 2021 MVP started obliterating the superstars and great teams in his 1st season, averaging 23.5 points, 7.5 assists, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.1 steals a game.
Although, he deserved all individual accolades from the first season onwards for lighting up best-in-the-world basketball players and teams at 19 years of age. But because of the changes he tried to bring alongside him, the league adopted a stricter perspective in giving Iverson his due respect.
The NBA as we see it now has a lot of difference from when you see it before Iverson’s debut. Philadelphia’s #3 didn’t just break the league’s orthodox rigidness towards seeing shorter guys as only role players but also led the charge in opposing its view towards tattoos and the style with which players could walk into the arena.
The Answer changed the NBA for good
While players before him weren’t allowed to follow the Hip Hop culture anywhere around a basketball arena, nowadays you can barely find players without tattoos. The business and casual wear are only used by players for a change, and every bit of it came because AI brought them with him.
In return, NBA did punish him silently in many ways trying to maintain a negative aura around him for being arrested years before coming into the league and a few other stories.
The man missed out on All-NBA first-team honors in 2000 despite averaging over 28 points per game with 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and, 2 steals per game in the regular season and similar numbers in the playoffs as well.
Al would get his revenge the very next year averaging a league-leading 31.1 points and 2.1 steals forcing his way to towards his first and only MVP award. He averaged over 30 points 4-more times with over 7 assists and 2 steals but made just 1 First Team.
The NBA did take its toll on Iverson in some way to challenge its old ways, affecting his resume in the process, but the 11-time All-Star was seldomly fazed by it. He did his thing and became one of the greatest icons of the game.
