Allen Iverson recently gave an interview to former NBA player Al Harrington. The Sixers legend talked about meeting Georgetown coach John Thompson.
Advertisement
There are few players who’ve polarized basketball fans more than The Answer. AI was an NBA MVP, a 4-time scoring champion and a killer who stood barely 5’10” barefoot.
Many people consider him to be the greatest player of all time, pound-for-pound. And the reason for that starts with his ability to score in bunches. But it also has a lot to do with just how he talked his own talk and only took after himself.
Iverson was the first NBA superstar to marry the worlds of hip-hop and basketball with his lifestyle. He’d come dressed in baggy clothes, play games with cornrows on his head and induced countless kids to attempt the same.
Iverson was probably the biggest cultural icon in the NBA world after Michael Jordan’s second retirement. And thus, a lot of unsubstantiated rumors about him have come up over the years.
Allen Iverson clarifies rumors that he met John Thompson while high
One of the urban legends commonly associated with Iverson is that he nailed his meeting with John Thompson while high. The Sixers legend and no.1 pick in 1996 was one of the star high school players in the country.
However, he’d been embroiled in legal trouble after getting in a fight during his high school years. Recruiting him was a bold decision that took courage from coach Thompson. Iverson details how he ended up meeting Thompson in the following fashion:
“I remember going to this girl who’s my homegirl now — like I rock with her hard, like all this many years later she’s still my homegirl. And I went to her house and I was smoking over at her crib.”
“Man, somebody knocked on the door and said ‘Coach up the hill!'”
“So I ran out the joint. I’m thinking in my mind, This man done gave me an opportunity…. You know what I mean? I just came here, and I’m getting ready to get sent back already.”
“I went and washed up or whatever, and I remember going to the car, and Coach is like, “Come here, boy.” And I walked close to the car, but I didn’t walk all the way up, because I didn’t want him to know that I was high. But he just said he came up there to check on me, make sure I was alright, and that was all he wanted.”
