Keeping aside Shaquille O’Neal’s dominance and stardom, the beginning of the new century saw Allen Iverson and Kevin Garnett becoming the cultural icons of the NBA in 2000.
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Drafted a year apart from each other in 1995 (KG, 5th overall)and 96 (AI, 1st overall), the Philadelphia 76ers’ 6-feet tall point guard was equally or even more dominant on the court than the 6ft 11′ forward/center of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
But one thing AI couldn’t do as much as he wanted to, was talk trash like the Wolves star who made sure to make his opponents bleed through ears whenever he took the court.
Allen Iverson once confessed his desire to trash talk like Kevin Garnett and get away with it
From making a 9x All-Defensive First Team member, Michael Jordan, look like he didn’t know to defend, to breaking several other ankles as he dribbled the rock on the greatest basketball stages of all, AI did everything which was enough to make everyone his fan in the late 90s and early 2000s.
But it looks like he wanted to do one more thing which he supposedly could not – trash talk, with the freedom Kevin Garnett had to do it in front of officials. And he talked about it when he appeared on ‘All The Smoke’ for an interview with former ballers Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
“He could talk like that?” Iverson stated his wonder on how The Big Ticket used to get away after saying some things for which anyone else would get severe punishment. Really. Just have a look at it.
Iverson believes Russell Westbrook brings that KG energy to the NBA now
Like him or not, the OGs of the game love the ‘dawg’ that Russell Westbrook brings each night on the offensive side of the ball.
In Allen Iverson’s case who calls him a “young bull” in the interview, he likes the flagrancy in Brodie. He is the only current player in whom Iverson sees Garnett.
He explained it while giving the example of how fiercely the 2017 MVP dunks a basketball and his smack talk following it.
