A few days ago, the Philadelphia 76ers honored their 1996 #1 draft pick Allen Iverson by unveiling a brand new statue modeled after his signature stance. The statue displays Iverson making a dribble move with the ball in his left hand and the rest of the body tilted on the right side, indicating the initiation of one of his iconic crossovers. While sculptor Chad Fisher did a wonderful job in the facial components and with the attention to detail, there has been criticism over the size of the statue.
Advertisement
In fact, the effigy is not even half the size of Allen Iverson, who at 6’ was himself way below the average NBA height. Alluding to the noticeably small size of the statue, former NBA star Jeff Teague felt that AI was disrespected by the 76ers organization. On his Club 520 Podcast, Teague and his co-hosts discussed whether the Philadelphia 76ers undermined Iverson’s legacy with the diminutive statue outside their practice facility in Camden, New Jersey.
Co-host DJ Wells opined that they were a “little out of pocket” for building a statue like that, which pretty much looked like the effigy of a small kid. The 2021 NBA champion agreed to that sentiment.
“Yeah, they gave that man that little a** trophy,” Teague said on his podcast.
Meanwhile, co-host Bishop argued that such statues of that size are the norm in the 76ers land. However, Teague pointed out the 10-feet statue of Rocky which was created for the movie. He wondered why Iverson’s statue dwarfs in comparison to a movie character.
While the cult-classic movie Rocky paved the way for the 10-foot wonder, it was more of a movie prop than a commemoration. At any rate, for Teague, AI deserved an honor of a bigger magnitude. Kevin Garnett agrees with him too.
Kevin Garnett didn’t approve of the AI statue’s size
KG took to his Instagram and relayed that he wanted a bigger statue for his former rival. While he acknowledged the immense honor, the 2004 MVP called out Philly for not paying the required dues. The Ticket wrote his thoughts on his Instagram story and reiterated his demand for a bigger AI statue.
“Nah Philly…Love the statue but it’s gotta be wayyyy bigger…C’mon Sixers. Congratulations to AI and his family but that’s needed to be bigger. That’s just me. Respect,” Garnett wrote on IG.
Since the NBA world is used to seeing humungous statues, the immediate reaction can echo Jeff Teague’s or Kevin Garnett’s responses. Earlier in 2024, the Lakers unveiled a 19-foot statute of Kobe Bryant, who was AI’s 2001 Finals rival. Thus, a statue of such size can be expected. However, in this case, sculptor Chad Butler kept up with the tradition.
The statues of 76ers greats Charles Barkley, Moses Malone, and Julius Erving are also of similar sizes. Therefore, in this case, Philadelphia maintained the status quo to honor their greats through statues in a similar fashion.
