With 11 All-Star appearances, 7 All-NBA selections, 4 scoring titles, 2 All-Star Game MVPs, and 1 MVP under his belt, Allen Iverson is definitely one of the most elite guards in the history of the game.
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A talented offensive superstar, standing at merely 6 feet, The Answer managed to dominate the best of the best defenders in the league. Concluding an illustrious 14-year career with 26.7 points per game, AI is one of the greatest players to never win an NBA championship.
Apart from being a revolutionary athlete, the Hall Of Famer was even responsible for bringing cultural change to the association. Introducing the hip-hop culture to basketball, several kids around the world were influenced by AI.
Jalen Brunson was merely one of the millions who wanted to be like Iverson.
Jalen Brunson would cut socks to imitate Allen Iverson
It is no surprise that Brunson was a huge Allen Iverson fan growing up.
Similar to numerous children around the globe, Jalen also tried his ways in imitating the combo guard.
Apart from being one of the first stars to wear du-rags, cornrows, and baggy jeans in games, the undersized guard was also responsible for popularising shooting sleeves.
In an interview on SLAM’s “Bag Talk”, the New York Knicks star spoke about cutting his mother’s socks and wearing them on as a shooting sleeve.
“Yeah, I was a big fan of Allen Iverson. He wore sleeves. He was kind of the original guy to wear arm sleeves. I used to go to my mom’s sock drawer and cut her socks and wear them as arm sleeves.
The worst part about it, I would only do it like around the house. I actually had an arm sleeve for like basketball. She wasn’t too happy about that either.”
Further, the 6-foot-1 guard revealed how his aunt would sew shooting sleeves for him as there were none available for kids.
“When sleeves started to become more popular, they never made like kids shooting sleeves. So, I’ll have to get like an adult one and my arm wasn’t big enough. So, they had to sow it to actually like fit my arm.”
Brunson’s stats from the 2022-2023 season
The New York Knicks are on the verge of clinching the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference. While Julius Randle is the best player on the NY-based franchise, Brunson’s contributions have been immense.
In his first season with the Knicks, the former Villanova Wildcat has had the best season of his 5-year career.
Shooting the ball at a 49/41.7/82.9 shooting split, Jalen has been recording career highs in points (24) and assists (6.2) while grabbing 3.6 rebounds per game.
