Allen Iverson.

Besides Michael Jordan, he was THE guy that sold shoes during the heyday of selling shoes. He was the most fun guy to watch to shoot, dribble, dunk, and pass a basketball that I can remember.

How will we remember his career, though? He made it to the Finals once, out of the 1st round only three times, and didn’t even make the playoffs five times. On the flip side, here’s the five best teammates he played with during his time in Philadelphia (according to PER):

1. 2000-01 – Dikembe Mutombo – 19.6
2. 2005-06 – Chris Webber – 18.4
3. 2000-01 – Todd MacCulloch – 18.3
4. 1997-98 – Derrick Coleman – 17.5
5. 2002-03 – Keith Van Horn – 17.3

I know that I’m not reporting anything new here. Wow Brent, are you telling me that Allen Iverson didn’t play with any good teammates? What else do you have? Nex thing you’ll be trying to tell us smoking isn’t good for you. You've gotta agree those names are horrifically bad. Stay with me. Timberwolves fan (both of us) know that KG played with bad teammates as well, and we only got out of the much tougher Western Conference first round once. But compare teammates KG had in MN based on PER that were statistically better than Iverson’s BEST teammate he played with in Philly:

1. 2003-04 – Sam Cassell – 22.8
2. 2001-02 – Terrell Brandon – 21.2
3. 1998-99 – Terrell Brandon – 20.9
4. 1999-00 – Terrell Brandon – 20.8
5. 1997-98 – Tom Gugliotta – 20.5
6. 2000-01 – Terrell Brandon – 20.0

Keep in mind, we hear endlessly about how KG never played with anyone in Minnesota. I don’t disagree, but was just pulling out the comparison to show you how truly bad AI’s teammates were.

It raises a few interesting questions, though. First of all, what kind of career would Iverson have had if you’d placed him on a contending team from 1998-2005? The second question… if Allen Iverson is on any team, do they have a chance to be a contender?

The Allen Iverson we all knew and loved was an incredibly talented player and a fierce competitor. There is absolutely no denying that. He won the 1996-97 Rookie of the Year and an MVP in 2000-01. He was on the All-NBA first or second team 6 times. He was always near the league leaders in points, steals, minutes per game, and free throw attempts.

You can also take the point of view that he was at times his own worst enemy. He was in the top 3 of minutes played 10 times during his career. In comparison, MJ was in the top 3 five times (his first five full season), Bird was in the top 3 five times, and Kobe was in the top 3 twice, LeBron has been in the top 3 three times. Magic, Steve Nash, and Tim Duncan have never been in the top 5. You could make the argument that had Iverson let himself become a 30-35 minute player during the latter parts of his career, he wouldn’t have taken as much abuse. He made the conscious decision not to change his game (more on that in a sec), but he failed to realize that as you get older, you can’t play the same way for big minutes without a drastic decline in efficiency. Can you play 20-30 minutes the same way? It’s entirely up for debate, but I think even this year, AI could’ve been a fantastic 6th man on a competitive team.

Case in point. In the summer of 2009, he signed a one year contract with a Memphis team that featured a possible star in the making in OJ Mayo and a soon-to-be-paid-entirely-too-much Rudy Gay. Iverson didn’t get traded to this team. He signed of his own free will. He missed the first three games of the season with a partial right hamstring tear. He came in and played 18 minutes and scored 11 points on 5-9 shooting. While it’s not the numbers he’s used to putting up, there isn’t a team in the league that wouldn’t take a player who consistently shot 5-9 for 11 points off the bench. After the game, Iverson complained to reporters (more on that later). In his second game, he again game off the bench and scored 18 points on a very solid 8-for-12 shooting in 28 minutes with 7 assists. The next game, he played 21 minutes and scored 8 points on 2-for-5 shooting. In his first three games with the Grizz, he had two good games and one game where he really didn’t do much. There would be no fourth game as Iverson quit the team before rejoining the hapless 76ers a month later. Where was a guy in Iverson’s inner circle that could tell him he probably wasn’t as good as either Gay or Mayo? Everyone that’s watched the NBA for the past few seasons can see that. Why was Iverson the last to know?

I’ll never understand players who are happy to leave a decent team for a better role on a bad team (see: Marion, Shawn and Iverson, Allen). For anyone who’s followed AI’s career, though, it comes as no surprise.

You see, for all of the talent and competitive drive Iverson has, he has to be the least self-aware player of all-time as apparent by this quote he gave reporters after his first game in Memphis. “Go look at my resume and that will show you that I'm not a sixth man," Iverson said. "I don't think it has anything to do with me being selfish. It's just who I am. I don't want to change what gave me all the success that I've had since I've been in this league."

That sentence is exactly what is wrong with Allen Iverson. Instead of embracing the role of sixth man and becoming the most dynamic sixth man in the league (which Iverson certainly had the capability of being), he kept telling anyone who would listen he was still a starter. In his own mind, he was still Allen Iverson – the best player on a team that beat the Lakers at home in the 2001 NBA Finals.

In his refusal to accept a role and perhaps prolonging his career another 3-5 years (as well as possibly adding a championship), Iverson – who has earned over $150 million in salary alone in his career – is sitting at home – unwanted by any NBA team and reportedly broke.

The biggest question I have about Iverson’s career – and the reason I wrote this blog – is to pose the question… why did Allen Iverson never develop “old man game?”

Every good player who’s had a lengthy career has had to change their game to continue being the best. Kobe Bryant from 1998-1999 would take the modern Kobe to the hole and dunk all over himself. The 1985 version of Michael Jordan would dunk on the 1998 version of Michael and the ill-fated Wizards Michael at the same time. But any good basketball historian can point back to history and make a direct correlation between the time a player’s game changed to use weapons other than their extreme athletic ability (jumping, quickness, agility, etc) to their advantage. Michael Jordan developed the unstoppable fadeaway jumpshot. Kobe developed a mean post game and a much-improved perimeter game. Just take a look at the stats. In his first six season, Kobe attempted an about 2.75 threes a game shooting about 33%. In his past six seasons, he’s attempted about 4.69 threes per game shooting about 35%. Keep in mind how difficult it is to shoot a higher percentage while taking more shots.If you look at another guy who has aged well – Steve Nash – you’ll see the same thing. In his first six seasons in Dallas, he shot an admittedly good 41.2% on 3.3 threes per game. In Phoenix, though, he’s improved that to an all-world 45% while shooting an extra half shot a game.

Iverson’s perimeter game, while never a strength, never improved. As a rookie, he shot 34% of six threes per game. He only eclipsed that number twice in his career and one of those season (2009-10) is such a small sample (9-for-25), it’s almost unusable for comparison sake. As I said earlier, most guards have a mid-point in their career where they go from a rim attacker to a perimeter assassin. Even a guy like Vince Carter – who’s been accused of being criminally soft, a team-killer, and extremely selfish – has developed old man game. Can anyone explain why AI never developed a three point shot? It’s an abomination that he five of his six lowest years in 3-point attempts per game happened after the age of 30.

There is a direct line to the seasons Iverson stopped drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line (age 33 and 34) with the Pistons and Grizzles/Sixers to when he completely fell off the map.

Stats usually don’t lie., I go back to the Iverson quote from earlier in the season “…go look at my resume and that will show you that I'm not a sixth man.” In 2008-09 his PER was 15.4. In 2009-10, his PER was 13.4. The stats point directly to what we were seeing on tv. Allen Iverson was transforming from an incredible player (PER of 25.9 in 2005-06 and 24.0 in 2000-01) to a PER that placed him about as good as Shannon Brown (2009) and Mike Miller (2010). By no means bad players, but not elite NBA starters.