Documentary gives a sense of Allen Iverson
A Showtime documentary titled, "Iverson," gives viewers a sense of former Sixers star Allen Iverson.
I finally got a chance to see the Showtime documentary on Allen Iverson the other day. Titled "Iverson," it was Iverson through his own words and they were powerful. I felt like I understood him a bit better after watching, but have no illusions that I will ever really understand his view of the world.
As I watched, I got a sense of sadness and not just because of how the young superstar athlete was treated by a Virginia legal system clearly stacked against him. As I watched all those highlights of Iverson playing basketball, I thought back to all the joy he brought to this city when it was just about the ball and not the rest of it.
I smiled at the sight of him balling, unique in his way on court then as Steph Curry is now. And then I thought about the brand of hoops this city has endured for nearly three years because an amateur named Sam Hinkie was put in charge of the professional basketball franchise.
One of the defenses I have heard of this nonsense about historic losing is the only way to be great is that the Sixers have not won a championship since 1983 doing it the traditional way.
That thinking devalues the attempt, the journey, the team, the enjoyment. Who did not enjoy watching the Sixers with Charles Barkley or, later, Allen Iverson? Who did not get caught up in the Sixers run to the 2001 NBA finals? That team was this city. They didn't win the championship, but does that really make them any less memorable. Does it make Iverson any less a Philly sports legend?
The morning of the NCAA national championship game on April 4, the newest inductees into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame will be introduced in a Houston hotel ballroom. It is a bizarre process, shrouded in secrecy as I wrote in the Daily News not long after Barkley was inducted in 2006.
But this is a process that almost has to end this year with Allen Iverson's name being called. Then, the city can pause to remember what it was like to be in South Philly to watch an American original perform his magic and hope that one day real NBA basketball will return to this city.