Iverson on possible job with Sixers: 'I am a basketball genius'

The Inquirer reported Tuesday that former coach Larry Brown has been lobbying the 76ers to hire Allen Iverson as an assistant general manager. There is one person who wholeheartedly supports that move: Iverson himself.

"I may not know everything about physical talent or anything like that, but I have a sharp mind when it comes to that look, being able to look into somebody's eyes to tell if they are going to be in the foxhole with you tonight or if they are not," Iverson said Thursday night. "To me, I am a basketball genius and I really believe that, so at any capacity I could help this franchise, that is what I am going to do, whatever they ask me to do."

Iverson spoke after the Sixers unveiled their new uniforms during a ceremony at the Wells Fargo Center that included Billy Cunningham, Moses Malone, and Bobby Jones. He was asked how he would feel working as an executive for his former team.

"That would be one of the top honors for me," Iverson said. "That would be one of the biggest blessings."

He conceded that he wouldn't be of immediate help in evaluating young talent for one simple reason. "I don't watch college basketball," he said. "But if I had that position, then obviously I would be."

A new book, Not a Game by Kent Babb, provides a look at Iverson's professional and personal deterioration.

"Me and my family are straight," Iverson said. "I am blessed, I am alive, man, and I am healthy and that is the only thing that matters. Me and my family, everybody else, it really doesn't matter because why do you care about somebody talking negative about you if they don't know you?"

He wasn't finished.

"They don't even know about you, they don't even care about you, so what are you concerning yourself for?" he said. "I am sick of defending myself and I am not going to keep on doing it."

Iverson said he is proud that former Sixers teammate Andrew Iguodala was named MVP of the NBA Finals. "We can go right back to what I was just saying: I know so much about basketball, I knew he was going to be it," Iverson said. "He deserved it."

The former MVP changed the subject, discussing potential work with the Sixers.

"Don't put any pressure on the franchise to make a move or anything like that," he said. "If it happens, that is what God wants. If it doesn't, I am still going to be here right with them, riding with them."

@sjnard