Practice talk, court appearances, and other findings from Allen Iverson’s new memoir, ‘Misunderstood’

There’s so much more to Allen Iverson than his career with the Sixers, which makes up only about 100 pages of his new memoir.

Most of the memoir, titled Misunderstood, explores Iverson’s personal relationships with his family and friends during his childhood upbringing in Virginia, from living with his great-grandmother, to the way the community rallied around him following his arrest in high school, to his relationship with coach John Thompson during his two years at Georgetown.

Here are a few things we learned from his book, which was released Tuesday:

The 1996 NBA Draft was absolutely stacked. It’s widely considered one of the best drafts of all time, with four players selected who became Hall of Famers and a number of future All-Stars.

But after the Sixers won the draft lottery, Iverson knew he wasn’t interested in playing anywhere else. His dad was a Sixers fan, and Iverson decided to only work out for the Sixers.

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“When I saw the Sixers get the first pick, I knew it had to be them,” Iverson wrote. “And I will be honest, I didn’t like the look of the next few teams. Vancouver and Toronto? Wasn’t any way I wanted to live and play in Canada. Milwaukee and Minnesota picked fourth and fifth. Cold weather and small markets.”

Iverson was indeed drafted first overall by the Sixers and played for the team until 2006, bringing the franchise to the NBA Finals in 2001 during his MVP season. Iverson, who later rejoined the Sixers during in 2009-10 season for 25 games, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016, and his No. 3 jersey was retired by the Sixers in 2014.

Iverson began the book with one of his most famous press conferences.

Behind the scenes of that press conference about practice, Iverson had planned on the presser being a positive one, confirming that he’d stay with the Sixers. He was also grieving the loss of his best friend, Rahsaan Langford, who had been shot and killed a few months prior, and whose killer was being prosecuted at that time.

But before going viral was an everyday occurrence, Iverson inadvertently altered his own legacy.

“The reality was, there was a lot of other [expletive] going on,” Iverson wrote. “To me, practice shouldn’t have been the focal point. We had a bad end to the season, and there was my future I was trying to clarify for the world. But it was more than that even.

“If you listen to the whole press conference, the parts that didn’t get repeated, I tried to explain. ‘I lost my best friend,’ I said. And between that and a disappointing season, I told them I was feeling ‘that everything is going downhill for me as far as my life. I’m human. I am just like you. You bleed just like I bleed, you cry just like I cry, you hurt just like I hurt.’

“I said that, yet the reporters kept asking me about practice.”

The day after Iverson was honored with the Rookie of the Year award, he was back at home in Hampton, Va. in criminal court to support his father, who was facing drug possession charges.

During Iverson’s NBA career, his friends often caused controversy, and he was criticized for the crowd he ran with. But Iverson wrote in the book that those criticisms came from people who just didn’t understand who he was.

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“I’d gotten so far, and the further I got, I kept getting slapped, but harder and harder,“ Iverson wrote. ”Me being stubborn, I dug deeper. You don’t like my style? Gonna do it more-let the joints sag further. You don’t like my friends? I’m gonna hold those dudes closer. You think my family should be in jail? I’m gonna be there in court for them. You don’t like my partying? I’m gonna stay out later, party harder.

“It ain’t a strategy for life I recommend. It’s just how I did it. That loyalty, stubbornness, got me in trouble, got me criticized, and sometimes brought pain, but it wasn’t stopping me from reaching for greatness and making my mark in the NBA.”