Twitter slams ESPN’s Jay Williams while showing love to Sixers legend Allen Iverson
People haven't forgotten The Answer's exploits in the Sixers' 2000-01 run to the NBA Finals. That was made clear as AI went viral on Thursday in a comment referencing Miami forward Jimmy Butler.
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How did Allen Iverson get roped into a social media argument that went viral Thursday afternoon involving Jimmy Butler?
Ask ESPN basketball analyst Jay Williams.
Williams sent Twitter into a frenzy after his suggestion that there’s perhaps no other player who has put an NBA team on his back and carried it to the brink of a championship as the Miami Heat forward has. Butler is averaging 28.5 points through 17 playoff games and helped secure a Finals berth against the Denver Nuggets after a Game 7 rout of the Boston Celtics in the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals.
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Based on the Heat’s run and Butler’s impact on it, Williams suggested Thursday that he’s “never seen a man carry a team like this to an NBA Finals.”
Unsurprisingly, the comments caused a stir on social media, namely on Twitter, where an homage was on full display to Iverson’s exploits in leading the 2000-01 Sixers to the NBA Finals, the subject of a new NBA TV documentary that dropped Wednesday called Everything But The Chip.
On Thursday afternoon, Williams went on the defensive, saying that Butler’s run was harder, considering that the Heat have seven undrafted players on their roster.
Twitter wasn’t buying it. Furthermore, the numbers weren’t supporting it.
Iverson averaged 32.9 points, though he did play in five more games than Butler has to date in these playoffs. He also added 6.1 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game and led the Sixers past Indiana in the first round, Toronto in the East semis, and a riveting seven-game Eastern Conference finals series against Milwaukee before falling to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.
In the East finals against the Bucks, Iverson led all scorers four times, including a pair of 40-plus-point performances with his 46-point performance in a 108-100 loss and his game-high 44-point effort in the 108-91 Game 7 win. Comparatively, Butler finished with a game high in points twice, with 35 in the Heat’s Game 1 win and his 28-point performance in Miami’s Game 7 rout of Boston.
It’s yet to be seen, but perhaps Butler can create even more conversation with his performance in the NBA Finals, which tip off tonight (8:30, ABC). Or even add his name to the debate around this question: