Iverson Headed Overseas?
For the first time this summer Allen Iverson has received an offer close to his liking, just not from an NBA team. Olympiacos is reportedly close to proposing a two-year contract worth $10 million to Iverson, the exact same deal that Nate Robinson turned down.
Olympiacos presents a very lucrative and interesting option for Iverson, who hasn't been treated well by free agency so far. Few teams have been open to the idea of signing Iverson and those who are aren't willing to make a major commitment.
Iverson has a lot working against him right now as he's opposed to coming off the bench and still feels like he's a star despite his decaying skills. NBA teams won't be open to signing him to a long-term contract until he opens up to accepting a smaller role.
Judging by what Iverson is looking for Olympiacos may be the best place for him. Not only are they bringing more money and years to the table, but with them he'd also be a star. Iverson would undoubtedly start for the team and be the featured player offensively with the green light to do as he pleases.
The main competition in the NBA for Olympiacos is the Miami HEAT and New York Knicks. Both franchises are in need of a starting point guard and definitely have some minutes available for A.I. However, neither of them would give Iverson more than a one-year deal for a portion of the mid-level exception.
It's always nice to have security and a fallback plan, which is really what Olympiacos provides for Iverson. It's unlikely that Iverson accepts the deal even though it's significantly more than anything that has come from an NBA team. Iverson is a family man now though, making packing up and moving to Greece for a few months extremely tough. Sure the money is better, but you can't put a price on being close to your family and it's not like Iverson is hurting financially anyway.
Most importantly, there's unfinished business for Iverson in the NBA. He's been too successful over the past 13 years to go out on a note like he did with the Detroit Pistons. Iverson basically served as the scapegoat for their nightmare season because of his inability to adapt to his new teammates and coaching staff.
The final stages of a career always play a major role with the legacy that is left behind. The 2001 NBA Finals appearance and scoring titles are becoming a distant memory as Iverson struggles. Everyone knows that he can score and that he's one of the toughest players to ever play the game. Now it's time for him to do the one thing that few people think he can do: be the ultimate teammate.
Whether it be the Knicks, HEAT, Grizzlies, or Clippers that Iverson ultimately signs on with its time for him to change his mindset. If Iverson can accept less minutes and shot attempts while helping a young team take the next step he may find the open market much more rewarding next summer. Everyone reaches a point in their career where they have to adjust and change and for Iverson this is it if he wants to be remembered as one of the best.
Odom Understanding
Nobody could quite understand why it took so long for Lamar Odom and the Los Angeles Lakers to finally agree to a deal. Odom was a vital part of the team's championship run and had very little desire to go somewhere else, yet it wasn't until late July that a deal finally got completed. For Odom though, the reasoning behind the lengthy talks are clear.
"That's the reason why you negotiate," explained Odom to ESPN Radio in Los Angeles. "Somebody in this business, it's business, as a team or… If you ask a team for two apples, they're gonna tell you, 'How 'bout one apple?' Then hopefully, you can meet at one and a half. I knew it was gonna take some time, of course the situation as far as the financial situation we're in as a country, of course as a business. I kinda understand it, I understood it; Mr. Buss has to pay tax, and it's hard to tell someone what to do with their money, especially today."
A resolution may have come sooner if the Miami HEAT weren't interested in Odom as well. Odom spent just one year with the HEAT, but during that time he made some lifelong friends who were eager to have him join the mix again.
"I'm friends with both Dwyane Wade and of course, Pat Riley," stated Odom. "And, coach, I'd say is a little bit more than a friend to me - someone I knew of course since I was 19 years old, he's dear to me and I heard him out. The offer was gracious and I appreciated it and I love those guys, but L.A. is a place for me where I should be playing basketball and living, hopefully until my career is up."
In the end the Lakers had a lot of things working in their favor that the HEAT simply did not have. Being the reigning champs certainly helps, but when the Lakers signed Ron Artest they basically made it impossible for Odom to leave.
"It's the kind of move you'll love because Ron is extremely loyal and once you have him on your side, you have him on your side forever," Odom revealed. "What you're gonna see is the ultimate competitor: someone that doesn't care who's in front of him or what's in front of him, he's going to try to get around it, or move it, or go through it, or break it, or something (laughs). Ron Artest is a good person, is a little misunderstood; I'm glad I'm gonna be able to be here to play along with him, to grow with him, to become a man, and hopefully win a championship."
Odom and Artest grew up together playing basketball in New York and remain loyal to the area that they have become representatives of.
"In New York City, basketball is culture," explained Odom. "Just like Hollywood has it's own world, in New York City, basketball has its own world. They're gonna be a lot of people that raised both me and Ron in the basketball world that are gonna be past proud. You know what I mean? Especially because we're from New York, we're from the inner-city area, and now we're both playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, which happens to have a player by the name of Kobe Bryant, which happens to have a coach by the name of Phil Jackson that just won a championship. It's an extreme boost, confidence, everything to be where we're from and to have two guys on the Lakers that both play in the NBA, it's gonna bring back hope to a whole community."
The Michael Jordan Exhibit
The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame has opened up an exhibit solely featuring Michael Jordan prior to his enshrinement next month. According to ESPN the exhibit will contain a great deal of variety, including memorabilia from his time as a Tar Heel to his days as a baseball player. Nike donated $250,000 towards the project. Jordan will officially become a member of the Hall of Fame on September 11 along with David Robinson, John Stockton, Jerry Sloan, and C. Vivian Stringer.
NBA Chat
Luke Byrnes will be hosting his weekly chat at 5 pm EST today. Get your questions into Luke here, he can handle all your questions from college hoops to the professional ranks.
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posted By you nailed it, 3 August 2009 1:53:38 PM
you were right on mark with iverson.i don't see any way that iverson takes a deal overseas being that he has so much to prove and much to offer an nba team if he were to conform his game some.just going by what iverson has said,he's willing to come off the bench just not for 18-20 mins a game and that I agree with.he should get about 27-32 mins a game(depending on how the game is going of course).i personally think iverson is wanting a jet terry/canu type role if he has to come off the bench.and while most writers are quick to want him to come off the bench let's see if iverson can come in a beat someone out for there position in training camp.what happened to competition in today sports?should a guy like chalmers get the starting nod cause he's younger or should he have to earn it?i don't know about you but my money is on iverson if there was an open competition for that spot!
posted By Sunz31, 3 August 2009 4:03:01 PM
Allen iverson's decaying skills? I saw him drop a 44pt/17assist game on my suns in 2008. Barely missed a shot. I doubt he's become a bench warmer overnight
posted By eolufemi, 3 August 2009 4:28:57 PM
good posts, so far.
i'm with "you nailed it". whatever happened to competition. for the amount of money he's willing to accept, a team loses relatively nothing by letting AI compete with the guards for a spot. i think his detractors are kind of banking on him not getting a chance to prove them wrong. if people were so certain he's as washed up as they suggest, put it to the test and let training camp decide things. not to mention none of the teams, he's considering are championship contenders anything. they lose nothing by giving AI until January to prove himself. And if he proves to be a 'cancer' shut him down.
posted By Marko, 3 August 2009 4:51:40 PM
Poor job to say the least.
Im sorry, but you have written soooo much wrong in this article on the Iverson portion.
First off, it is questionable that AI's skills are decaying. It is all a matter of what the media has done to him, and the image they have painted. You have easily fallen victim and that is very simple to see.
Not only that, but you write, in quote:
"The final stages of a career"
Wrong, stop putting him in a position like David Robinson was in around 2001 or 2002.
Iverson is still among the group of guys like Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Vince Carter, etc....in around the years they have left.
OF all people, Iverson should prove to be the one who doesn't decay much, if at all even when he is around 40! He is abnormal, and no one has ever seen someone like him. Tell me someone else who has done what he has done.
Another statement by you which is false:
"because of his inability to adapt to his new teammates and coaching staff."
This proves you are either;
a) a moron
b) a hater
c) know basketball but have no 'real' cue about Iverson
d) all of the above
Iverson took 13\14 shots a night, compared to around 20-25 as a Sixer, and 17-20 as a Nugget.
He gave up the ball, accepted coming off the bench, played less minutes, sacrificed his stats and star status.
He did everything the Pistons asked, yet people put 99% of the blame on Iverson, when it is really like 1% in which he did something wrong.
It was all around him who ruined the season. AI was fooled, into believing the team wanted to win, not to just worry about finances. Sick.
Allen Iverson has not slowed down, the Pistons slowed him down.
If returns the way I believe he cxan, under the right team and used correcty (NOT Detroit), he will rpove to be in his prime, arguably the best player in the NBA, and regain his star status, value, achievments, stats, MVP candidate, scoring & steals champ, top in apg, all that.
While you will be sitting there eating your words, acting like you never said a word.
I recommend a few articles to you as well as some quotes, here they are:
"A truly great player getting ready to plug himself into the Juvenation Machine. Maybe it doesn't matter where Allen Iverson ends up, just that he's going somewhere at all."
"You really think somebody THIS GIFTED could be washed up in the next two years? He has better balance than everyone else. He's more coordinated than everyone else. He's faster than everyone else. He's feistier than anyone else. He takes a superhuman pounding and keeps getting up. He's an athletic freak. Iverson could have been an unbelievable soccer player. He could have been a world-class boxer and a remarkable defensive center fielder and base stealer. He could have picked his sport in track and field and competed for an Olympic spot. I can't fathom how much ground he could have covered on a tennis court. We already know that he was one of the greatest high school quarterbacks in Virginia history. And I don't care how much partying he's done, how much of a pounding he's taken over the years, how big a posse he has, how difficult he's been at times ... you can't change somebody's genetic makeup. He's not even close to being washed up.
More importantly, could you go to war with him? Would you want him out there in the last five minutes of a Game 7? Could he carry a good team and make it great? If one of your guys got slammed into a basket support on a drive, would he be the first guy who ran over to get in the offending player's face? Would the other team's fans be terrified of him every time he had the ball? Would he come through when it mattered?
Would you really bet against Allen Iverson?"
"To Iverson. The general consensus: His career as an effective player is over. How did we reach that conclusion? I have no idea. He averaged nearly 27 a game two seasons ago in Denver. Soon after opening night, Denver traded him to declining Detroit, where he was forced to play in a new system for a bad coach, and GM Joe Dumars soon made it clear Detroit traded for Iverson's expiring contract (and not for Iverson himself). When the situation inevitably self-combusted and the Pistons asked Iverson to come off the bench, he "coincidentally" came down with a back injury, and that was that. Meanwhile, Billups turned Denver around, enabling people to stupidly make the connection that Billups was wonderful and Iverson was the anti-Christ. Now everyone is afraid to sign him.
My first question: If we're writing off Iverson for the previous paragraph, why aren't we writing off Rasheed -- just as enigmatic, just as much of a volcano, just as much of a coach killer over the years -- when Sheed played worse than Iverson did last season?
My second question: Since when was it a good idea to bet against Iverson? Name another NBA player who overcame more obstacles over the years. For ESPN's "30 For 30" documentary series that premieres this fall, one of the first films is called "The Trial of Allen Iverson" (directed by Steve James of "Hoop Dreams" fame). I have only seen a rough cut. It has a chance to become one of the most important sports documentaries ever. Why? Because you will never think of Iverson the same way again. You will like him. You will feel bad for him. You will connect with him. You will admire him in a way you never imagined. After witnessing what he endured legally and racially -- how unfair it was, how un-American it was -- and marveling at the dignity he showed as he put his life back together afterward, I promise, you will never bet against this guy.
A few weeks ago, Iverson gave a speech in Virginia to promote his scholarship program. It was one of the best three minutes of the sports year. You probably didn't hear about it because the sports media and the blogosphere is more interested in talking about Brett Favre, Michael Vick, civil suits, how ESPN is the devil and everything else. Occasionally, some relevant stuff slips through the cracks. Such as this clip, for instance. Please watch it, then tell me why everyone is so willing to count out one of the best 30 basketball players of all time, as well as one of the greatest pure athletes in the history of sports, at the tender age of 34 when he has something to prove. We have not heard the last from him. Just wait."
Articles:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/147199-ai-may-be-the-best-player-in-the-nba-today-to-never-win-an-championship
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/118815-allen-iverson-lebron-james-the-answer-vs-the-king
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/210131-allen-iversonim-a-free-agent-i-can-still-help-your-team
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/218198-houston-we-have-the-answer
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/218543-iverson-and-bobcats-are-eachothers-answer
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/221349-the-philadelphia-76ers-and-allen-iverson-one-last-hurrah
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/221804-the-decades-best
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/199421-iverson-is-still-great-and-still-valuable
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/226780-allen-iverson-is-still-the-answer?search_query=allen%20iverson
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/227795-philadelphia-76ers-ed-stefanski-we-want-iverson
posted By great job marko, 3 August 2009 6:01:11 PM
AI is definitely a warrior, and I'm looking forward to him making his critics eat crow this season. They better hope their smear campaign works and nobody signs AI, cause a lot of media types are going to look like fools.
posted By Larry Brown, 3 August 2009 6:10:10 PM
Marko, are you writing from an institution someplace? Sounds like your nurse forgot to give you your meds this morning. Stop with the love fest for AI, and go back and look at him objectively! Or is that too complicated?
posted By gates, 4 August 2009 6:07:14 AM
people get crazy when it's iverson. look at that marco guy he has written an article. I wonder how can he spare time to write articles without being paid?
posted By Ectoplasm, 4 August 2009 2:55:31 PM
Baloney about Odom's explanation. He was on a sugar high. That's why he didn't pay attention. That, or he's got to have the dumbest agent around. I mean, why bluff when the other guy, Jerry Buss, has all the cards and $$$ and is stone cold. Odom, you could've at least paid attention to the first set of offers. You was asleep...
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