This video somehow completely undersold his cultural impact. Even 20 years later, the culture of the modern NBA has predominately been shaped upon the foundation of Allen Iverson.
The craziest thing about AI, at least to me, is that he was arguably better at football than basketball. He was a higher rated QB prospect than Peyton Manning in 94, and was also a standout DB and kick returner. His basketball coach in college wouldn't let him play football, figuring he'd probably get hurt and lose his best player. It's insane
The dude had to really work out just to hit 175 pounds, I’m a huge a.i fan but he would have gotten killed in the nfl. The average weight is 220 pounds at qb right now and this is a time in history where scramblers are not nearly as shied away from as they once were. I’m not saying he wasn’t talented at football but there’s a reason even the most athletic QBs in college fail to make the nfl because you can’t be successful on athleticism alone like you can in college, even now the QBs who over rely on the run are the ones constantly hurt. I think it’s a lethal weapon to have in your bag but ultimately being an elite pocket passer will almost always be more successful. Mahomes as much as I hate to say it is amazing at striking that balance (if not pushing it occasionally haha)
Which was smart on Coach Thompson's part bc Georgetown has never had anything approaching a respectable football program, so why risk your best player getting injured playing football on a terrible team?
The amount of hate he got looking back on it is completely crazy. People literally criticized him for having tattoos. The Wizards had a home game program with Iverson on the cover for their game against Philly and they removed all of his tattoos digitally.
My favorite player. I was fortunate enough for him to be the star player on my hometown team, so I got to see him play all the time and put up 50 points in person.
As crazy as it sounds he might've been at Football than Basketball. He was a great QB in Highschool, but at the time the old guard in the NFL were big on prototypical big and tall pocket passers. His slight frame, and the out of pocket scrambling scared teams. Nowadays everyone is looking for a playmaker at QB than can do it in or out of the pocket, and prototypical size isn't as big of a deal. AI was truly the man.
That ‘01 Lakers team in the playoffs were unstoppable! Kobe throughout the first 3 series, and Shaq to top it off with a dominant finals showing. Iverson was the sole loss the Lakers faced that entire postseason!
I'll always be sad the Bucks lost that game 7 to the Sixers, but at least they didn't get steamrolled by the Lakers in the finals, which was the fate of any team that went up against them. So silver lining I guess.
I was an editor/videographer/writer for Comcast Sportsnet, Philadelphia (now NBC Sports Philadelphia) from 1998-2009. It's the regional sports network for the Philadelphia region, founded by Ed Snider who brought the NHL to Philadelphia in 1967 with the Flyers. He eventually purchased the Sixers. The newsroom and studios are in what is now the Wells Fargo Center. I was there in the press conference when Iverson had his "We're talking about practice" moment. He also confronted the late Phil Jasner, Sixers beat writer for the Philadelphia Daily News (Who Iverson gave a beautiful eulogy when Jazz passed away) with this nugget, "You think if I worked out more, and got all swole like Arnold, Phillip, that I might win more MVPs? Well, I won the MVP all skin and bones!" Not only did Iverson show up late to practice, but he'd usually bring lunch with him, which was usually Taco Bell. This video really glosses over what a shit show the Iverson/Larry Brown feud really was. It was as bad as the Bobby Clarke/Eric Lindros feud on the Flyers side of things. Also, while the world knows Iverson as "A.I." his nickname growing up is one for the ages: Bubba Chuck.
listen to iguodala on Carmelo’s podcast. The 76ers didn’t have a their own practice facility. Other teams in the league did but they had to rent out a space for a couple hours. So even if iverson wanted to practice later he couldn’t. Iverson didn’t practice as much as he should but the organization didn’t give every resource they could. They made its seem like iverson was professional for one year and seee that’s why we went to the finals lmao. Both iversons ego and the 76ers blaming iversons for their own bad picks and resources provided still didn’t stop a legendary moment in basketball history.
AI is hands down the most influential player culturally in NBA history, possibly American sports history. His impact is still very much felt today. AI was the truth and a true innovator of the game on and off the court, in so many different ways. A lot of players, I mean a lot of players, play they do today because of Iverson.
Lifelong Sixers fan here. i was 3 years old the last time they won a championship. That game 1 against the Lakers has been the franchise's greatest moment since 1983.
To be fair to iverson he led the league in minutes and injuries for like 5 years in a row and that's why he didn't practice. He was a small guy taking a beating every game because nobody else was a good scorer and it was him or nothing. If he practiced he wouldn't have been as effective in games
Didn't watch the 76ers a lot other than that playoff series against Milwaukee (my team). The 1 thing I most remember about AI was his toughness. Guy would hit the floor over and over and over again and just kept playing.
AI was a tremendous talent. It was amazing to watch a normal-sized human dominate the NBA. Injuries shortened his hall-of-fame career, but it was wonderful while it lasted.
He lead the league in minutes per game SIX out of 10 years + various injuries the whole time, and still checked off every history box + playoffs yearly + finals + 1st ballot hall of fame + 2nd EVER in ppg to assist ratio to Jerry West: The Logo..the haters had NOTHING to criticize so they said practice.. obviously he needed energy to play all but 4 mins a game 82 times a year 🙄 they were busy hating..we were ignoring them watching history
What people don't understand is the 76ers didn't have their own gym. They rented a gym to practice. They scheduled 2-3 hours for practice and that's all the access they had to a practice gym.
Check out How a 23 year old accountant became the most unbeatable player.... It's about N'Golo Kante. Fascinating story about a player that gave it everything; against all odds. Video came out 5 days ago.
AI was the best era of basketball in Philly during my lifetime. This video was okay but that guy left out the whole Kobe feeling snubbed by his hometown (Philly), the trade & the tiny statue that the new awful Sixers owners got.
barely 6 feet tall, 160165 pounds at most yet played tougher than 99% of NBA players. dude had to wrap his entire body in ice and wear hockey pants after most games. Love Iverson
Kobe once said that if Iverson was 6foot 5 then he'd be unstoppable. i just wish Iverson put in half the off court work that Kobe did. dude would be known as a top 5 talent of all time
AI is one of those guys, GAME-CHANGERS! players thats so big, they change the game itself! he changed how the game was played! he was one of the biggest basketball stars of all time! hes even bigger than kobe or shaq back then .. kobe got bigger late 2000s, AI earlier! ..
Try this Iverson video - all highlights: "Allen Iverson's Ultimate Career Mixtape!" ua-cam.com/video/3W14pRfhO4k/v-deo.html ...I've had NBA season tickets since 1988 and Iverson is my Favorite player of all time.
NO PLAYER IN THE NBA TODAY WILL PLAY A HIP INJURY! OR ANY INJURY! thats the difference about the old era, the difference in mindset truly makes a huge difference! NBA today is boring not bcoz the game is not good! actually NBA today is much stronger, players are all very good players .. BUT THE MINDSET OF THE PLAYERS IS DIFFERENT! THEIR ARE NOT KILLERS NOWADAYS! 2000s superstar SG are all killers😅 AI, kobe, VC, Tmac, allen ... KILLERS ... they got that MJ psychopath DNA😅😂😂 2000s basketball for me is the PEAK OF BASKETBALL ... the physicality of the 90s + modern basketball..
You guys get bad information In these videos and that practice clip is actually old click bait his friend had died so he went to the hospital and they where asking him about missing practice …..
The video does a decent job at explaining him as an NBA player up to 2001, but it severely lacks info in the kind of cultural impact he had. The tattoos, cornrows, and shooting sleeves are still huge to this day bc of him. He also took the baggy streetwear look to its extreme to the point where, once David Stern got tired of him, they had to change the league's dress code to stop the players from dressing like him. Of course, before Stern was tired of him, the NBA leaned into everything he did (except rapping). Also, his infamous "we talking about practice" press conference is actually the perfect example of horrible sports journalism. He sat and spoke at the presser for like 20 minutes about all the trials and tribulations he was going through, all the time, pain, and effort he devoted to playing basketball for the 76ers and the absurdity of people pointing out he missed practices as an excuse for the organization putting him in trade talks right after he won the NBA MVP award and the team to the Finals. He was up there talking about his best friend dying and sports journalists were arguing with him that he wasn't a human being that was allowed to feel things and make mistakes bc he played in the NBA.
I love that you guys are finally reacting to AI, but the source video was terrible. Hope you guys are able to come across a better video and react to it some time.
It's funny how he's become more popular now than when he played. He was a good player, but not as iconic as people over the last few years have made him out to be.
This isn't true at all. People can argue how good he was since he was often inefficient, his teams didn't always win, and his prime was short, but no one can dispute how iconic and popular he was in the early 00's. He was incredibly popular at the time. I'd also argue he's the most influential player of the 21st century culturally.
@@coo55555 He's right. Iverson was good, but not as good as a lot of people are making him out to be. He was a really good player, but that's it. He's not this legendary iconic player and he's definitely not the most influential player of the 21st century 🤣🤣🤣 Iverson falls into the same category as guys like Dwight Howard, Paul Pierce, and Jason Kidd. All really good players, but not icons.
I noticed that too. After he retired he kind of faded away, like most players do after they retire. Then about 3 years ago just out of the blue people started talking about him like he's one of the greats up there with Jordan and Kobe. He was good but not great.
This video somehow completely undersold his cultural impact. Even 20 years later, the culture of the modern NBA has predominately been shaped upon the foundation of Allen Iverson.
Iverson was so cool he made Reebok basketball shoes legitimately popular again for awhile. That's incredible lol
@@johncarolina4950not only him. Shaq’s shoes were widely affordable from Reebok. I had a pair when I was little.
More like Rodman
The craziest thing about AI, at least to me, is that he was arguably better at football than basketball. He was a higher rated QB prospect than Peyton Manning in 94, and was also a standout DB and kick returner. His basketball coach in college wouldn't let him play football, figuring he'd probably get hurt and lose his best player. It's insane
The dude had to really work out just to hit 175 pounds, I’m a huge a.i fan but he would have gotten killed in the nfl. The average weight is 220 pounds at qb right now and this is a time in history where scramblers are not nearly as shied away from as they once were. I’m not saying he wasn’t talented at football but there’s a reason even the most athletic QBs in college fail to make the nfl because you can’t be successful on athleticism alone like you can in college, even now the QBs who over rely on the run are the ones constantly hurt. I think it’s a lethal weapon to have in your bag but ultimately being an elite pocket passer will almost always be more successful. Mahomes as much as I hate to say it is amazing at striking that balance (if not pushing it occasionally haha)
Which was smart on Coach Thompson's part bc Georgetown has never had anything approaching a respectable football program, so why risk your best player getting injured playing football on a terrible team?
To this very day, A.I. is still beloved in Philadelphia. He gave us his all on the court. Love this guy always. GO SIXERS ❤️🏀💙and GO PHILS❤️⚾️🤍
The amount of hate he got looking back on it is completely crazy. People literally criticized him for having tattoos. The Wizards had a home game program with Iverson on the cover for their game against Philly and they removed all of his tattoos digitally.
If iverson had himself a shaq back then he wouldve won 6+ titles.
My favorite player. I was fortunate enough for him to be the star player on my hometown team, so I got to see him play all the time and put up 50 points in person.
As crazy as it sounds he might've been at Football than Basketball. He was a great QB in Highschool, but at the time the old guard in the NFL were big on prototypical big and tall pocket passers. His slight frame, and the out of pocket scrambling scared teams. Nowadays everyone is looking for a playmaker at QB than can do it in or out of the pocket, and prototypical size isn't as big of a deal. AI was truly the man.
That ‘01 Lakers team in the playoffs were unstoppable! Kobe throughout the first 3 series, and Shaq to top it off with a dominant finals showing. Iverson was the sole loss the Lakers faced that entire postseason!
I'll always be sad the Bucks lost that game 7 to the Sixers, but at least they didn't get steamrolled by the Lakers in the finals, which was the fate of any team that went up against them. So silver lining I guess.
The Lakers were rusty in Game 1, having had a week off waiting for the Finals.
I was an editor/videographer/writer for Comcast Sportsnet, Philadelphia (now NBC Sports Philadelphia) from 1998-2009. It's the regional sports network for the Philadelphia region, founded by Ed Snider who brought the NHL to Philadelphia in 1967 with the Flyers. He eventually purchased the Sixers. The newsroom and studios are in what is now the Wells Fargo Center. I was there in the press conference when Iverson had his "We're talking about practice" moment. He also confronted the late Phil Jasner, Sixers beat writer for the Philadelphia Daily News (Who Iverson gave a beautiful eulogy when Jazz passed away) with this nugget, "You think if I worked out more, and got all swole like Arnold, Phillip, that I might win more MVPs? Well, I won the MVP all skin and bones!"
Not only did Iverson show up late to practice, but he'd usually bring lunch with him, which was usually Taco Bell. This video really glosses over what a shit show the Iverson/Larry Brown feud really was. It was as bad as the Bobby Clarke/Eric Lindros feud on the Flyers side of things.
Also, while the world knows Iverson as "A.I." his nickname growing up is one for the ages: Bubba Chuck.
AI3!! I used to wear his armband and finger sleeve
Found you guys through talking about the US national Team. Keep up the good work, lads!
listen to iguodala on Carmelo’s podcast. The 76ers didn’t have a their own practice facility. Other teams in the league did but they had to rent out a space for a couple hours. So even if iverson wanted to practice later he couldn’t. Iverson didn’t practice as much as he should but the organization didn’t give every resource they could. They made its seem like iverson was professional for one year and seee that’s why we went to the finals lmao. Both iversons ego and the 76ers blaming iversons for their own bad picks and resources provided still didn’t stop a legendary moment in basketball history.
Philly on the channel!!! F*ck the cowgirls, Go Birds!!
AI is hands down the most influential player culturally in NBA history, possibly American sports history. His impact is still very much felt today. AI was the truth and a true innovator of the game on and off the court, in so many different ways. A lot of players, I mean a lot of players, play they do today because of Iverson.
AI will always BE THAT DUDE!!!
AI was a magician on the court
He’s from my area!! Huge influence here still to this day!
Lifelong Sixers fan here. i was 3 years old the last time they won a championship. That game 1 against the Lakers has been the franchise's greatest moment since 1983.
To be fair to iverson he led the league in minutes and injuries for like 5 years in a row and that's why he didn't practice. He was a small guy taking a beating every game because nobody else was a good scorer and it was him or nothing. If he practiced he wouldn't have been as effective in games
Daz, you were in Jersey during the AI years, right? Did you make it to any games in Philly?
Didn't watch the 76ers a lot other than that playoff series against Milwaukee (my team). The 1 thing I most remember about AI was his toughness. Guy would hit the floor over and over and over again and just kept playing.
AI was a tremendous talent. It was amazing to watch a normal-sized human dominate the NBA. Injuries shortened his hall-of-fame career, but it was wonderful while it lasted.
He lead the league in minutes per game SIX out of 10 years + various injuries the whole time, and still checked off every history box + playoffs yearly + finals + 1st ballot hall of fame + 2nd EVER in ppg to assist ratio to Jerry West: The Logo..the haters had NOTHING to criticize so they said practice.. obviously he needed energy to play all but 4 mins a game 82 times a year 🙄 they were busy hating..we were ignoring them watching history
What people don't understand is the 76ers didn't have their own gym. They rented a gym to practice. They scheduled 2-3 hours for practice and that's all the access they had to a practice gym.
React to his hall of fame speech! One of the best!
Gotta do Dennis Rodson by NonStop, please. His story is very interesting.
Check out How a 23 year old accountant became the most unbeatable player.... It's about N'Golo Kante. Fascinating story about a player that gave it everything; against all odds. Video came out 5 days ago.
AI was the best era of basketball in Philly during my lifetime.
This video was okay but that guy left out the whole Kobe feeling snubbed by his hometown (Philly), the trade & the tiny statue that the new awful Sixers owners got.
barely 6 feet tall, 160165 pounds at most yet played tougher than 99% of NBA players. dude had to wrap his entire body in ice and wear hockey pants after most games. Love Iverson
Ty Lue is the coach of the Clippers now
Kobe once said that if Iverson was 6foot 5 then he'd be unstoppable. i just wish Iverson put in half the off court work that Kobe did. dude would be known as a top 5 talent of all time
Do a video reacting to nightcap by Shannon sharpe
AI is one of those guys, GAME-CHANGERS! players thats so big, they change the game itself! he changed how the game was played! he was one of the biggest basketball stars of all time! hes even bigger than kobe or shaq back then .. kobe got bigger late 2000s, AI earlier! ..
You should react to Dennis Rodman next, it’s like watching a sex pistol play basketball
Do Kobe Bryant next please
Try this Iverson video - all highlights:
"Allen Iverson's Ultimate Career Mixtape!"
ua-cam.com/video/3W14pRfhO4k/v-deo.html
...I've had NBA season tickets since 1988 and Iverson is my Favorite player of all time.
Detroit was on top when he almost got traded, they won the championship in 2004
NO PLAYER IN THE NBA TODAY WILL PLAY A HIP INJURY! OR ANY INJURY! thats the difference about the old era, the difference in mindset truly makes a huge difference! NBA today is boring not bcoz the game is not good! actually NBA today is much stronger, players are all very good players .. BUT THE MINDSET OF THE PLAYERS IS DIFFERENT! THEIR ARE NOT KILLERS NOWADAYS! 2000s superstar SG are all killers😅 AI, kobe, VC, Tmac, allen ... KILLERS ... they got that MJ psychopath DNA😅😂😂 2000s basketball for me is the PEAK OF BASKETBALL ... the physicality of the 90s + modern basketball..
He was the last player I watched their games, now I dont care about it just catch highlights
Bro could’ve gone to the NFL if he wanted 💀
I don't know if you know this but Iverson was just as good at football. He could have went to college on a football scholarship as well.
Philly never put any talent around him…
Quite a one-sides video… I forgot why I don’t watch you guys anymore. Noticed a pattern
Didnt Kobe say Thank God Allen Iverson isn;'t 6'5
When I taught fifth grade all the boys loved AI. The African-American guys copied his hair style.
AI, soooo Philly!
detroit can’t possibly be more shit than philadelphia
You guys get bad information In these videos and that practice clip is actually old click bait his friend had died so he went to the hospital and they where asking him about missing practice …..
The video does a decent job at explaining him as an NBA player up to 2001, but it severely lacks info in the kind of cultural impact he had. The tattoos, cornrows, and shooting sleeves are still huge to this day bc of him. He also took the baggy streetwear look to its extreme to the point where, once David Stern got tired of him, they had to change the league's dress code to stop the players from dressing like him. Of course, before Stern was tired of him, the NBA leaned into everything he did (except rapping).
Also, his infamous "we talking about practice" press conference is actually the perfect example of horrible sports journalism. He sat and spoke at the presser for like 20 minutes about all the trials and tribulations he was going through, all the time, pain, and effort he devoted to playing basketball for the 76ers and the absurdity of people pointing out he missed practices as an excuse for the organization putting him in trade talks right after he won the NBA MVP award and the team to the Finals. He was up there talking about his best friend dying and sports journalists were arguing with him that he wasn't a human being that was allowed to feel things and make mistakes bc he played in the NBA.
His behavior was a complete put-off.
I love that you guys are finally reacting to AI, but the source video was terrible. Hope you guys are able to come across a better video and react to it some time.
It's funny how he's become more popular now than when he played. He was a good player, but not as iconic as people over the last few years have made him out to be.
I would whole heartedly disagree with this comment
This isn't true at all. People can argue how good he was since he was often inefficient, his teams didn't always win, and his prime was short, but no one can dispute how iconic and popular he was in the early 00's. He was incredibly popular at the time. I'd also argue he's the most influential player of the 21st century culturally.
@@coo55555 He's right. Iverson was good, but not as good as a lot of people are making him out to be. He was a really good player, but that's it. He's not this legendary iconic player and he's definitely not the most influential player of the 21st century 🤣🤣🤣
Iverson falls into the same category as guys like Dwight Howard, Paul Pierce, and Jason Kidd. All really good players, but not icons.
I noticed that too. After he retired he kind of faded away, like most players do after they retire. Then about 3 years ago just out of the blue people started talking about him like he's one of the greats up there with Jordan and Kobe. He was good but not great.
@@stevies6294 I wholeheartedly agree with his comment.
This video did not show his cultural significance
Typical case was Ricardo Quaresma super talented but lacked discipline and hard work
100% would’ve been the best NBA player ever if he had Michael Jordan’s work ethic, and motivation
Watch his highlights! This video aint it
Man who gives af what Brits think of Allen Iverson. Yall couldnt feel what we felt so your opinions are invalid.