Watching the NBA Finals this spring and seeing the Sixers’ rivals capture their 18th World Championship was jealous-worthy material. After all, the Sixers have three total titles on their resume; the last one occurred 41 years ago. Their most recent NBA Finals appearance was 23 years ago. The fans stay connected to the leader of THAT team like no other sports figure this city has known.
When Allen Iverson is shown on the arena vision at any current Sixers game, the ovation is always the loudest of that evening. Many in the arena are too young to have seen him play. Still, they wear his number three jersey and are educated on his iconic crossover and scoring prowess.
The Sixers recently unveiled the Allen Iverson statue at the team’s practice facility in Camden.
“No one brings people out like A.I.,” Sixers owner Josh Harris said at a recent ceremony that paid tribute to the Hall of Famer in a forever gesture.
Just before the Sixers headed to the NBA Playoffs, they honored Iverson with a sculpture in his likeness on Legends Walk at the team’s practice facility in Camden, New Jersey. On the walk, Iverson joins other Sixers greats: Julius Erving, Wilt Chamberlain, Charles Barkley, and Maurice Cheeks. Just as Iverson played bigger than his 6’1” frame, the crowd that attended the unveiling was larger than any of his predecessors’ celebrations. Former teammates, coaches, front office members, and behind-the-scenes staff came from all over just to see the Answer and his crossover set in stone.
“When you think about the statue,” Iverson said, “That’s a representation of all of you who helped me, to everyone who played a part in my development and in my life. When y’all see that statue, y’all could feel good about the part that y’all did in helping me with my life. This is such an honor, man. It doesn’t even seem real.”
Iverson has always spoken from his heart and with emotion. One quote that resonates with people still is when he was named MVP of the All-Star game in February 2001. He stood on the podium center court in Washington, DC, looking everywhere, saying, “Where’s my coach? Where’s my coach?”
The Answer wanted to give proper credit to his coach, Larry Brown, who also coached the winning East All-Star team that night, the last All-Star team that played real defense. The East defeated the West 111-110, with Iverson leading the way with 25 points, adding five assists and four steals.
“Coach and I didn’t see eye-to-eye on things,” Iverson said. “But he wanted the same thing that I wanted out of my career and our team goals. Once I bought into that, that’s what turned me into an MVP basketball player. That turned us into a team [of] winners, that could go to the finals and compete with the best teams.”
When current Sixers majority owner Josh Harris bought the team in 2011, Iverson had been gone for five years, albeit a 25-game stretch in the 2009-10 season. But over the years, Harris saw the value of A.I. staying involved with the organization as a team ambassador.
“The history of this franchise is deep, and it’s strong because of people like Allen,” Harris said. “Allen changed basketball forever. For me, the idea is that through grit, tenacity, and the idea of leaving it all on the court, you could make it happen. You didn’t have to be the biggest or the strongest, but he helped all of us, and we all remember it.
“Today and moving forward, every player, coach or executive that comes in will walk by a statue of the answer and understand what that means.”
Iverson’s career went in a different direction in 1998 when the team decided to trade for Eric Snow, a backup point guard in Seattle. The difference was Snow was coming to Philadelphia to be the starting point guard alongside now-shooting guard, Allen Iverson.
“When I was traded from Seattle to Philadelphia, I hadn’t played much,” Eric Snow shared. “I showed up at practice the next day, and the first person to welcome me to the team was Allen Iverson. From that point on I felt the heart. He was a guy who allowed me to be the point guard of the team because he was the point guard before I arrived. He allowed me to do my job. He allowed me to help him.
“Anyone who has been around basketball a long time knows that is not easy, and it doesn’t happen often. That is Allen’s heart.”
That April day in Camden, stories of people’s experiences with Iverson as a player, teammate, and friend flowed. Those memories may fade slightly with the passage of time, but his image is cemented on Legend’s Walk for all to admire when they visit, of all places, the Sixers’ practice facility.
