76ers Failed to take Iverson back
Allen Iverson won’t play for the 76ers again this season, according to reports out of Philadelphia.
An official announcement on Iverson, who left the team last month to be with his ailing 4-year-old daughter Messiah, is expected within the next couple days, a source told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Iverson, 34, started the season with the Grizzlies, but clashed with coaches over playing time and his role on the team. He was cut early in the season and eventually resigned with the Sixers, the team he spent most of his career with.
He first left the Sixers on Feb. 3 to be with his daughter. He hasn’t disclosed her condition.
In 25 games with Philly, Iverson was 13.9 points and 4.1 assists.
Allen Ezail Iverson was born on June 7, 1975, in Hampton, Virginia, and is an American professional basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ers, whom he rejoined in December 2009 after the team traded him to the Denver Nuggets in December 2006. The 76ers selected Iverson with the number one pick in the 1996 NBA Draft. He was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 1996–97 season. Iverson is an eleven-time NBA All-Star which includes winning the All-Star MVP award in 2001 and 2005.
Winning the NBA scoring title during the 1998–99, 2000–01, 2001–02 and 2004–05 seasons, Iverson has become one of the most prolific scorers in NBA history, despite his small (listed at 6 feet, 0 inches) stature, with a career scoring average of 26.7 points per game, being sixth all-time. Iverson was also the NBA Most Valuable Player of the 2000–01 season and led his team to the 2001 NBA Finals the same season.
On November 25, 2009, commentator Stephen A. Smith published on his blog a statement attributed to Iverson announcing plans for retirement, which also said, “I feel strongly that I can still compete at the highest level.”
Less than a week later on November 30, Iverson and his representatives met with a Philadelphia 76ers delegation about returning to his former team, and accepted a contract offer two days later. General manager Ed Stefanski declined to go into the terms of the agreement, but an unnamed source told the Associated Press that Iverson agreed to a one-year non-guaranteed contract at the league minimum salary. Iverson would receive a prorated portion of the $1.3 million minimum salary for players with at least 10 years of experience, and the contract would become guaranteed for the remainder of the 2009-10 season if he remained on the roster on January 8, 2010, and with a portion of his salary coming from a league pool, the 76ers would pay Iverson up to around $650,000. Stefanski said the team made the decision to pursue Iverson after starting guard Louis Williams suffered a broken jaw and was expected to miss at least 30 games.
