We’ve been ardent Allen Iverson apologists for much of his short stint with the Detroit Pistons this season; that is, until recently when my colleague questioned whether or not he’s still an impact player at this late stage of his storied NBA career. (For the record, Andrew’s verdict was essentially “no, he’s a washed-up bum.”)
I’m surely not the only one who’s starting to agree with him. At the very least, since returning from his prolonged back injury that sidelined him for a month, Iverson has only reinforced the notion that he’s a cancer, a team-chemistry killer, and a one-dimensional player (once) capable of stuffing the stat sheet, but not of buying into a team-first mentality and truly adjusting his game for the greater good.
He said all the right things early on this year, but that seems like a long, long time ago, doesn’t it?
You’ve probably already read his recent postgame rants since returning to the Detroit lineup last weekend, a return which saw him starting the game on the bench for the first time in his career. But just in case you missed it:
“How many minutes did I play?,” Iverson said after he scored 11 with three turnovers in 18 minutes. “It seemed way, way, way less than that. Eighteen minutes? Come on, man. I can play 18 minutes with my eyes closed. It’s a bad feeling, man. I’m wondering what they rushed me to get back for? For that? It’s a bad time for me mentally. I am just trying to get through it without starting a whole bunch of nonsense. I’m looking at the big picture. If I vent my frustration then it’s like, given who I am, I’ll be the one everybody points the finger at. I am just going to try to laugh to stop from crying.”
That came following Monday’s loss to the Cavaliers; he wasn’t done though, spouting off again last night after the Pistons dropped to a wretched 36-39 following a loss to the New Jersey Nets:
“I’m in a position now that I’ve never been in my whole life,” Iverson said. “It’s harder than I thought it would be. With the back injury, I have to sit out at the start, then go in, then sit again. It’s tough to really get going. I take my hat off to the guys who can come off the bench and be effective. It’s tough for me. I’m struggling with it.”
“I’d rather retire before I do this again,” Iverson said. “I can’t be effective playing this way. I’m not used to it. It’s tough for me both mentally and physically. If I’m able to go out there, I should be able to get it done and I can’t right now. It’s my fault. I have to be able to overcome the adversity and do what I have to do. I just have to find a way to get it done. Not being 100 percent makes it harder and you can see that I’m not 100 percent.”
He went on to say that despite his claim that he wasn’t at full strength, he wouldn’t use it as an excuse for the fact that he’s stunk up the court since his return: over his last three games, Iverson has shot a combined 9-25 and averaged 7.6 points, 2.6 assists, 1.3 boards, and 2 turnovers. As an unrestricted free-agent-to-be this summer, he’s not doing himself any favors with his poor play, by popping off to the media at a critical stage in his team’s season, and doing little to nothing to shake the stigma that he’s anything but a team player.
It’s time for GM Joe Dumars to step in and send Iverson home. Remove him from the bench. Bid him farewell, adieu, goodbye, have fun spending your $22 million paycheck for this season. There’s no point in having him around any longer: he doesn’t want to be there, something tells me his teammates don’t want him there, and he’s become an unnecessary distraction to a fast-fading team that’s in serious danger of falling all the way out of the playoffs and into the lottery.
On top of that, he’s taking away valuable, earned playing time from second-year man Will Bynum, the Pistons’ backup PG behind Rodney Stuckey while Iverson was out and a guy who’s been one of the most pleasant surprises in the entire league over the past month. For the month of March, Bynum averaged a respectable 11.2 points on 48% FG, 4 assists, 2.1 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in just under 21 minutes per. As A. Sherrod Blakely recently said, Bynum has outplayed Iverson in Detroit this year.
It’s not fair to pin all of the team’s deep-reaching problems this season on Iverson: he’s but one part of the puke that has become the 2008-09 Detroit Pistons. Still, just as he did in Denver, there’s no question that Iverson has now put himself in a position to be the main scapegoat for another team’s disappointing season.
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