Allen Iverson wants another shot at professional basketball - NBA Update
Former NBA MVP Allen Iverson is still hanging onto hope of making it back into the NBA, or any professional basketball circuit of repute. The diminutive guard aired those views in a recent interview after appearing at Philadelphia
76ers playoff game.
Iverson has been out of basketball for long now and out of the NBA for even longer. He had a turbulent end to his career in the league after falling out with a number of franchises and eventually becoming an unwanted entity. That
didn’t stop Iverson from playing the game he loved though, as he was soon on a plane to Turkey, joining the Besiktas club
That adventure though was ruined by injury and before the 2011 – 2012 NBA season began Iverson was back in the United States looking for an NBA team to take him. He faced frustration though as no one seemed interested in an over
10-time former All-Star, but Iverson isn’t ready to declare himself retired still.
"I'm not using that word [retirement]," he said during an in-game interview televised on ESPN. "I want to play basketball so bad."
Iverson has said in the past that he would be willing to come off the bench for an NBA team, something unthinkable during his playing days given not only his enormous talent but also his equally gigantic ego. The player though
seems to have overcome those demons, and is a lot more malleable now.
"I mean, the way it is right now, I've accepted the fact that [playing in the NBA] might not happen," he said. "But I still want to play basketball. If I can get an opportunity to where it's going to make me happy at the end of
my career, I'll take that opportunity. But I just love to play and I want to have another opportunity to play on the professional level."
Allen, or AI as he was affectionately called by the NBA fans, made his name playing for the Philadelphia 76ers and carried the franchise on his back for many years, even taking them to the NBA Final in 2001. The fans in Philadelphia
still love him, and when Allen came on the court to hand over the game ball for The Sixers match against the Miami Heat, the crowd went wild.
Iverson became emotional at the moment too and hurried off the court, almost tearing up.
"It was the best," he said. "I love these fans, and obviously they showed me a lot of love here."
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