Dwyane Wade hails Allen Iverson as a trend setter in NBA
Miami Heat super star Dwyane Wade recently spoke in glowing terms about the impact Allen Iverson had on the NBA and American pop culture in general. Wade revealed he was a fan of ‘AI’ and was inspired by how the player set trends in the world of basketball.
Allen Iverson came into the league with an outlandish personality. Many people believe he revolutionised the look of future NBA players with all his tattoos, braids and arm bands etc. To back it up, “the Answer” had a game unmatched by his peers and a larger than life personality that more than made up for his small frame.
Allen Iverson was for years a devastating presence for the Philadelphia 76ers and is a former NBA scoring champion. He even led the Sixers to the NBA Finals once where they faced off against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers were led by the duo of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, and in the end they proved too much for Iverson and his Sixers.
Iverson has since faded as a power in the NBA. He spent last season at Turkish club Besiktas and is now looking for a new NBA franchise to give him one more shot in the league. However Allen will always be remembered for his vibrancy as a player and a person. People cannot forget his crossover on Michael Jordan, his outlandish fashion statements and his overall emergence as an icon for a new generation of NBA fans.
Dwyane Wade came into the NBA when Allen was at his peak and vowing people on and off the court. He only had kind words for “the Answer”, who faced some criticism at the start of his career, in a recent interview,
“You can look at a guy like Allen Iverson when he first came in the league, tattoos, braids, all these things, it wasn't cool.”
"It was cool on the outside, but in the NBA world it wasn't cool. Now you see people around the world with tattoos, braids, no matter what profession you're in, it's OK. But he was one of the first ones, as an athlete, to do it. And you've seen that he got a lot of backlash, but now it's a cool thing to do. Anybody can get braids now, anybody can get tattoos now, and it's not as bad. When you're the first one to do something, it's always the worst, but eventually it comes around."
Many NBA players of this generation look up to Iverson and all around the league players express themselves with braids or tattoos. Even super star players like LeBron James and Kevin Durant have got into the act.
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