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In an interview with Jeff Skversky of FOX Sports, the NBA legend boldly proclaimed that LeBron James will lead the Sixers to an NBA title. "I know for a fact it’s going to happen," Iverson said. " ... I’m confident in the ability of the guys we have on the roster. I’m confident in our coaching staff. I’m confident in Kevin Johnson, the trainer, and all the people we have in place to help us make this thing go. Most importantly, we got the best fans in the world, and they’re going to show up and show out for us. "There’s going to be a parade. I promise you that."
Allen Iverson is making a championship prediction for Philadelphia 76ers fans. The Sixers legend says he knows the team will win the NBA Finals with LeBron James, predicting the city will celebrate with a parade. "I know. I know for a fact it’s going to happen. It’s gonna end with a parade. I promise you that," Iverson said.
When asked whether he truly believes Philadelphia can reach the Finals with James, Iverson made it clear he was not merely offering wishful thinking. "Do I think? Do I think? I know. I know for a fact it’s going to happen," Iverson said. Asked whether he had shared that forecast directly with James, Iverson smiled: "I don’t need to tell him that. He knows that."
Iverson shared the prediction while meeting fans alongside current Sixers All-Star Tyrese Maxey at Dynasty Sports inside the Oxford Valley Mall in Langhorne. More than 1,000 fans packed the concourse, waiting in line for hours to take photos and collect autographs from the two franchise stars. Iverson, who led Philadelphia to the NBA Finals in 2001, spent extra time connecting with the crowd. "I inspire them and they inspire me. If I can make them happy," Iverson said. "This used to be me looking up to NBA legends like Michael Jordan."
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PAYTON PRITCHARD IS at the Celtics bench when he feels a tap on his shoulder. It's late April, and time is running out in Game 3 of the first round of the playoffs. Boston has padded its lead to 103-98 with just over a minute to go, and a win on the road in Philadelphia is in sight. That's what the Celtics usually do, after all: beat the Sixers in the playoffs, every time they've met in the postseason in the past 44 years. Pritchard has rained 3s tonight, five in all, to help with their latest effort, so who knows what kind of Philly-cooked hospitality awaits Pritchard right now. He turns to find a man even shorter than he is -- a rarity for Pritchard on NBA courts -- who is swathed in all black. Black leather jacket, black T-shirt, black baseball cap. It all provides a stark canvas for the man's necklace, a blinged-out Roman numeral III, that glints when it hits the arena lights just right, and -- "Oh, s---," Pritchard thinks. "That's ..." Allen Iverson looks at Pritchard, Pritchard remembers, and says: "You're the coldest white boy I've ever seen."
He is the NBA's unlikeliest iso king. And so it only makes sense that in the presence of Iverson, patron saint of undersized iso kings, Pritchard's most urgent thought is this: "That's AI." And his second-most urgent thought: "I gotta turn up. Now I gotta go crazy."
Allen Iverson: "If Michael Jordan is your GOAT, like Michael Jordan is your GOAT. If LeBron is your GOAT, that's your GOAT. You don't have to knock Mike down to big LeBron up and vice versa. Both of them are great. Shit, I mean, Steph Curry could be your goat. Shaq could be your GOAT. Kobe could be your GOAT. It is all right. It is all right for you to have your own opinion."
Allen Iverson: "I never heard a player disrespect other players like KG. B*tch *ss n*gga. You can't check me, b*tch ass white boy. I get this b*tch *ss white boy off me talking about Keith Van Horn. Bitch ass white boy. I was like, yo, like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know."
Allen Iverson: "My man got killed when I was in Philly. DC was there, whatever. That shit fucked me up. That's why all that, that's why I went crazy on that practice shit. So whatever. So I was fucked up for a while. I mean, obviously, for a while. We were on the road and this shit was fresh as hell. So I think I hadn't I hadn't I hadn't drank, you know, since then. You know what I mean? So in the club and drinking and I just on one. Just lost it, man. Just thinking about him. I just started crying like a motherfucker in the club. I just couldn't get, you know, and then, um, you know, all the people, I'm in the motherfucking club. Motherfuckers like, yo, AI in this motherfucker crying. The fuck is going on?"
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Lou Williams: What's that conversation like to yourself to just be real and be honest with yourself like let me to even entertain a conversation of going overseas as Allen Iverson? Allen Iverson: I think I realized even before going over there and while it was going on that I had committed professional suicide like I knew it, with the my decisions that I were making. I was kind of like not accepting the fact that I had to prove myself again. Because a lot of the teams they were talking about bringing me in, but they were already talking about me coming off the bench. They were already talking about it.
Lou Williams: What made you want to sober up and work on your sobriety? Allen Iverson: Evaluating myself, evaluating my life, evaluating where I was at that point. Evaluating myself in the sense of really thinking about the good it was doing and the bad it was doing. What good was it doing? And how much bad was it doing? The bad outweighed a lot. Not so much what it was doing to me physically, but more so my decision-making, being nonchalant about some things and not caring about certain things, letting things happen around me, my surroundings, and other people taking advantage of the fact that I was drinking the way I was. I just felt like my growth depended on it. My maturation depended on it. I was messing opportunities up, big opportunities. I wasn't serious about the most important things to me as far as getting better as a man. And that was interfering with me doing so.
Grant Williams on collecting NBA trading cards: "Allen Iverson, his market has just ballooned over the past year and a half, two years. So that was pretty cool. And then last but not least, I'm actually auctioning one of my two Allen Iverson cards in an auction here in the next couple weeks, which is exciting. I think I had a smaller Chuck Hayes card, which is kind of embarrassing to say. Listen, I love players that were my size and were playing in the league. So like Chuck Hayes, Draymond Green, Boris Diaw, those were like my favorite players growing up because they looked like me and gave me a chance."