Anti-Iverson

An excerpt from Daily News Sixers beat writer Phil Jasner's post on Allen Iverson's situation. This was originally published on our Sixers blog at go.philly.com/sixerville.

The messages filtered in for most of the summer, sometimes several a week. The basic premise was generally the same: If the 76ers were facing a transitional season, if they seemed to have a thin guard line, if they weren't going to win a whole lot of games, why not bring back Allen Iverson?

That troubled me, because I've always believed the basketball constituency in this area really understood and appreciated the game, especially backcourt players. But now there was a segment of fans who simply wanted a show. They weren't accepting that Lou Williams, Willie Green, Royal Ivey, rookie Jrue Holiday and, at times, Andre Iguodala could be sufficiently effective, even in new coach Eddie Jordan's pass-and-cut Princeton offense.

They might be right about that part, but - and I should have said this in Sixerville much earlier - they were wrong about bringing back Iverson.

He might turn up in Memphis, or possibly in Charlotte, and he might sell some tickets and create some marketing benefits in those markets, but there would be no reason for him to turn up as a reborn Sixer. The evidence shows in his post-Sixers career in Denver and Detroit: The Nuggets improved dramatically when they acquired Chauncey Billups in a trade for Iverson; the Pistons became so disenchanted with Iverson's rebellion against coming off the bench that they sent him home.

So, each time an e-mailer broached the subject of bringing him back to the Sixers, I patiently tried to explain: He's not the player he was during the Sixers' spectacular run to the NBA Finals in 2000-01. He insists on playing major minutes, and that would mean holding back the development of Williams and Holiday.

Iverson never has been one to make the players around him better. When word surfaced that Iverson could be joining the Bobcats, the Charlotte Observer's Rick Bonnell turned to former Sixers president/ general manager Billy King for perspective. Among other things, King said, "Allen never made the people around him better in the first place, because it's always about Allen."

That's not the type of player I would want mentoring my young guards.

I understand the deep loyalty of Iverson's fans. They sincerely love their guy. They miss the show. In a way, I do, too. He was a phenomenon, filling the arena the way no player ever had.The show, at some level, will go on, in Memphis or Charlotte or somewhere.

But not here. That time has come and gone.