Is A.I. going to retire?

[Kanyewest]

I know you're joking, but to address your argument: the difference between Iverson and Jamison is that nobody considers Jamison a first-option superstar and hall-of-famer. If you talked to any casual NBA fan 5 years ago, they would have placed Iverson among the top 5 players in the game, top 10 at worst. Nobody ever considered Jamison in the top 20 or even top 30.

I don't think Iverson was considered a top 5 player in the NBA unless that fan could only name a few guys in the NBA in any given season. Maybe casual fans or people who didn't follow basketball considered Allen Iverson a top 5 player because of his marketing.

But if we're going by exactly 5 years ago; Iverson certainly wasn't a consensus top 5 player by a common NBA fan.

1. Shaq
2. Duncan
3. Jason Kidd
4. Kevin Garnett
5. Kobe Bryant
6. Dirk Nowitzki

But yes you could make the case he was a top 10 player, especially since his competition was Chris Webber who had major knee surgery, an up and coming Jermaine O'Neal, T-Mac and Vince Carter who each led their teams to abysmal records, and Paul Pierce, who led his team to the playoffs despite his team having a sub-500 record. And you had the 2004 Detroit Pistons team which no one could really decide who was the best player on that team. Let me know if I'm forgetting someone because in my mind he was still a top 10 player in the offseason of 2004.

Sure guys like LeBron James and Dwayne Wade eventually passed Allen Iverson. But that doesn't mean that these guys were better players 5 years ago. Guys like James and Wade have aged and developed. Allen Iverson in 5 years has aged and decline. This isn't shocking to anyone considering Iverson is in his 30s and it certainly doesn't make Allen Iverson overrated.

[sfam]

Iverson is not gonna retire. He's going to do just fine starting on a worthless team with little chance of making the playoffs. Everyone needs some way to get butts in the seats - Iverson can at least score lots of points, make cool plays and potentially get in a discussion for another All-Star game. Said another way, he's perfect for the Ole' Bullets strategy of bringing in exciting has-beens to fill some seats.

Iverson knows his purpose at this point and will happily comply.

[Severn Hoos]

I know you're joking, but to address your argument: the difference between Iverson and Jamison is that nobody considers Jamison a first-option superstar and hall-of-famer. If you talked to any casual NBA fan 5 years ago, they would have placed Iverson among the top 5 players in the game, top 10 at worst. Nobody ever considered Jamison in the top 20 or even top 30.

I don't think Iverson was considered a top 5 player in the NBA unless that fan could only name a few guys in the NBA in any given season. Maybe casual fans or people who didn't follow basketball considered Allen Iverson a top 5 player because of his marketing.

Sorry to do this, but four years ago, Iverson was a Top-5 player in the NBA, at least according to the MVP voters :

2004-05 MOST VALUABLE PLAYER AWARD VOTING RESULTS

Player, Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Pts
Steve Nash, Phoenix 65 54 7 1 0 1066
Shaquille O'Neal, Miami 58 61 3 3 1 1032
Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas 0 4 43 30 16 349
Tim Duncan, San Antonio 1 0 40 33 19 328
Allen Iverson, Philadelphia 2 4 20 23 23 240
LeBron James, Cleveland 0 0 7 11 25 93

In addition, he had the following Top 10 finishes:
1999 4th
2000 7th
2002 9th
2003 6th
2006 10th

And, um, won the award in 2000-01.

He was all-NBA 7 times in 8 years:

Named to the All-NBA 1st Team in 1998-99, 2000-01 and 2004-05.
Selected to the All-NBA 2nd Team in 1999-00, 2001-02 and 2002-03.
Named to the All-NBA 3rd Team in 2005-06.

If you want to argue that these awards are just glorified popularity contests, then I think you're making nate's point for him - Iverson is exactly the type of player that fans and sportswriters considered among the very best in the game. Which is why he is so overrated in reality.

[BYRDMAN RULZ]

Can you imagine a starting backcourt of Arenas and Iverson. We would get our behinds kicked, but it would be real exciting. Iverson probably would be a good 6th man coming off the bench for some teams, but unfortunately he does not want to play that role. Bring him in with the 2nd unit and let him fire away.

No way can you insert him into your starting lineup at this point without ruining the chemistry of your team. He should adopt a phrase used by the Rock when he was still wrestling "know your role". Words to live by.

[Kanyewest]

I know you're joking, but to address your argument: the difference between Iverson and Jamison is that nobody considers Jamison a first-option superstar and hall-of-famer. If you talked to any casual NBA fan 5 years ago, they would have placed Iverson among the top 5 players in the game, top 10 at worst. Nobody ever considered Jamison in the top 20 or even top 30.

I don't think Iverson was considered a top 5 player in the NBA unless that fan could only name a few guys in the NBA in any given season. Maybe casual fans or people who didn't follow basketball considered Allen Iverson a top 5 player because of his marketing.

Sorry to do this, but four years ago, Iverson was a Top-5 player in the NBA, at least according to the MVP voters :

2004-05 MOST VALUABLE PLAYER AWARD VOTING RESULTS

Player, Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Pts
Steve Nash, Phoenix 65 54 7 1 0 1066
Shaquille O'Neal, Miami 58 61 3 3 1 1032
Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas 0 4 43 30 16 349
Tim Duncan, San Antonio 1 0 40 33 19 328
Allen Iverson, Philadelphia 2 4 20 23 23 240
LeBron James, Cleveland 0 0 7 11 25 93

In addition, he had the following Top 10 finishes:
1999 4th
2000 7th
2002 9th
2003 6th
2006 10th

And, um, won the award in 2000-01.

He was all-NBA 7 times in 8 years:

Named to the All-NBA 1st Team in 1998-99, 2000-01 and 2004-05.
Selected to the All-NBA 2nd Team in 1999-00, 2001-02 and 2002-03.
Named to the All-NBA 3rd Team in 2005-06.

If you want to argue that these awards are just glorified popularity contests, then I think you're making nate's point for him - Iverson is exactly the type of player that fans and sportswriters considered among the very best in the game. Which is why he is so overrated in reality.

Who cares if you finish in the top 5 of MVP voting? Someone like Peja finished in the top 5 of MVP voting but the consensus is that he wasn't even the best player on his team.

Allen Iverson was a top 10 player for a stretch of his career. I'm simply stating that the he was considered him a top 5 player 5 years ago as Nate referenced when AI was in the 03-04 season.

4 years ago is a different year. Iverson certainly played like a top 5-10 player in the 04-05 season. You could argue that he shouldn't have gotten the all-NBA nod over Gilbert Arenas but AI didn't have as much talent around him so his stats were more impressive.

AI getting MVP votes had little do with him being a top 5-10 player but the fact that he had no all star talent around him. Teammates like "I can't jump anymore" Chris Webber, Samuel Dalembert, Kyle Korver, and a rookie Andre Iguodala doesn't sound like building blocks for greatness

Jason Kidd, who most considered a better player, missed a substantial amount of games due to a knee injury. Vince Carter stunk it up in Toronto before being traded to New Jersey. Even his resurgence in New Jersey had to be credited to Jason Kidd. Someone like Tracy McGrady played with Yao Ming and he wasn't going to get as many MVP votes and vice versa; and as we know they didn't get past the 1st round. Guys like Kobe, KG, and LeBron didn't even lead their teams to the playoffs. It was hard to tell if Dwayne Wade was actually that good or if Shaq was making him better.

Iverson had his most brilliant series in his playoff career in 04-05. The problem was that Iverson faced off against the defending champion Detroit Pistons. He scored 31 ppg rather efficiently with a 46 fg% and shot 40% from 3 against the best defense in the NBA which equated to a 56% TS%.

Yes Iverson had a better season than a lot of thsoe guys mentioned above. But if push came to shove, a normal NBA fans would have taken a KG, Kobe, LeBron, or someone else in the longterm to win a NBA championship. Because of Iverson's style of play which relied on athleticism and quickness, his window was closing. So Iverson fell off and is no longer a top 10 player. That doesn't mean that he's overrated. There wasn't a scenario where Orlando was going to give up Dwight Howard for Allen Iverson. Even a large contingent for Philly fans wanted AI to be traded because they knew by the time their core developed, AI would no longer be in his prime.

And no one really though that AI was someone who was going to build you a contender for a championship team. That's what makes AI and the 76ers run to the finals impressive. That's why Iverson's popularity is so high because he even had that amount of success. Despite a lack of playoff success for the rest of his career, that team was able the only team able to beat the Lakers in that postseason largely because Iverson was able to score 48 points in a game 1 thriller.

People liked rooting for AI because he was an underdog. A guy who might not even be 6 feet who can put in the basket. He's someone that puts non-NBA fans in the seats. But winning a title with him was a steep proposition.

[verbal8]

So the rumor is that AI is going to the Clippers. On one hand it makes sense to bring in a star to take some of the pressure off Blake Griffin. However with Baron Davis already there and Iverson wanting to start, how will that work out? There is no way you could play them both together(unless the rules change to use 2 basketballs at the same time) and they need PT for Eric Gordon.

I am sure things would be fine 20 games in to the season when Baron Davis hurts his finger nail or whatever injury it is this year. Although maybe this is a sign that Iverson has realized he is no longer a starter.