Allen Iverson’s Lasting Legacy In The NBA And His Spot In The Hall Of Fame

Allen Iverson’s lasting legacy in the NBA is greater than even we are willing to admit

There is so much to remember about Allen Iverson. The electrifying talent. The wildly entertaining interviews. The pound-for-pound skill. And of course, the crossover.

Playing in an era that featured possibly two of the top-10 players in NBA history in Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan, a wave of great, international talent, the incredibly likeable Shaquille O’Neal, and plenty of high-flying jam artists, Allen Iverson stole the spotlight. That’s without winning a championship and only coming close once.

The late 90s to early 2000s marked the transition between NBA royalty with the fading out of Michael Jordan and the crowning of Lebron James. Iverson helped keep the league front and center, whether he was “talking about practice” or dropping 50 on guys half-a-foot taller than him.

Now, the Hall beacons. Iverson is on a relatively short list of viable candidates for the 2016 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Unquestionably, Shaq is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Yao Ming will most likely get in with the international vote, while players like Tim Hardaway and Horace Grant will receive votes before ultimately falling short. That leaves us with Allen Iverson, the one guy who is somewhat, sort of a borderline first-balloter.

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Make no mistake, Iverson will be voted into the Hall of Fame in 2016. I’m not going to kid you with an 1,000-word column about the pros and cons of A.I. getting in before reaching the foreseeable prediction that he’ll hear his named called. These next five or six paragraphs are for those who still question his status. It’s for the purist who cringe that the guy who helped make cornrows cool, proudly spoke his mind, tatted his arms, recorded a hip-hop album and was about me before the team is getting into something as “sacred” as the NBA Hall of Fame.

Let’s start with the simple fact that Allen Iverson is one of the greatest scorers of all time. He’s seventh all-time with 26.6 points per game and led the league in buckets four times. And that’s with a strangely sub-par final five seasons. Had he aged well, The Answer would have been probably been among the top five in career points scored.

But a side-by-side comparison with the game’s elite truly squashes any inkling of doubt that Allen Iverson among the best. A.I averaged more than 30 points per game five times in his career. That is as many as Lebron James and Kobe Bryant combined (drops the mic and walks away). Imagine that Kevin Durant had been drafted in 1996, but put up the same exact stat line in each of his first nine seasons. In this hypothetical scenario, the Thunder great would only have two scoring titles, not four, because of Iverson. And until Stephen Curry came around, Iverson was the only player under 6’ 5” to win a scoring title. All of this, keep in mind, without a viable second option until he played in Denver. Jordan had Pippen, Kobe had Shaq, Durant has Westbrook while Iverson got double teams.

Defensively, Iverson was no push over. People remember the points, but forget the steals. He paced the league in swipes three straight years; 2001-04, while finishing second in 04-05. Not Chris Paul, Rajon Rondo, or anyone else has rolled out a stretch like that since. He was a ball hawk, combining with Dikembe Mutombo and Raja Bel to create a top five defense in 00-01 and 01-02. This while he was leading the league in scoring on a regular basis. The only other player to produce that amount of points and pick offs? In-his-prime M.J., that’s who.

While most kids saw tattoos, cornrows and that killer crossover, there were those on the playgrounds of Philly or the streets of Chicago that saw themselves

But Iverson’s legacy isn’t based in how many points he scored or how he wreaked havoc for opposing guards. It’s the way he rewrote the stylebook for small guards. Before Iverson, primary ball handlers avoided contact. They were table setters for their teammates, generating offense rather than being it. Even the score-first point guards, like Nate Archibald and Isiah Thomas, lived on jump shots and transition points. Rarely did they lower their shoulders, draw contact and get to the free throw. In that regard, Iverson was pioneer, the first little man to truly live among the trees while blending acrobatics and strength.

Iverson mastered the art of driving full speed into opposing defenses, lowering the shoulder and drawing contact. What has been called “the fullback” is the maybe the most reliable moves for guards. No longer do players like James Harden have to maneuver around big, post players. Now, they attack the chest of 7-footers, drawing contact and getting to free throw line. The NBA is, in part, point guard centric because of that move.

Which is why Iverson is a precursor to some of the most exciting players in the NBA. Without Iverson, we might not see a Derrick Rose, Kyrie Lowry or Damian Lilliard. These are all guys, 6’3’’ or shorter that are among the league leaders in attempts down low. He established a precedent, an expectation that guards would draw fouls and score at the free throw line. In a way, he leveled the playing field for guards. Before A.I., it was uncommon for a guard to aggressively try to draw fouls and live at the line. Last year, guards held four of the top ten spots in free-throw attempts per game.

Julius Erving inspired players like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant to go out on the driveway and imagine high flying slam dunks. His athleticism got basketball fans hooked on what we now know as one of the most enjoyable parts of the game. Similarly, Allen Iverson taught us to accept physicality. He taught us to accept deliberate, offensively induced contact. He taught us to accept point guards as playmakers and to think differently about where points should come from. Trendsetters and game changers like these are to be held in an exclusive class.

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Maybe most importantly, he taught talented, young athletes to be confident in themselves. He spoke candidly about his tough upbringing, unafraid to wear his emotions on his sleeve. Iverson avoided canned responses when speaking with the media. He was proud of his lifestyle, both good and bad. He was that tough kid on the playground, the runt of the litter who never backed down.

While most kids saw tattoos, cornrows and that killer crossover, there were those on the playgrounds of Philly or the streets of Chicago that saw themselves. They saw their dreams played out by someone like themselves; someone who grew up without a dad, did their best stay out of trouble hoping sports would be their ticket to bigger things. That was the legacy Iverson left and that is what he will represent when he enters the Hall.