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Originally posted by Minstrel!
This is a great point. Let's stop propogating the myth that Iverson "did it alone." That's showing tremendous disrespect to his teammates, who helped make the Sixers the best team in the East in 2000-2001.
Iverson was the best player on a team with other good parts.
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He did it as much alone as anybody else has in NBA history. Did you watch the playoffs that year? He was amazing. A couple 50 point games against Vince and the Raptors.
But for me the defining moment was game 6 against the Bucks with Philly down by 25 in the 4th quarter and AI single-handedly, yes single-handledly, almost brought them all the way back, just on sheer will power. Because of that they got the momentum to take game 7 otherwise it would have been Milwaukee vs. LA in the Finals.
And AI's performance in game 1 of the finals, the only game they won was one of the better performances in Finals history. His stepping over of Tyronn Lue in Overtime was one of the more iconic moments of the NBA finals that we've had since Jordan retired.
As far as Iverson being overrated. Yeah okay.
Just because he shoots a bad field goal percentage, that means that he is overrated. Let's not take one thing and blow it out of proportion or anything.
Iverson's poor shooting percentage is easily the most overrated statistic this side of Shaq's free throw shooting. It's not a reflection upon him being a terrible shooter, it's a reflection upon the fact that he has had to go for 40-50 for the Sixers to have a chance most games, so hot or not he takes impossible shots...usually with the shot clock going down, over defenders much taller than him...if you had the pleasure of watching him on the Olympic Qualifying team, then you would have a better apprecition, not just for him, but for all of the stars that supposedly can't shoot. These guys never miss open J's...well except for Jason Kidd...
If Iverson was playing on the Lakers or Spurs where Shaq or Duncan could get him better quality shots I think he'd shoot a much better percentage. But then you might complain that his scoring average was only about 25...so whatever.
It's easy to kick a man when he's down. Which is what a lot of people are doing with Iverson right now. He's not at the end of his career. The olympic qualifying, like many players before him, has really hurt his durability in the season(are there any players off that team who haven't been injured this year at this point? A lot of them have had knee problems too).