Few players have changed the culture surrounding the game of basketball more than Allen Iverson. For basketball fans of a certain age, Iverson defined the sport.
What’s great about Iverson in his post-playing days is the way he celebrates today’s stars and appears to legitimate love hoops. Look no further than two posts that are going viral on Twitter today:
In one, Iverson daps up Giannis Antetokounmpo during All-Star Weekend festivities. Iverson calls Giannis a “killer” and Giannis responds by telling Iverson that he’s the reason he started playing the sport. For as much as Giannis may seem like an enemy to Sixers fans, it’s so pure watching two greats share a candid moment like this:
Then there’s Iverson laying hefty praise upon Ja Morant, who’s fresh off a 52-point performance for the Grizzlies last night. Iverson clearly thinks Morant has the makings of a future MVP one day:
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That’s how NBA legends should be. Don’t be a grouch. Don’t be a hater. Don’t be a bozo. Greatness should respect greatness. Embracing today’s game makes the sport overall healthier and bridges the generational gap for both players and fans.
Turn on the TV and NBA fans are surely going to see an ex-player just laying into a current player. Nothing is as good as things once were according to these people. They’re angry as the height of their playing days fades away and they’re bitter someone else has risen into the basketball community’s consciousness.
It goes beyond basketball and is the embodiment of society overall. The revolutionary figures come, take a given scene by storm and find themselves rising in power. They sit atop the throne for a bit and revel in it until their inevitable downfall comes and they are left as just a bit of history from the past. Nothing lasts and there will always be someone grinding their hardest to replace them in the limelight.
The Charles Barkley that was going coast-to-coast for thunderous slams for the Sixers in the ‘80s and throwing people through bar windows is now a curmudgeon on Inside the NBA, another vestige of a bygone NBA era left spewing “back in my day…” cliches.
Is it based in fear? Are the greatest of yesteryear terrified that current and future fans will forget their accomplishments and only live in the moment? This isn’t a situation analogous to, say, George Mikan winning the 1949 scoring title. There are an endless amount of YouTube videos of Tracy McGrady throwing down vicious dunks and hitting daggers and Shaquille O’Neal embarrassing any big man who dared to get in his way. A basketball fan of any age can find clips of Reggie Miller’s iconic “eight points in nine seconds” performance at Madison Square Garden. Seeing those players work as analysts now, it’s not that farfetched to wonder if they even enjoy watching basketball.
I’d say this cycle of hating is having the inverse effect. As someone born in the mid-1990s, my love of the NBA blossomed at the turn of the century. I fell in love with the game, as did tons of people across the Delaware Valley, watching Iverson. No one in the world seemed as physically imposing as Shaq did at that time. I was rocking a McGrady Orlando Magic jersey on the regular. Those are my goats, but seeing guys like Shaq and McGrady just have little respect for where the game is at today is so unnerving.
I love every generation of basketball.
As I reached high school and college, a whole new wave of superstars captivated me. Miami-era LeBron James remains the best player I’ve ever watched (I’m too young for Michael Jordan’s Chicago days). No one got hotter on the court than the tandem of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. I had never seen a young trio in any sport akin to what the Thunder had in Kevin Durant, James Harden and Russell Westbrook. It felt like Blake Griffin was on the cusp of breaking a backboard every game.
Nothing those dudes accomplished did anything to lessen the impact the Iversons and Shaqs of my youth had on my basketball fandom.
I now watch Morant take his first steps to conquering the basketball world. Morant might be the most entertaining player in the league at the moment and that does absolutely zero to diminish any of the iconic performances Iverson had. If anything, I appreciate the way Iverson’s play revolutionized lead guard scorers and see the traces of that in the DNA of Morant’s game.
Iverson is doing it right. I’m at the age where the latest slate of NBA stars are even younger than me. They might have the faintest memories of seeing Iverson hit circus shots or they might not have ever seen him play live. What they do see is the respect Iverson has had for LeBron, Chris Paul and now Giannis and Morant.
NBA stars are sick of getting wrecked on national television. I doubt they’ll ever tire of seeing Iverson prop them up though.
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