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Thats what I'm getting at. You easily forget AI because now you have cats like Wade, Rose, CP3, etc. All superstars in their own right, but all sons of Iverson's style. AI was the first post-Jordan sensation. The man was starting and captivating the league as a rookie in 96 when Kobe was riding the bench behind Eddie Jones. He and Kobe carried the league alone for a good while until T-Mac stepped his game up. In fact they still use the term "Iverson style player" in the NBA. Top 5 most influential ever.
Thats what I'm getting at. You easily forget AI because now you have cats like Wade, Rose, CP3, etc. All superstars in their own right, but all sons of Iverson's style. AI was the first post-Jordan sensation. The man was starting and captivating the league as a rookie in 96 when Kobe was riding the bench behind Eddie Jones. He and Kobe carried the league alone for a good while until T-Mac stepped his game up. In fact they still use the term "Iverson style player" in the NBA. Top 5 most influential ever.
If he would have won the NBA Finals back in 2001, the 76ers would have probably built him a statue. I don't put a lot a blame on him for the 2001 Finals lost because that was arguably the greatest Lakers team during the Shaq and Kobe era. They only had one loss in the entire playoffs that year. I don't even think the "2012-2013 Miami Heat" would've been able to beat the "2001 Lakers" in a 7 games series.
Thats what I'm getting at. You easily forget AI because now you have cats like Wade, Rose, CP3, etc. All superstars in their own right, but all sons of Iverson's style. AI was the first post-Jordan sensation. The man was starting and captivating the league as a rookie in 96 when Kobe was riding the bench behind Eddie Jones. He and Kobe carried the league alone for a good while until T-Mac stepped his game up. In fact they still use the term "Iverson style player" in the NBA. Top 5 most influential ever.
I agree with what you say - but can't put him ahead of those I mentioned.
I will go top 10 - but that's it.
Who would you move off of my list to make the top 5?
Roam respects that post, but when I said influential, I meant leaving a lasting impression on aspects of the game/league. I would take LBJ of that list.
What Magic did was new.. Fast paced, exciting, flashy style of play.
Dr J... Supreme Athletics - the pre cursor to Jordan
Jordan.. relentless will to win that could be felt through the TV. Unbefore seen feats and moves that defied the imagination.
Yes they are influential.
On a whole, what LBJ does is nothing new. He just does it much better than the people who influenced him, which are other tall ballhandling/slashing types like Magic Johnson and moreso, Tracy Mcgrady. When we start to see more mobile, well rounded big men in the vein of Lebron and Kevin Durant then we can say that he's leaving some sort of influence.
Being dominating and well rounded alone may make you an influential player in-game. But I'm talking over the long-run.
In my original post I said top 5 most influential players OVERALL. His influence comes from players like Isaiah Thomas, but he upped the ante. Before him you had guards like Gary Payton and Stockton, after him you have Derrick Rose, CP3, Rondo, etc. I don't think Gary Payton, much less Stockton could play defense on ANY of them.. I don't even know if Jordan In his prime would be able to guard them with the skills they posses in this day and that's what I meant by "upgrading the game after Jordan". Certain players come in and cause a paradigm shift. What Iverson did that was new was being barely 6 feet and able to either shake a whole team or fly into a whole team of 5 giants and score consistently.. and sometimes in the process, even dunk on people 4-5 inches taller than Lebron James. That was new.
You have to remember too, your man was the first one to come tatted and cornrowed up. The one before him was Rodman in 96. He was tatted up but he looked like a reject punkstar with the green hair and nose ring. No one followed that lead. When Iverson did it, it became law. Iverson came with the streetwear, it became law. When he used medical supplies as in-game fashion, it became law.. and is still going on to this day (the arm sleeve that half the NBA wears). Yes your boy Iverson started that.
If you know your hip hop, the best way to put it is like this..
Jordan took the NBA from the Run DMC times to Rakim Era and Iverson upgraded it from the Rakim Era to the Illmatic Nas era. The game is the process of being upgraded once again though.
We had definitely not seen too many players as small as Iverson be seemingly unstoppable on offense.
Too bad he never won a championship.
He was very stoppable.
If you pull up a box score, you can tell the winner of the game about 90% of the time by looking at the team with the lower FG%. It's the most highly correlated stat in basketball to winning games.
(Hint: Think Shaq)
He never even came CLOSE to winning a championship.
On top of that, he was GOD AWFUL in the playoffs in Denver where he tanked those teams bigtime.
I still remember his Olympic failure talking about trying to "take over games" which failed and then hearing later how he was out trying to party all the time while there.
Hey, I give Iverson HOF...but any talk of even top 50 all time....is crack pipe talking.
Meh. I watched a young Iverson do that to Jordan....next possession Jordan posted him for the easiest 2 points I'd ever seen.
Congrats Allen <golf clap> you can score 40% of the time vs. Jordan while he scores 60%.
Forever the problem with AI...shooting percentage.
He may not have been better than Jordan but Iverson was still one of the most influential players the NBA has ever seen. His style of play revolutionized the game very similar to how Micheal Jordan helped changed the game. Like Jordan, he gave it his all every game and carried his team year after year.
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