Allen Iverson
Allen Iverson
Allen Ezail Iversonis an American retired professional basketball player who played for 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association. He played both the shooting guard and point guard positions. Iverson was an eleven-time NBA All-Star, won the All-Star game MVP award in 2001 and 2005, and was the NBA's Most Valuable Playerin 2001...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth7 June 1975
CityHampton, VA
CountryUnited States of America
I think that as far as talent, we have enough to get over the hump. We are just not doing it. You can?t coach it, you can?t preach it. It is just something that players must be willing to do.
We don't have an identity as far as how we play on the defensive end. We might play well one night and on another night we won't play well. We always score the ball and average 100 points, so obviously our problem is in other areas. Until we take care of those problems, we're going to continue to struggle.
We don't have an identity as far as how we play on the defensive end. We always score, so it's obvious our problem is in other areas.
We just needed it, period. Just for our sake, not as far as what everyone else is talking about. Just as competitors we just needed a game. We're struggling so badly right now. Then to lose this one would have been really bad, because we played really well defensively.
It's all mostly effort when it comes to this game. Maybe some of the younger guys don't have that sense of urgency we obviously need to win basketball games. I think as far as talent we have enough to get over the hump.
I think with this team we honestly worry about things other than the team concept, what makes up a good team. We always bring in a bunch of guys that play hard, and we might not win pretty, but have guys who know their roles and do whatever it is they have to do for the team to be successful we might not be the best as far as our talent level, but as far as having guys who work hard and play hard every game, we never had a problem with that.
I think a lot of it has to do with the trade deadline being over. Guys are comfortable now that they?re going to be here.
just because you put a guy in a tuxedo, it doesn't mean he's a good guy.
Just getting back into the game and making it a game is all heart. It feels bad, though, because we don't give that effort in the beginning and then we start showing the heart when we're about to get blown out. You have to play like that in the beginning and get stronger as the game goes on.
Last night they kind of took me out of the game defensively and my teammates stepped up. Tonight was just a little different. I stepped up in the fourth quarter. We just need everyone to contribute.
Those guys had their playoffs shirts made up and wanted to wear them after the game. We didn't give them a chance to do that. We had extra incentive to beat them. Now, they have to wear them somewhere else.
We couldn't stop them. We got beat in every aspect of the game.
I think if Yao Ming was on my team, we'd probably have a 100 percent chance of winning an NBA championship.
I think I'm getting better as a basketball player.