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
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.
I think it would have been good if we could have played all pre-season games together. It will be something we'll have to deal with, something we'll have to fight through.
I was like a kid in a candy store. It felt like the first game of the season because I was excited to be back.
I talked to him before the game, and I asked him why in some games he is not aggressive, and some games he is. He gave me an excuse, and I didn't buy it. Andre is not selfish at all, but he has to be selfish in that sense, to try and get shots up, because we need him to.
My shot felt good from the beginning of the game to the end.
It felt like it was the first game of the season. It was just fun to be back out there and be in the environment and playing with my team and trying to help.
When you get down like that, you use up so much energy to get back into the basketball game. Then you have to be perfect the rest of the way. And playing this game, there is no way you can be perfect, because this game is so hard.
We've got to come out the same way we come out in the second half, ... We've got to start the game with some sense of urgency. Once teams start hitting shots and get a read on us, it's gonna put our backs against the wall. That's something we need to be concerned about.
When you rebound the ball we're able to move the ball, and we want to get out and run, try to get guys some easy baskets. We don't want to come out and play a half-court game all the time.
We had our chance to get back in the game in the third quarter when Dirk went down but Jet (Terry) and Marquis picked up their games and we didn't.
This would have been a bad one to lose, man, because we did put our effort on defense. We did play one of the best defensive games that we played.
We just didn't finish the game off. We've been having that problem all season. Our problem is just stopping people and rebounding the basketball. Until we get that under control, we're going to continue to struggle through 2006 as well.
When we rebound the ball, we're able to do that. We don't want to come down and play a half-court game all the time.