Iverson laid groundwork for 76ers' current work ethic

	Allen Iverson, the original A.I., passed along his tenacity and play-through-pain mentality to the 76ers' current A.I., Andre Iguodala. Ron Hoskins/Getty Images
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The agonizing decision to trade Allen Iverson was like a surgery postponed for too long a time. The fear of undergoing it turned out to be worse than the operation itself.

Now that the 76ers have gone 19-20 since the December trade with Denver, now that Andre Iguodala is performing like a not-so-future All-Star, and now that virtually everyone on the roster is playing at a higher level around Andre Miller than they were around Iverson, a logical deduction is gaining traction in Philadelphia: That Iverson was a negative influence and his younger teammates would have been better off without him.

That's not how I'm looking at it. When Philadelphia was winning eight straight games through last week, I assumed that much the credit should go to one ghost in particular.

Iverson.

A lot of people focus -- rightly so -- on Iverson's outrageous refusal to practice hard and the bad example it set for his younger teammates. But that argument has lost much of its value now that those younger players are working hard and winning more than anyone imagined they could. If Iverson was the evil example he was made out to be, wouldn't they be playing selfishly and ignoring coach Maurice Cheeks?

What is happening instead is they're doing all of the little winning things that a lot of teams don't do anymore. Guess who forced them to learn those things?

Iverson.

He was such a Napoleonic presence on the court and in the lockerroom that everyone in his presence -- even Chris Webber -- was forced to become a role player. It turns out to be not such a bad thing after all. In too many NBA cities the young players are given roles of entitlement based on how high they were drafted or the team's (often disingenuous) ambition to rebuild with youth. But Iguodala had no choice but to learn the old-fashioned way. He wasn't going to get a lot of shots playing alongside the more celebrated A.I., so to earn his minutes Iguodala had to develop his less celebrated skills as a defender, playmaker and rebounder. The same goes for everybody else on that team.

"It laid the foundation for hard work, being scrappy and doing the little things right,'' Iguodala says of his two full years with Iverson. "Right now I'm scoring the ball, but I'm still focused on the small things -- on defensively diving after balls and just understanding what it takes to be a role player. When the rookies come in, now I can say I experienced the same thing and I can give them some advice.''

Over his last 17 games Iguodala has averaged 21.8 points (to go with 7.1 assists and 6.8 rebounds), which begs the question of how he developed his scoring skills while playing alongside Iverson. The supposition Iverson was an entirely harmful influence cannot be supported by the current facts.

I would argue instead the 76ers benefited from watching how tirelessly Iverson tried at the offensive end. Nobody in the league works harder or absorbs more punishment for creating his own shot.

Not only did they see firsthand how difficult it is to be a scorer in the league, but his teammates also realized if they ever wanted to earn shots alongside Iverson, they'd have to prove they were capable. When they worked on their moves over the summer, they weren't trying to meet the typical NBA standard. They were trying to rise to the standard set by Iverson, which is the highest bar in the league.