'I'm not going anywhere'

Iverson met with Brown to address trade speculation

Allen Iverson scored 31 in a losing effort in Friday's Game 5 against the Celtics. AP

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Allen Iverson wants to spend the rest of his career with the Philadelphia 76ers. Larry Brown will have the final say.

Tired of hearing rumors and unwilling to go through a summer of uncertainty, Iverson met with his coach on Tuesday, hoping to end the trade speculation.

"I'm not going nowhere and Larry Brown isn't going nowhere. He told me that," Iverson said at a hastily called news conference. "I let him know that I'm that pit bull in his yard and if anybody tries to intrude, I'm going to be the one that's going to bite and protect his home."

Last Saturday, a day after the defending Eastern Conference champions were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Boston Celtics, Brown made it clear Iverson could be on the trading block if he doesn't changes his ways.

"My problems with Allen have been the same for six years," Brown said. "I love him, his competitiveness. I'm proud of the way he tries in every game. The issues are things he has control over and he'll have a problem with me if he doesn't take care of it. He has to be at practice. He has to set an example. He knows that if he's willing to do that, he'll be a Sixer for life."

Video Click the image to launch the clip Allen Iverson thinks his play on the court is all that matters. Start Larry Brown thinks he can harness Iverson's talent. Start SI's Jack McCallum thinks Brown and the Sixers neeed Iverson to win a championship. Visit Video Plus CNNSI.com's Kevin Loughery There are about five players in the NBA who put people in the seats, and Allen Iverson is one of them. So it would be very difficult from an ownership standpoint to trade Iverson. People gravitate to him, especially kids. But as head coach, Larry Brown has to be frustrated with Iverson, because the Sixers play the opposite of the way he wants them to offensively. He wants the ball to be moved around, for the offense to be more structured. After all, he learned under Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina. As for the practice issue, Iverson is 100 percent wrong about that. If you're going to be a team leader, you have to do more than just lead on the court during games; you have to lead at practice and be on time. You have to set the tone, particularly in his case, as he's taking all the shots. For his teammates to allow him to do that, he has to follow the team rules and earn the respect of his teammates. Asking a guy to practice isn't a whole lot to ask, and all the really great players I've been around loved to practice, anyway. One of the two will not be there next year.

Iverson missed several practices this season, sometimes using lame excuses. More than once, he didn't show up to practice because he said his son, Deuce, was sick. He sat out practice the day before Game 3 against the Celtics because of a cold.

Though he led the league in scoring for the third time, Iverson often took bad shots, and didn't always get his teammates involved in the offense.

"If I can't practice, I can't practice. If I'm hurt, I'm hurt," he said. "It's not about that. It's easy to sum it up when you talk about practice. I'm supposed to be the franchise player and we're in here talking about practice. Not a game, we're talking about practice. How silly is that?

"I know I'm supposed to be there, I know I'm supposed to lead by example, I know that. I'm not shoving it aside. I know it's important, but we're talking about practice."

Told it's an issue because his coach made it one, an animated Iverson said, "It's strange to me, too. We're not talking about the game, the actual game when it matters. How can I make my teammates better by practicing? They are supposed to be used to playing with me anyway."

Iverson has been through this before. Two summers ago, the Sixers completed a three-team, multiple-player deal that would have sent Iverson to Detroit, but the trade fell apart because former 76er Matt Geiger refused to waive a trade kicker in his contract that would have given him a 15 percent raise.

Scorned by the rumors, Iverson vowed he would be a team player on the court and a leader off it. For the most part, he fulfilled his promise, won the MVP award last season and helped the Sixers reach the NBA Finals for the first time in 18 years, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers.

But he reverted to his old self this year.

"If I'm supposed to be the best in the world, why am I in here, why am I dealing with this?" said Iverson, who demanded the news conference continue when a team official tried to bring it to an end.

"I don't want to deal with this. This is where I want to be. I love this place. I love my teammates. I don't have no problems with Coach Brown at all. He has a problem with me about lifting, and I don't know what this thing is about practice because I haven't been missing practice. But I don't have a problem with this organization. I don't want to lose and then all summer go through this."

 

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