Iverson sports the rows because he knows they make him different from the wack suits in Philly who pay $54 a ticket to watch him, knows they make him different from the writers who rip him. It's his I.D. in the Hip-Hop Nation, as he calls it. Ask Spike Lee what keeps America from embracing one of the most entertaining young players in the NBA, and Lee doesn't hesitate: "The braids."

photograph by Al Tielemans

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