Whoever thought Allen Iverson was lying about the Pistons lying to him was wrong. All season long, haters have been bashing A.I. and blaming him for the Pistons failed season. Some people that hate this guy for all the wrong reasons were saying he can no longer put up the legendary stats he has been putting up his whole career. Teams were afraid to make an offer to Iverson because of what the Pistons did to him.
A.I. was viewed as a team killer despite having a good two years with Denver and people were saying he lost a step despite putting up 26.4 ppg, 7.1 apg and 2.2 spg while shooting 46 percent and leading his Denver Nuggets team to 50 wins. It did not make sense to the smart basketball fans that know the game well and know A.I. well.
The Pistons wanted A.I. to sacrifice and he did just that. He took only 14 shots per game and played just 27 mpg. Iverson also said in his interview this past month that he was frustrated because he would sometimes touch the ball once every six possessions. I can imagine that being hard when you know you are better than every player on the court and are not just one of the greatest scorers ever but one of the greatest players to ever play the game.
Despite all that, the Pistons and made it seem like Iverson was selfish and played for himself and that is why the Pistons did not succeed. I still believe this team could have been much much better and maybe even made another Eastern Conference Finals if A.I. played the point and Rip played the 2-guard spot instead of trying to make Rodney Stuckey the star of the team.
Iverson stated last month that Curry lied to him and told him he would be the star of the team. Some people believed it and some did not but it was the truth. Rip Hamilton commented on what Iverson said and had the following to say.
"M.C. lied to us a million times," Hamilton said of Curry. "He sat me and A.I. down one time and was like, 'I'm going to lean on both of you the whole year, just don't go to the media. Say you'll do whatever for the team and blah blah blah.' This was a week before he brought me off the bench. He lied. So I feel for what Allen said."
He added: "I think the person that we had didn't know how to take advantage of (our roster). Instead of taking advantage of it, he killed it."
I still think the Pistons could have gone very far in the season and A.I. would have signed with them again, or with another contender with a go-to-guy role if Curry had used Iverson correctly and let him be himself, because when Iverson is asked to be himself the team wins. The Pistons could have head the deadliest back-court in the league with Rip Hamilton and Iverson and once they meshed this would be turn out a great situation. Instead Curry loses his job, Iverson's career is almost ruined and the Pistons are never going to be the same again.
One thing you can expect to see when Iverson fully recovers from injury and gets put into the starting line up in about two weeks he will try to prove a lot of people wrong and try making people forget about the dark season of 2008-09 and remind them of the previous 12 years of greatness.
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