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芝加哥公牛明天預計的正選陣容當中，大部份在NCAA大學時期的當家球星。Arizona有外有內的Lauri Markkanen（麥卡倫）, Duke封阻能力強的Wendell Carter Jr（卡達）, Providence防守活力十足的Kris Dunn（杜恩）, Villanova拿過總冠軍的Ryan Acidiacono(雅池戴高奴) 。
很多大學球員在執行戰術方面特別有耐性，其一原因是NCAA還未崇尚高速進攻，進攻時間30秒，是很講求陣地防守紀律性，和進攻組織的耐性。
明天對碰騎士總要找些焦點😄...
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你還記得、或說，你曾聽過MarShon Brooks這個名字嗎?
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而如果你不曾聽過的話，那麼或許前幾天灰熊的比賽中，你會訝異於這是哪來一個沒看過的傢伙突然被簽進來，而且一上場就連續瘋狂砍分。
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但假如你看看這支Brooks新秀賽季的影片，也許，你就不難理解這名已經29歲的浪人，為何他會有這樣的實力了。
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同時，也許你也會開始和我一樣有所疑惑------
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到底，為甚麼他會轉眼間就消失在NBA...
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新秀年被稱為「小Kobe」的MarShon Brooks，他在Providence大學打滿四年、從名不見經傳的路人一路爭氣的打到球隊主將，並且最終以亮眼的24分7籃板數據震撼NCAA，而後被2011年選秀中被紐澤西籃網選走。
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而比一般人幸運的是，Brooks一進入NBA，就立即在籃網獲得了證明自己的大量先發機會。
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那一年間，縱使還有很多缺點要修，但Brooks展現出以新秀來說非常不可思議的完整進攻技能包。
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中距離急停、翻身後仰跳投、後撤步跳投、中距離急停假晃後step through...光看以下這部影片就不難看見，Brooks的進攻技能中真的充滿著Kobe的影子。
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同時Brooks也並非不能傳球的球員，雖然距離主控者還很遙遠，但他確實能利用自身的得分威脅來進行切傳，傳球的視野、創意與準度也全數具足。
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且身體天賦上，6呎5吋的標準身高卻有7呎1吋的驚人臂展，搭配水準之上的38.5吋彈跳力，以及當屆數一數二的3.09秒衝刺跑速，還有優秀的身體協調性...
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這樣的身體條件再加上完整的技能包，又有誰能想得到Brooks數年之後，竟會淪落到現在這樣29歲才被坦隊相中而終於重返NBA ?
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當然啦，要發生這樣的事情往往理由很多，我想東扯西扯，要講得像Brooks真的不能打NBA一樣也絕對很簡單。
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但問題就是他怎麼看都應該有打NBA的實力。
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甚至可說是能在NBA發光發熱的實力。
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畢竟再怎麼批判他出手選擇、他球風上的各種問題等等，也依舊不會掩蓋住他仍有不少優點的事實。
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只能說，機運真的很重要。
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看看Donovan Mitchell這個Wade 2.0現在在爵士，從季初一路繳學費繳到現在 (大家還記得Mitchell季初命中率和投籃選擇有多慘嗎?) ，再看看Brooks這位Kobe 2.0...
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是不? 很多時候要挑缺點很簡單，但實際上永遠都不是一兩件缺點就說得清一名年輕球員為何殞落的。
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只能感嘆當年籃網炒短線、組巨頭的作為，最終不僅造成了數年後的今天他們仍在苦苦的還債，也間接毀滅了一名年輕新星的生涯...
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#MarShonBrooks #Nets #Grizzlies #GrindCity #小Kobe #技能包 #身體條件 #2011NBA選秀 #冷門球員 #機運問題 #NBA球員雜談
#從非天才
Kris Dunn。他不是天才。但他是最努力，也最符合現實人生的球員。
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Dunn高中屬於近年最弱的2012梯次，那年的全美第一是Nerlens Noel、第二是Shabazz Muhammad、第五是Kyle Anderson、第六則是Steven Adams。
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現在來看，那年高中籃壇最好的幾名球員，最終在NBA不是還在苦苦混口飯吃，就是成為綠葉球員，幾乎沒有產出那種能一手遮天的天才出現。
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而那年排在全美第二十三的Dunn，也是這樣的類型。
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他進入NCAA後在Providence的前兩年，幾乎就是一個路人甲。不是說球隊不重用他，而是他顯然還沒有能力繳出相對應的實績。
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儘管第二年只打四場就報銷，但場均打26.4分鐘的他，仍只留下3.8分31.6%命中率的數據。
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相比起來，遠在同梯的Noel、Bazz等人早早就棄學進入NBA打拼的同時，Dunn打拼的不是職籃的位置，而是大學球隊的位置。
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但他並沒有氣餒，而是更刻苦的訓練、更認分的善用體格優勢去學習防守...於是第三年滿血回歸的他，連續兩年拿下Big East聯盟的年度球員。
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最終，Dunn把自己的生涯從懸崖邊緣拉了回來、甚至逆勢而升，結果比起許多早棄學卻落到後段選秀的同梯，他在2016年以首輪第五順位獲選。
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很勵志，不是嗎?
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且在夏季聯盟中，他大殺四方的表現更是引起各方注意，讓他在該年慘淡的選秀中儼然就是亮眼的一顆星...
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...然後，他的新秀賽季結束了。
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第一年他在NBA留下的數據，是3.8分37.7%命中率。
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一瞬之間，Dunn又開始被許多人質疑是被過分炒作的大四選秀、是小年選秀下的水貨產物，認為他的極限只是板凳後衛。
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很勵志...真的嗎?
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Anyway，話又說回來，今早我跟了一下公牛打爵士的比賽。我原本是去看Donovan Mitchell的，但這場的Dunn讓我大為驚豔。
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老實說去年身為狼迷，我早就知道Dunn是個基本功很不錯的球員，他就像多數的大四選秀後衛一樣，不會躁進的帶球自殺攻擊，而是懂得保持運球、觀察防守。
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只是Dunn的投射手感、運用身體的能力，以及傳球的拿捏，一直都不算非常好，也讓他的經驗反而變成一種猶豫，最後在場上就成為甚麼都不能做的邊緣人。
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但今天Dunn與Robin Lopez的擋拆做得好極了，配上懂得跟著後衛節奏往內roll的Lopez，Dunn的傳球如魚得水，在第一節頻頻連線，讓爵士的銅牆鐵壁視為無物。
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且不只是給球的時機與準度，Dunn在中距離尋找機會的能力與出手的手感，也在第一年後逐漸展現進步。
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儘管今天他面臨了一個18投6中的低迷之夜，可是對手不能也不敢放他的中距離，於是讓Dunn傳出了8次助攻，並且最終他也連續砍進兩記關鍵中距離，把勝利給守護在自家主場。
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只是撇開今天這場比賽，綜觀數據，Dunn這季到底是否已經蛻變成一名可靠的得分手?...好吧，看起來似乎是還沒有。
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他的命中率依舊停留在42%左右，場均得分也一直在12分左右徘徊。
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但實際上，與其說是Dunn得分火力不夠，不如說是因為他更希望能融入隊友。他的場均出手僅12次，也因此在出手較少下命中率本來就比較容易起伏。
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且看到出手數據上，如果把各種投籃拆開來看，Dunn的兩分球Pull up其實有41.5%的高命中率，三分Catch & Shoot更達43.3%的水準。
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雖然Dunn在切入終結上，延展性與身體平衡性始終不是太好的他並沒有亮眼的表現 (這點和E.Mudiay問題挺類似)，不過你能說Dunn的進攻完全沒有進步嗎?
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老實講，我並不認同。
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從在灰狼時期完全隱形，到現在關鍵時刻總是能突然跳出來接管比賽，Dunn不是數據超人，但他實際賽場上的進步對我來說是很顯著的。
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且籃板與對球衝搶上，Dunn也始終沒有因為自己是高順位選秀，就遺忘大學時期兢兢業業的精神。
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不僅對球干擾2.6次在聯盟中排名前段，場均5個籃板也是後衛中的高標準 (雖然這部分Lopez堅實的卡位我相信也是原因之一)。
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因此，雖然至今我仍不覺得Dunn有機會成為一流的明星級球員，但我始終相信他會是最棒的綠葉。
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他願意拚防守、能夠妥善組織球隊、球風全能、在最後時刻他也樂意跳出來承擔責任。
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而在個人進攻方面，在Zach LaVine這台投籃機回來之前，Dunn也有大把的時間慢慢去摸索、去尋找自己在NBA的進攻節奏。
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在那之後，能夠穩定在中距離突破、吸引防守的Dunn，與能在三分線外無視任何防守投射的LaVine，將有機會成為一對充滿遐想的後場組合。
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更別說Dunn抄截後與LaVine的快攻空中作業，將很可能是未來幾年間芝加哥最令人興奮的景象之一。
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是的，Dunn一直都不是最有才華的球員。
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一路走來，他成長、受挫、茁壯，而後再受挫、再茁壯...這中間他所付出的，不僅是時間，更是無限的努力。
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而如今的他，儼然已經從幼小的狼，逐漸長成雄厚的猛牛。
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且往後，我們有理由相信他還會變得更加成熟、更加穩重、更加強大。
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屆時，也許他依舊不會是鎂光燈集聚的焦點，也許，人們始終會更在意空中飛翔的LaVine以及在外圍狂轟猛炸的Markkanen...
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但成熟的Dunn，勢必會是這支團隊中不可或缺的勝利要素。
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終其生涯Dunn可能都不會是統治性的得分好手、數據魔人。但我相信場均14-16分，搭配5籃板7助攻2抄截，也許會是他在巔峰時期穩定輸出的成績。
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不是最驚人的數據，甚至是低調到容易被忽視，但卻在每個小細節都與球隊的勝利息息相關。
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這，就是Kris Dunn。
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沒錯...他不是天才。但他是最努力，也最符合現實人生的球員。
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#KrisDunn #Bulls #WithUs #2016NBA選秀 #樂透新秀 #LotteryTalent #全能後衛 #急停跳投 #關鍵心臟 #潛力球員 #NBA數據分析 #NBA球員分析日誌
For those who were there at McDonough Gymnasium on August 4, 1994, few will forget the arrival of a 6-0 freshman guard who needed no introduction. The rumors of Allen Iverson's arrival to the Kenner Summer League were true, and by game's end, Iverson had scored 40 points. By the Sunday afternoon final, before an overflow crowd inside the gym and a crowd of those outside who could not get in, Iverson finished a combined 99 point effort in three days against some of the best collegiate talent in the city. This, of course, from a player that had not played organized basketball in over a year.
The Allen Iverson years had begun.
A brief profile can't do justice to tell the story of one of the greatest pure athletes ever to attend Georgetown, a man without peer in his talent over two years at the collegiate level. Just a year before his Kenner debut, few would have imagined Allen Iverson ever playing college basketball.
Iverson was not only a 31 point a game guard for Bethel HS, but a football player of tremendous skill. As a quarterback and defensive back his sophomore season, he produced nearly 1,600 yards offense and 13 INT's. By his junior year, he accounted for 2,204 yards, 21 touchdowns by rush or interception, and 14 touchdown passes. In a region which has produced NFL quarterbacks such as Michael Vick and Aaron Brooks, there are those who will still say "Bubbachuck" Iverson was better than both of them. Schools such as Arkansas, Kentucky, Duke, and three dozen other top programs across two sports were vying for perhaps the greatest two-sport star the Tidewater had ever produced.
When he led Bethel to the state title, someone asked what it was like to win the title. "I'm going to get one in basketball now," which he did. In late February, 1993, en route to the state title he had promised, Iverson was one of a large group of Bethel teammates at a Hampton bowling alley when a fight broke out between students from rival schools trading racial insults. Three people were hurt in the aftermath. Despite conflicting testimony from eyewitnesses and no clear evidence linking him to the crime, Iverson was one of four black students arrested.
Racial tensions were heightened when the prosecutors passed on a misdemeanor assault charge and charged Iverson with three counts of felony "maiming by mob", which carried a 20 year prison sentence. Despite video evidence which did not place Iverson in the crowd at the time of the fight, he was convicted in a racially charged case.
The 20 year sentence was later reduced to five, and Iverson was granted clemency by Gov. Douglas Wilder three months later, sending Iverson to a detention program at an alternative high school. (The original charges were thrown out by the Virginia court of appeals in 1995.)
In the spring of 1994, with Iverson still in detention, his mother approached John Thompson with a plea to help her son get to college and start a new chapter of his life. Though Thompson had passed on a number of troubled players in the past, he offered Iverson a scholarship in April of that season, contingent upon his completion of high school and his legal release, which was granted 48 hours before his Kenner debut.
By his debut in a Georgetown uniform in November 1994, Iverson had been the subject of intense national media attention. In the Hoyas' annual exhibition with Fort Hood, Iverson scored 36 points, five assists, and three steals in 23 minutes. Local columnists were in awe.
"Hang his number up in the rafters," wrote Tom Knott of the Washington Times. "He's better than most of the point guards in the NBA right now."
"I saw Lew Alcindor, Austin Carr, Moses Malone, Alonzo Mourning, Albert King, Ralph Sampson and Patrick Ewing play in high school," said the Post's Thomas Boswell. "Now, I have two memories on my first impression top shelf. The man who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Allen Iverson."
Iverson opened the 1994-95 season in Memphis, TN in a 97-79 loss to defending NCAA champion Arkansas, scoring 19 points. Six days later, he scored 31 in a nationally televised game with DePaul, followed by 30 four days later against Providence, leading the team in scoring 22 times that season. His only game under double figures for the season (and his career) was a game where he played only ten minutes in a loss at Villanova, a game Georgetown coach John Thompson threatened to forfeit when a group of Villanova students paraded through the Spectrum in black and white-striped prison garb, with a sign comparing Iverson to O.J. Simpson.
"You accept certain ribbing, but there is a line," Thompson said after the game. "I can condone any Christian university sitting and watching that happen...If that happens [again], I going to walk. It that simple." Such fan behavior was not seen thereafter.
Later in the season, with President Bill Clinton in attendance, Iverson scored 26 as the Hoyas routed Villanova, 77-52. He followed it up with 21 to beat Syracuse, 28 versus St. John's, 31 in a Big East tournament opener with Miami (a game that saw Iverson outscore the entire Hurricane team at the end of the first half), and 27 versus Connecticut in the semis. In the NCAA regional, he scored 24 in the loss, but held Jeff McInnis to 1 for 8 shooting. By season's end, Allen Iverson had been named Big East Player of the Week nine times, Rookie of the Year, a second team all-conference selection, and honorable mention All-America recipient. Having led the Hoyas in points and steals en route to the school's first NCAA regional appearance since 1989, Iverson was already a star. By 1996, he would become nothing less than a sensation.
The leaser of a talented team that featured four future NBA stars, Allen Iverson dominated the 1995-96 season as no Hoya has done before or since. Adept at the crossover dribble that became his NBA trademark, lightning quick to the basket, and able to score on opponents at will, Iverson was largely unstoppable. Even more impressive was an effort to improve his shooting touch, for despite averaging 20.4 points as a freshman in 1994-95 (2nd all time for a Georgetown rookie), Iverson only shot 39 percent from the field, 23 percent from three, and 19 percent from three in Big East play. For his sophomore season, his field shooting increased to 48 percent, his three point mark to 36 percent. The results were striking.
In the pre-season NIT versus Temple, Iverson shot 50 percent for 24 points and a career high 10 rebounds. After a 23 point effort against Georgia Tech, he scored a career high 40 against Arizona, one of two 40+ point games that season. In Big East play, Iverson could ring up points with ease, such as the game where he scored 21 points in only 20 minutes against Rutgers.
In the final three months of the season, Iverson led the team in 21 of the team's 25 games: 40 against Seton Hall, 39 against St. John's, 34 against Providence. He scored 30 in a wild win over Memphis, and followed it up two nights later with 26 in an upset of #3 Connecticut. For the game, Iverson totalled 26 points, 8 steals, and 6 assists, including a soaring dunk past Ray Allen and the Huskies. It was the highest ranked team any Georgetown team had defeated since 1988. His best performance of the season might have been a 37 point, 8 rebound, and three steal effort against #6 ranked Villanova, playing only 27 minutes. The 106-68 win represents the sixth largest margin of victory and the largest margin ever by a Georgetown team against a top 10 opponent.
Iverson was capable of an off game; unfortunately, two came at particularly inopportune times for the Hoyas' hopes for a national title. Entering the 1996 Big East Final with a #1 seed on the line, Iverson shot 4 for 15 and the Hoyas lost by one, 76-75. As a result of the loss, Georgetown was seeded #2 behind top ranked UMass, and in the regional final between the two teams Iverson struggled with a 6 for 21 effort in the loss. For the season, though, his statistics were astonishing: his 926 points broke the then-record by 124 points. He set new single season marks in field goals, field goal attempts, three pointers, three point attempts, steals, minutes, and scoring average (25.0), the latter of which ranked 7th in the nation that season. The Big East's defensive player of the year, he was named a consensus All-American amidst numerous other awards.
If he could somehow have stayed four years, Iverson undoubtedly would have shredded the Georgetown record books. But whatever hopes existed for Iverson to resist the lure of the NBA were short lived, particularly with the news that one of his sisters had fallen ill. Seeing the opportunity to take care of his family's medical needs, Iverson announced for the NBA draft soon after the end of his sophomore season, becoming the first Georgetown player in the Thompson era to do so. The compact that had bound so many great Hoya players to a four year commitment--from Ewing to Williams, Mourning to Mutombo--had now been broken.
The first pick in the 1996 NBA draft, Iverson signed a $3.9 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers and a ten year, $50 million deal with Reebok. His effort on the court is well known and respected, but for all the media portrayals of Iverson as the anti-hero, an icon of a "Hip Hop Nation" that ran counter to the NBA's carefully constructed marketing image, or as a symbol of all that is allegedly wrong in professional basketball, he remains remarkably well-grounded.
Married for six years and the father of two, Iverson is fiercely loyal to his teammates and to his childhood friends. He considered it an honor to play for the U.S. Olympic team in 2004 when other NBA stars passed on the offer, and maintains a number of charity events to benefit his local community. In comparison to his NBA career, his years at Georgetown were largely free of the intense media and personal scrutiny, providing at least two years where he could grow as a person as well as a basketball player.
His arrival and exit at Georgetown is still a source of debate in some circles, but his performance on the court is not. Allen Iverson found a home, even briefly, at the Hilltop, and remains one of its brightest stars. "In my heart, I know I'm a basketball player," Iverson said following his 2006 NBA trade, "being that I know I can play with the best of them."
From that first Kenner League game on 1994, no one has doubted it since.
For those who were there at McDonough Gymnasium on August 4, 1994, few will forget the arrival of a 6-0 freshman guard who needed no introduction. The rumors of Allen Iverson's arrival to the Kenner Summer League were true, and by game's end, Iverson had scored 40 points. By the Sunday afternoon final, before an overflow crowd inside the gym and a crowd of those outside who could not get in, Iverson finished a combined 99 point effort in three days against some of the best collegiate talent in the city. This, of course, from a player that had not played organized basketball in over a year.
The Allen Iverson years had begun.
A brief profile can't do justice to tell the story of one of the greatest pure athletes ever to attend Georgetown, a man without peer in his talent over two years at the collegiate level. Just a year before his Kenner debut, few would have imagined Allen Iverson ever playing college basketball.
Iverson was not only a 31 point a game guard for Bethel HS, but a football player of tremendous skill. As a quarterback and defensive back his sophomore season, he produced nearly 1,600 yards offense and 13 INT's. By his junior year, he accounted for 2,204 yards, 21 touchdowns by rush or interception, and 14 touchdown passes. In a region which has produced NFL quarterbacks such as Michael Vick and Aaron Brooks, there are those who will still say "Bubbachuck" Iverson was better than both of them. Schools such as Arkansas, Kentucky, Duke, and three dozen other top programs across two sports were vying for perhaps the greatest two-sport star the Tidewater had ever produced.
When he led Bethel to the state title, someone asked what it was like to win the title. "I'm going to get one in basketball now," which he did. In late February, 1993, en route to the state title he had promised, Iverson was one of a large group of Bethel teammates at a Hampton bowling alley when a fight broke out between students from rival schools trading racial insults. Three people were hurt in the aftermath. Despite conflicting testimony from eyewitnesses and no clear evidence linking him to the crime, Iverson was one of four black students arrested.
Racial tensions were heightened when the prosecutors passed on a misdemeanor assault charge and charged Iverson with three counts of felony "maiming by mob", which carried a 20 year prison sentence. Despite video evidence which did not place Iverson in the crowd at the time of the fight, he was convicted in a racially charged case.
The 20 year sentence was later reduced to five, and Iverson was granted clemency by Gov. Douglas Wilder three months later, sending Iverson to a detention program at an alternative high school. (The original charges were thrown out by the Virginia court of appeals in 1995.)
In the spring of 1994, with Iverson still in detention, his mother approached John Thompson with a plea to help her son get to college and start a new chapter of his life. Though Thompson had passed on a number of troubled players in the past, he offered Iverson a scholarship in April of that season, contingent upon his completion of high school and his legal release, which was granted 48 hours before his Kenner debut.
By his debut in a Georgetown uniform in November 1994, Iverson had been the subject of intense national media attention. In the Hoyas' annual exhibition with Fort Hood, Iverson scored 36 points, five assists, and three steals in 23 minutes. Local columnists were in awe.
"Hang his number up in the rafters," wrote Tom Knott of the Washington Times. "He's better than most of the point guards in the NBA right now."
"I saw Lew Alcindor, Austin Carr, Moses Malone, Alonzo Mourning, Albert King, Ralph Sampson and Patrick Ewing play in high school," said the Post's Thomas Boswell. "Now, I have two memories on my first impression top shelf. The man who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Allen Iverson."
Iverson opened the 1994-95 season in Memphis, TN in a 97-79 loss to defending NCAA champion Arkansas, scoring 19 points. Six days later, he scored 31 in a nationally televised game with DePaul, followed by 30 four days later against Providence, leading the team in scoring 22 times that season. His only game under double figures for the season (and his career) was a game where he played only ten minutes in a loss at Villanova, a game Georgetown coach John Thompson threatened to forfeit when a group of Villanova students paraded through the Spectrum in black and white-striped prison garb, with a sign comparing Iverson to O.J. Simpson.
"You accept certain ribbing, but there is a line," Thompson said after the game. "I can condone any Christian university sitting and watching that happen...If that happens [again], I going to walk. It that simple." Such fan behavior was not seen thereafter.
Later in the season, with President Bill Clinton in attendance, Iverson scored 26 as the Hoyas routed Villanova, 77-52. He followed it up with 21 to beat Syracuse, 28 versus St. John's, 31 in a Big East tournament opener with Miami (a game that saw Iverson outscore the entire Hurricane team at the end of the first half), and 27 versus Connecticut in the semis. In the NCAA regional, he scored 24 in the loss, but held Jeff McInnis to 1 for 8 shooting. By season's end, Allen Iverson had been named Big East Player of the Week nine times, Rookie of the Year, a second team all-conference selection, and honorable mention All-America recipient. Having led the Hoyas in points and steals en route to the school's first NCAA regional appearance since 1989, Iverson was already a star. By 1996, he would become nothing less than a sensation.
The leaser of a talented team that featured four future NBA stars, Allen Iverson dominated the 1995-96 season as no Hoya has done before or since. Adept at the crossover dribble that became his NBA trademark, lightning quick to the basket, and able to score on opponents at will, Iverson was largely unstoppable. Even more impressive was an effort to improve his shooting touch, for despite averaging 20.4 points as a freshman in 1994-95 (2nd all time for a Georgetown rookie), Iverson only shot 39 percent from the field, 23 percent from three, and 19 percent from three in Big East play. For his sophomore season, his field shooting increased to 48 percent, his three point mark to 36 percent. The results were striking.
In the pre-season NIT versus Temple, Iverson shot 50 percent for 24 points and a career high 10 rebounds. After a 23 point effort against Georgia Tech, he scored a career high 40 against Arizona, one of two 40+ point games that season. In Big East play, Iverson could ring up points with ease, such as the game where he scored 21 points in only 20 minutes against Rutgers.
In the final three months of the season, Iverson led the team in 21 of the team's 25 games: 40 against Seton Hall, 39 against St. John's, 34 against Providence. He scored 30 in a wild win over Memphis, and followed it up two nights later with 26 in an upset of #3 Connecticut. For the game, Iverson totalled 26 points, 8 steals, and 6 assists, including a soaring dunk past Ray Allen and the Huskies. It was the highest ranked team any Georgetown team had defeated since 1988. His best performance of the season might have been a 37 point, 8 rebound, and three steal effort against #6 ranked Villanova, playing only 27 minutes. The 106-68 win represents the sixth largest margin of victory and the largest margin ever by a Georgetown team against a top 10 opponent.
Iverson was capable of an off game; unfortunately, two came at particularly inopportune times for the Hoyas' hopes for a national title. Entering the 1996 Big East Final with a #1 seed on the line, Iverson shot 4 for 15 and the Hoyas lost by one, 76-75. As a result of the loss, Georgetown was seeded #2 behind top ranked UMass, and in the regional final between the two teams Iverson struggled with a 6 for 21 effort in the loss. For the season, though, his statistics were astonishing: his 926 points broke the then-record by 124 points. He set new single season marks in field goals, field goal attempts, three pointers, three point attempts, steals, minutes, and scoring average (25.0), the latter of which ranked 7th in the nation that season. The Big East's defensive player of the year, he was named a consensus All-American amidst numerous other awards.
If he could somehow have stayed four years, Iverson undoubtedly would have shredded the Georgetown record books. But whatever hopes existed for Iverson to resist the lure of the NBA were short lived, particularly with the news that one of his sisters had fallen ill. Seeing the opportunity to take care of his family's medical needs, Iverson announced for the NBA draft soon after the end of his sophomore season, becoming the first Georgetown player in the Thompson era to do so. The compact that had bound so many great Hoya players to a four year commitment--from Ewing to Williams, Mourning to Mutombo--had now been broken.
The first pick in the 1996 NBA draft, Iverson signed a $3.9 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers and a ten year, $50 million deal with Reebok. His effort on the court is well known and respected, but for all the media portrayals of Iverson as the anti-hero, an icon of a "Hip Hop Nation" that ran counter to the NBA's carefully constructed marketing image, or as a symbol of all that is allegedly wrong in professional basketball, he remains remarkably well-grounded.
Married for six years and the father of two, Iverson is fiercely loyal to his teammates and to his childhood friends. He considered it an honor to play for the U.S. Olympic team in 2004 when other NBA stars passed on the offer, and maintains a number of charity events to benefit his local community. In comparison to his NBA career, his years at Georgetown were largely free of the intense media and personal scrutiny, providing at least two years where he could grow as a person as well as a basketball player.
His arrival and exit at Georgetown is still a source of debate in some circles, but his performance on the court is not. Allen Iverson found a home, even briefly, at the Hilltop, and remains one of its brightest stars. "In my heart, I know I'm a basketball player," Iverson said following his 2006 NBA trade, "being that I know I can play with the best of them."
From that first Kenner League game on 1994, no one has doubted it since.
