Over the past few weeks, I have been inundated with emails, phone calls, and interview requests to discuss my thoughts on my former teammate and good friend Allen Iverson. Most of the media and millions of Iverson fans were all wondering if this would be it for the future Hall of Fame guard. While it is true that Allen had made a preliminary announcement about walking away from the game, I was confident that he wasn’t quite done crossing over opponents in the NBA. Allen hadn’t played a lot of basketball this year due to injuries and the transition to Memphis, but I knew my running mate still had a lot of basketball left in those super-fast legs. He just needed a chance to find a team that would allow him to contribute in the maximum way his skills will allow. Believe it or not, there are many NBA teams that would rather lose and build for the future with younger talent than win with (and pay for) aging stars. That’s just the nature of our league which has been positioned more towards the future than perhaps the here-and-now.

Now that I am a member of the media, I get to review and share opinions about the league, its players, and the overall culture of the game. In this position, I am much more aware of the comments regarding Allen and the status of other players in the league than during my time as an active player.Trust me, I have either heard it all or read it all these past few weeks. There had been talk that “Allen has to come off of the bench if he wants to remain in the NBA”. I even hear people comment that Allen is “no longer a feature player and that he just has to lose his ego and accept a lesser role”. Still others comment that “Allen should move to the point guard position and leave the scoring to others” ( though his natural position and success has been at scoring guard position).

I recently accepted some radio interview requests to share my thoughts on Allen and his future. My relationship with him has always been different than most people who have had to view him from the position as an outsider. I don’t have to watch the news or read an online blog about Allen. I know many of his thoughts about the game and his abilities as a current player in this league. I know firsthand what Allen has done as player in this league and I know what Allen will do now that he has decided to remain in the NBA.