Mike Finger: Iverson can remake legacy
Web Posted: 04/20/2007 10:41 PM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
A prolific scorer and one of the most gifted players of his generation, he toiled in the same city for more than a decade. He took his team as far as the NBA Finals, but had the misfortune of doing so when a dynasty from the other conference was at its peak.
So when he moved into his 30s and it looked like he might never win a ring, he pushed for a trade. Yet even after he was dealt in a midseason blockbuster and joined a lineup with another superstar, all the ballyhooed buddies could manage was the sixth seed in the conference.
Is this Allen Iverson in 2007?
Or Clyde Drexler in 1995?
The Spurs are familiar with both. They were victims when the Drexler-Hakeem Olajuwon Houston Rockets finally hit their stride in the postseason 12 years ago, dispatching the Spurs in the Western Conference finals on their way to a championship. Now, the Spurs can stop the Iverson-Carmelo Anthony Denver Nuggets from doing the same thing.
There are significant differences this time, most notably the presence of Tim Duncan and the absence of a “Dream Shake,” but the similarities aren’t just on paper. A veteran scout told the Denver Post this week that this year’s Nuggets, with Iverson and Anthony now apparently in rhythm, strike the same kind of fear as Drexler and Olajuwon did.
The Nuggets are still big underdogs, just as the Rockets were, and it doesn’t help that they’re matched against the first-round opponent least prone to first-round hiccups. After all, Denver entered the 2005 postseason as the league’s hottest team, and Sacramento did the same last year, and neither made it past their opening playoff series against the Spurs.
But this matchup is more intriguing than the others, and Iverson is the main reason for that. He’s 31, a year younger than Drexler was in 1995, and still close to his peak. His scoring numbers dropped when he left Philadelphia — he averaged 31.2 points per game before the trade and 24.8 after — but that was by choice. He’s still capable of putting up 40, and it wouldn’t be a shock to see him do it at least once in this series.
Anthony always has had trouble against Bruce Bowen, which makes him a lot like every other scorer in the league, and Marcus Camby hasn’t always enjoyed battling the Spurs’ big men inside. But with Iverson added to the mix, shouldn’t all of the other Nuggets benefit?
Iverson had better hope so, because his window for reaching another NBA Finals is only slightly more wide open than Joey Crawford’s. Iverson just eclipsed the 800-game barrier (regular season and playoffs combined), and guards tend to age rather quickly once they reach that point in their careers. If he hasn’t lost a step yet, he will soon, and the Western Conference doesn’t figure to become increasingly winnable any time soon.
That’s why Iverson has been talking about this postseason as his chance to win a championship, not just pull off an upset. Like George W. Bush and Tony Soprano, he’s getting to the point when a man realizes he’s running out of time, and starts to think about his legacy.
What will Iverson’s be? For now, it’s more than 20,000 points and the most entertaining repeated use of the word “practice” in the history of news conferences.
But legacies can change in a hurry, and it only takes 16 victories to do it. Drexler figured that out a dozen years ago.
And now, with his own All-Star cohort, his own sixth seed and his own long odds, Iverson has his chance.