TOM's Talks | Allen Iverson (7/6 Day Pod Party)

He was the league's MVP in two thousand and one. He won the scoring championship four times, and on and on. It all led up to his twenty sixteenth induction into Manase Smith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Here now answers from the Answer Allan, thank you so much, A great pleasure to talk to you. How's it going, great man?

Thanks for adding You know sometimes that the players in the midst of his career, and particularly with your career and I kind of career one where you had so many awards and so many accomplishments, scoring championships, as they say, MVP, getting into the finals, all those things they say, I can't really take it in until I'm done. But now that you've been out of basketball and you consider the whole body of your basketball work, what do you think of?

What are you I'm sure you're proud of so much. What do you reflect back on? Um, how I did it, the people that helped um knowing, you know, looking back on it, and you see all the hardwood classics, and you know the different people that still come up to you and you know tell you about you know, what you did for their life and how you inspired them.

And different kids you never thought would know you are, um, you know, being that I played so long ago, then you had kids six and seven years old and just know who I am from YouTube and UM, you know, it's just it's just a great feeling then all the wars that I've been in, just knowing that, you know, I couldn't have done any of this without a lot of people, you know what I mean, Without my family, my friends, my teammates, coaching staffs, the medical guys, you

know what I mean, the fans. Just so many people help you accomplish, um, something as great as being a Hall of Fame basketball player, and you kind of just take your hat off to those people and salute them and honor them as much as you can. What do you miss more the competition or the camaraderie with the guys. A lot of people walk away from man. I missed

the bus to play in the locker room guys. Obviously you were one of the biggest competitors of all time, the guys, being around the guys, the different emotions after wins after losses, UM, I think that the losses were the best to me because you know, it brings everybody closer. You know, you you you you try um on the next shot to not have that feeling, you know what I mean when you lose. You know how pain for

losing is. But you know that's what make winning so great, you know, just having that feeling of disappointment and when you do, when you know, you kind of think about the pain that you felt, you know, when you lose.

So just being around the guys, being around the coaching staff and and learning and you know, like like you talked about before, UM, the accomplishments that I've had in my career, I just feel like, you know, the different coaches that I've had, should you know, be honored and feel good you know, to know that they helped me accomplish you know those things, those awards and and things like that. So you know, that's the best feeling as

the guys. Obviously the competition, but it's nothing better than being around the guys. Two huge influences in your career at Georgetown John Thompson and with the Sixers Larry Brown. What did coach Thompson? And obviously that was at a different point of your life, But how did he impact you? Um? He was He was so much of a protector for me, you know when I came in you know, everything that happened um in high school. You know, Um, there was

a lot of criticism. You know, I had it all throughout my career, but more so um coming to college, you know what I mean with a you know, um already with you know, people having a perception of me

that wasn't me. So I had to deal with that and he was able to um protect me in a way that no other person I think could and just uh, you know, letting me make my mistakes, you know what I mean, letting me grow as a basketball player, and and and and you know, trying to mold the talent that he had into you know, playing team basketball and and uh, you know, all of those lessons that he

gave me off of the basketball court. I think that was the most um special part of all relationship because he cared so much about you know, the person you know, and obviously that's it's like that a lot of times with college coaches, you know what I mean, they're grooming the kids to be men, you know what I mean. And I think he prepared me a lot for you know, things that even go on in my life at forty five years old, you know, and he taught me a

lot on the basketball or two. Um, obviously, you know when I got to the NBA, I hit the ground running, you know what I mean, A lot had to do with you know, what he put in my head about knowing how to play the game. Rookie of the Year, and you played for Johnny Davis. But then in your second year, as they say, Larry Brown came here and Larry Brown, you know, people can argue this letter, but he kind of like to reteach the game until you

played the right way. And how did he you know, and obviously there was some clashing there early on, but how did he eventually help make you a better NBA player. I think UM with coach Um, that's probably what I wouldn't even say probably, I think I think that would be the only regret that I had in my career is not Um taking his constructive criticism earlier, you know what I mean? Just being young and and and immature

and not knowing everything. Obviously I was a rong man and age, you know, but I wasn't mentally, and you know, he taught me so much of the mental part of the game, and uh, you know, I used to take it as criticism. I I you know, I didn't know how to take someone being on me as much as he did. But he was trying to do what he, ultimately UM was able to do, and that was getting me to buy in to what he was trying to do for me and the team, you know what I mean.

I just felt like about a took in that a little earlier, I would have been a lot better UM than I than I actually was. So you mentioned the personal accomplishments me with your team, But back to high school football and basketball championships at Bessel in, Virginia. Rank up their sixty point game, fifty four point game, But what about playoffs series, Like what what playoffs series stands out?

Is that the Milwaukee series have put you in the finals your first one with a victory over Orlando and I believe ninety nine the one in New Orleans. I don't know that you guys won one on the road other than against the Hornets with mash Burn and Davis, you had a huge shot in overtime. If I'm not mistaken. Of bank three, what playoffs series stands out is number one to you? That is a great question. That is a great question. M Indiana, you took it, took your

two times. It was when we be when we finally be Indiana. That was it for me. That's when I felt like um, as a team we had arrived. I didn't once we beat Indiana, I didn't feel like anybody could beat us like that was the roughest part of my career is dealing with them and then I think, um, they beat us the first game and the series that

we beat them, they beat them. You went out there to contest him and I just talked he and Aaron was saying that game to your point kind of galvanized you guys and all of your goals because that have been such an incredible season, forty six wins at the All Star break and on and on and on, the individual awards for yourself and Coach Brown and Aaron um and after that game, you're like, like, hey, whoa, let's get back to what we said and what our dreams

and aspirations are. After that first game, round won victory at the hands of Reggie Miller and the Pacers at the seven. That was it. That was it for me. That's when I finally, you know what I mean, That's when I felt like, you know, David, finally you know me good life. Like, that's when I knew that we had arrived. I knew that we were for real. Um when we when we beat those guys and uh, I mean, I just you know, I knew we could beat them.

I knew we could, but and we gave everything that we had, but we could never get over the hunt with those guys. And when we finally did, it was like it was definitely a monkey, a monkey off of all bat Man it was. It was. It was incredible. I'll never I'll never forget it. I'll never forget it. And that helped me um more, you know, with myself on and off the court as far as confidence, like, because it was it was, I would be lying if there wasn't a little doubt in my mind. Because it

kept happening over and over. It got to a point it was like, damn, can we can we do it? You know what I mean? And you know, you go out there and I know the effort that my guys gave night in and night out, and obviously, you know, I play every game like it's my last. So I was like, man, I mean, do we have enough? And

eventually we did? What about and I get into the part about Philadelphia and the love affair of the fans of Philadelphia have for you and then vice versa where you love playing in front of them, but so that too, and then like I remember a game of the Georgia Dome. The Hawks facility was being rebuilt, and we played at the Georgia Dome and Jordan and the Bulls had been there maybe the week before, but when you and the Sixers went there, I believe the figure was like seventy

thousand fans came to that game. The Hawks were good, really good, and yet you know it was obviously they came to see you and the sixers, ay, do you remember that and then be what does that feel like to be at the nexus of that type of entertainment where I think about being in a bubble where you're in the middle of that bubble, you're the show. First of all, I do remember that, and I remember all of the Atlantic as being like that for a while for years, you know what I mean. It was like

when they weren't too good. When we played there, it was sold out, you know what I mean, and you're going in obviously you see all of the stars and stuff. Um. I definitely remember that, and it's a it's a it's a confidence that you get as well, like a lot of people were shy away from stuff like that because you know, you know that everybody is coming to see you. From me, that amped me up even more, you know what I mean, because I knew what the agenda was to come into any gym and to leave out of

there would have win. Um. And I think one of the greatest feelings that I've ever had is being on a team where the guys that you played with and your coaching staff always knew that we had a chance because we got number three. That was the that's to me. That's my That was my best feeling ever as as being, you know, a teammate with the seventy sixes. That was the best feeling ever, you know what I mean for me.

But people coming to see you. You you you think that people a lot of time would fold because or or would have a bad game because all eyes would be on you. If I was totally different, like I was excited about the fact that people were coming to see me, and my whole thing was I want to give them what they paid for. You know what I mean. I want to I'm gonna go out here and put on a show you know that they wanted to see.

And I think that the part about me that I think was so special is I didn't care about how many shots that I made or if I had a thirty or forty or fit points. All I knew that I was gonna give the most maximum effort that you could give. I was gonna leave everything out there. I was gonna play every game like it was my last, and regardless of there was no nobody understands I was gonna do that anyway, for myself, for my teammates, for

my coaching staff, you know what I mean? I was gonna do that anyway, because you know it'll be a disrespect to the person that gave me the gift and as God, and you go out there and you know you don't want to disappoint him. So when you play hard after the game, man, you look yourself in the mirror and regardless if you over for Winfrey Fund and Field, you feel good about yourself because you know you gave

everything you had. So that was that was a fun part for me, knowing that people were comeing to see me. That was fun. Then, like I said, with the Philadelphia and everybody knows you're putting your hand up to the ear.

It's like a performer. It's like you know, the Rolling Stone still performing then their seventies, but or a comedian or somebody that owns the stage, and you get as an athlete, as a performer, you get the feedback right back and to be again to feel that love and even when you come back to games today and pa man Matt Court says, a six foot from try you can feel it building. There's not a lot of people ever on the planet that have felt that. That must

be a pretty cool feeling. No relationship like myself in Philadelphia fans, Like I said all the time, maybe you know Michael Jordan and did Chicago fans, maybe you know what I mean, But like we've fed off of each other, you know what I mean, Like when I was at home, we had homecoining advantage because I thought that they gave me I don't know how you can get somebody that. Damn they have played the whole game more energy, but they did, like they it was. It might be honestly undescribable,

you know what I mean. And you can probably acts different m Philly fans and they may give you a different answer of how they felt. You know what I mean, because I have all kinds of emotions running through me during the course of a big game or playoff game, you know what I mean. When I'm involved with with my fans, it's like, you know, honestly, like they're out in the court playing with me. You know. That's how our relationship was in a strange way, you know what

I mean. And a lot of times it's even hard for me to explain the relationship and how it got like that because it wasn't like that in the beginning.

It was it was the the support was there, but then eventually, I think a lot of the fans there understand me as being not just a basketball player, a professional basketball player, as a human being that bleed and cry just like them, and hurt just like them, and you know what I mean, like and go through things in life just like them, and they can just I guess they kind of concede that I'm human just like them. More of my conversation with Alan Iverson in a moment.

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chat with Alan Iverson. Alan, you were known as one of the toughest players ever pound for pound, and as you said, you got hurt, you felt down, and there were so many games where and I used to see a shuffle around the training room or whatever, or the locker room, but probably at your home where your wife is like, man, probably not tonight, honey, how are you going to do? Where you were going through the inventory of what hurt, and it was probably more than just

your elbow or this or that. Like how did you and I'm sure part of the fans you know, when you felt that juice when once you got there in that layup line or whatever, But how did you gear yourself up mentally to be physically prepared knowing you worked your one hundred percent best on any given night. It was it was it was all. It was all mental and all of the things that you spoke on, all

those things. It was the emotion of the fans and my teammates, like when you have a relationship with guys, and obviously if Alan Iverson is not playing, obviously we're shorthanded, you know what I mean. And I didn't want us to be shorthanded, you know what I mean? Like, like I discussed earlier with the fact that they had so much confidence in us winning and had a chance because I was out there, and then knowing that if I wasn't out there, the guys that I played with, they

were gonna give it all. They had to try to win anyway, you know what I mean. And I was just the type that I didn't know how it was going. Was like a lot of times they had to hide my uniform, you know what I mean, so I wouldn't try to play. And it had got to a point where like once I got to the arena and I was doubtful for a game, I'm like, oh, hell no,

I'm playing, you know what I mean. Once I look at those guys and they're sitting in the locker room, they're getting ready, and I walk in the training room and see guys, and no one would ever say you're going to night, You're going to night. They never put the pressure on me like that, you know what I mean. It was just like cav taking me up, man, you

know what I mean, And I'm gone. Man. Then you get that adrenaline and in your mind, in your mind, you know, you just not thinking about what's hurting, and you hit the roar of the crowd, and you know what I mean, you're looking at the guys that's in the foxhole with you and it's like, man, let's go. And then after the after effect that that when it's all over, and then all of that adrenaline goes down. Then that's when you feel it. That's that's when all

that pain come back. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I wouldn't do it different though. I don't know that I've ever gone here, but I certainly thought this in recent years. But I say to you and your teammates and your coaches, thank you because I got to go as the radio guy and a little tiny part of the ball club, you know, the franchise to the NBA Finals from two thousand and one. I got to watch

all those performances. I've gone to the Hall of Fame in Springfield twice when you got in and when Larry Brown got in, and so to be able to watch you compete, to take those right there, those two experiences, going to the finals, going to Springfield, being all around those players, the greats of the game, in history of the game. It was just a treat. And to that I say, I say thank you, like a heartfelt than

appreciate it. Thank you. Now. Last thing you've mentioned, and I think this is so refreshing that you're a fan just like the rest of us about this Sixers team that you've been excited and you are a huge Ben Simmons fan, knowing when he went through to be a number one pick and whatnot. And here we go with the restarted this season at the end of July, August, September, and you've said that for the Sixers group, this is the time that no more excuses, let's go. What do

you say about that? It's it's just um basically, us as the fans, you know, shouldn't have more confidence, with more confidence in them than they have in themselves. Like we shouldn't be the ones feeling like you know, because if they don't believe that, there's no way that we

should be feeling like this. But we understand and we know that they believe they can win it, and I think it's important for them to know that we're just not making a lot of noise that we believe, like we actually believe in them, you know what I mean. And I feel like if they don't win it with all the talent that they have, it will be a disappointment. We already know they can get to the playoffs. We

already know theydn't get to the second round. We know that, you know, what I mean, But that's not something that we feel in our hearts that they want and we definitely don't want it. We want to. I want to brag. I don't want you know what I mean. I want to. I want to brag to my friends and other guys that I played against that root for their squads, Like I wanted to all come together and I said, we

don't have no excuses because we don't. Like I love Bret Brown, I love that coaching staff, you know what I mean. I love guys that we have, you know what I mean. Like, I wouldn't be saying this honestly if I didn't think we didn't have the talent to do it. I know we do. Thank you so much. I wish you the best. Appreciate fine, all right, Thanks Ton, Thanks for listening to Tom's talks with me Tom McGinnis on the seventy six ers podcast Network. Check for new episodes every weekend