The Complete Compilation of Allen Iverson's Greatest Stories Told By NBA Players & Legends

welcome to a brand new episode of the complete collection series this is a series where we look at nba players from the past and the present and delve into their greatest stories if you are new to this series welcome there is a playlist down below and on the screen right now that has each episode in the series today we'll be looking at allen iverson's complete collection of stories as many of you guys down below in the comment section recommended i do next if you would like to be featured on the next episode comment down below which player you'd like to see next in this series that hasn't previously been done without further ado i won't keep you waiting the only thing that i would love if you could quickly do is tap that like button because it really does help these videos out to reach more people if you are new hit that subscribe button so you stay up to date with all the new videos on the channel and hit that notification button so you never miss an episode of this series without further ado welcome to the complete collection of allen iverson's greatest stories i know that allen iverson is not the prime king i know everybody don't like him i know his history has been you know well documented but we're talking basketball you all need to go back and look at the highlights my generation ai was much the same he'd always put you in jeopardy what were the players that you looked up to the most michael jordan allen iverson yeah michael jordan number one alan irvins number two low-key i've always wanted to be like alan you played against allen it was one of those things that he is he is the red bull little guy's not supposed to be doing that little guy's not supposed to be crossing up the greatest player ever to play the game twice and not go anywhere little guy's not supposed to come in and get knocked to the floor and still come back up yeah i don't think we should judge alan for the way that he wants to express himself i mean listen we're talking about practice not a game not a game not a game we're talking about practice practice practicing we're talking about practice we talk about practice you ready to go to practice when we get better bro practice not the game you talking about practice even dragons practice all right we talking about practice this is the honest that got triggered i i retired because allen iverson he came down and he did that that crossover thing and i tried it and then he laid it up and then he hit me on the butt running by and i knew it's time to go he had such incredible speed and such a quick first step to be that quick and his energy we hear words like one word descriptions of you i would say competitor who's on your short list of best competitors you've faced um michael jordan allen iverson are the two that come to mind immediately you know my generation ai was much the same i mean from opening tip to the end i mean this guy was just going and going and going and he'd always put you in jeopardy talk to us about your relationship with kobe and what it was like going to war with him over all these years he was just he really admired you bro yeah he was the ultimate he was the ultimate competitive man like you lucky alan hobson not six eight six six that's what he always that's what that man said are you lucky when i heard that it made me feel so good because the respect that that he he gave me it was like he know he drove me to to be as obsessive more obsessive about the game because i had to figure out how to solve that problem you know you know how killers respect killers you know what i mean and that's and that's what it was he knew who i was i know who he is he gave me that push i gave it to him i love the stories you know just for people to put me in the same sentence with code just just make me feel good about my grind my mom my family my teammates y'all my homeboys just it's a it's a tribute to y'all and uh and i told him i saw him here this weekend i said man you don't realize how much you push me and i don't think you know people nowadays realize how great you were as a player and uh you know how big of a problem you were for for defenses to put me in the same category as kobe bryant like that's so dope to me rick i remember my first year coaching in toronto i'm in this little restaurant i go to a quiet place in walks ai we got a sunday afternoon game 12 o'clock and ai's is hanging pretty good and it's early i'm like and i'm sending them drinks and i'm like hey i keep drinking up keep eating and he looks at me as he's drinking one of my drinks he's a coach it's not gonna work i love toronto i like to put a show on here and he commits to coming out and giving us about 49 the next day at 12 o'clock [Applause] in this building on draft night here's alvin's improvement just to go one on one with calderon now comes up on our crossover written [Applause] allen iverson chuck those numbers say it fall to me pound for pound one the most toughest competitors in the nba he knew he was gonna get hit knew he's gonna get beat but yet he kept getting up and he kept coming and so like grant said much dessert one of the toughest players ever in the history of this game for his size who was like the hardest player that like every year you're like yeah i gotta i gotta be ready for this guy like allen iverson i don't know because out be because you know i always always say like alan was that that he was like that white boy player in high school that played balls hard like sweating on your plate yeah but he was the the talent you know he was it was the talent you know so he was so you know he's playing 150 miles an hour the whole time like so you're gonna go from him getting a steal here to him saving the ball jumping four rolls into the to the what's the name somehow he got out of that and made a layup yeah like wait what like you know what i mean that was his hustles like you know if if you know a ball got knocked loose and you'd like jogging i was about to go out of bounds he sprinted to it died like he was one of those guys so when you played against allen it was one of those things that he is he is the red bull yeah you know what i mean so you know trying to stop him from scoring was a whole a whole issue on itself yeah because you know green light green like green light you know he had no conscience he's trying to score 50-60 but it's matching his energy was what people didn't understand you got to match his energy to even compete with the 60. right you know what i mean so it's one of those guys you got to pick them up you know 64 feet you got you got to do all that it's like it's because you know like on offense you got to try to get him time when you don't have the ball because you don't want him to rest because he's doing the same thing like it was just yeah you know it was it was it was like you're a rather guard to be honest you rather guard kobe really then alan why because with kobe he's going to go to his spots you know it's going to walk you down come on yeah you already know you're you're you know what's coming you're going to get someone who's trying to score 60. but there's there's different types of six this guy is he's a 60 headache yeah you know what i mean it's one of those 60 headaches where it's like it's just a non-stop coming like you know i know you know kobe got the ball every single time but it didn't actually feel like it yeah because it's like it went through offense you know went through offense he cut passed it back door this okay he came to this he looked around he didn't like it pass it repost it okay got some breaks yeah alan as soon as he got the ball it's he went to go try to score if he didn't he passed it got it back then tried to score he didn't like that he got it didn't try to score it was like god like you yeah so you're sitting here like yeah stop stop me real quick yeah and don't have on number three yeah if you had on number three he took it personal i'm going to zero in on a date we just celebrated the anniversary march 12 1997 your rookie year the team at this point of the season is 16 and 45. and you're playing the defending champion chicago bulls at what was then the first union center they were 54-8 coming in as a kid allen had bragged to his coach about taking mj and now he'd finally get his chance and at one point during the game you're isolated on michael jordan when i grabbed the ball i heard phil jackson yell michael that play that one i remember that play vividly um vividly because i always michael jordan was my hero everybody know that he was my favorite players my idol i'm like i literally wanted to be like mike i remember the first time i played against him and i've heard you say multiple times that when you saw him for the first time on the court it was like the chappelle show he had the aura you could literally see the aura around him like i literally seen his aura like like he it looked like he was it looked like he was going talk a little about allen iverson for a second first of all two-part question i want to know what you think of his game he had 32 points but nine turnovers and number two for a rookie does he talk a little too much on the court well i mean he's very confident and i i think i can understand where he's coming from he wants to be uh respected in this league and he certainly has the right skills it was mike it was my idol was my hero and i i got a i got a lot of flack from my teammates you know what i mean because they were like you know basically teasing me like you're not gonna play your game tonight huh because you playing against your guy you're not gonna come with it huh like nah you know what i mean so i was being this tough guy with them i used to always tell my family and my friends my teammates in college in high school said you know even my uh the guys on my team for 46's said if i get the greatest player to ever play the game on me i'm going to try my move on is he the quickest guy you've faced he's very quick i you know him as well as stardomer and i think those both of those guys are very very quick and as long as we come up with the win i can care less i remember i came off a screen or something and i heard phil jackson say his name mike called me the i gave him a little cross to see what he bite on it i let him set his feet and then i stepped it back again [Applause] [Music] and i gave him a little one and he went for it and i was like oh yeah i got his ass now here he was a rookie coming into the league going against the best player in the game probably the best player in the history of the game and it was sort of a statement play he comes in and goes at him they're switched off and he crosses him up twice hits a tough shot on him of course the bulls did win the game but it was sort of like you know introducing allen iverson to the basketball world i don't know if i can say it again but he was like mf you don't love me you wouldn't cross me like that so it was mike i mean the greatest game the great thing about it i never had to guard him because i wasn't stupid enough to switch on him after i saw what he did to mj you got a little guy little guy's not supposed to be doing that little guy's not supposed to be crossing up the greatest player ever to play the game twice and not go anywhere little guy's not supposed to come in and and get knocked to the floor and still come back up little guy's not not not supposed to do whatever he wants to do little guy's not supposed to be a three-time scoring champion so that that's why i think he had a bigger impact i think i think people can relate to him more because not a lot of guys that are 7-11 it's not a lot of guys that are 7-1 but it's a lot of guys that are six foot five nine five ten and one story i have we have a practice he's going hard as i don't know what the media has been on i'm kind of all this and he's just mad he's quiet he's not saying nothing i'm like oh yeah i feel something coming go to milwaukee it was the best game i've ever seen by a teammate in my life she gave them 60 something the ball doing this thing was he a difficult player to play with he only knows how to score he only knows how to go hard but i've never in my life never played with a player that played as hard as him on the court maybe bobby jackson doug christie other guys that play that's hard and so it's a lot of guys i know played this hard but i've never been with somebody played as hard as him and so when i see him going through all this you know i just i just hope that at the end of the day because all we talk about is basketball he's not president obama all we talking about is boop and if you look at him and what he did man you name me another guy with the heart he had every night he used to wear hockey pads you know the pads to go you guys probably want him too the pads go all the way around you i used to see him after games bruised banged up and his only thing was yo webb i got to go hard you know if they watch me this the first night this might be the first time anybody's ever come seeing me play it's just an honor to watch that guy play man i'm proud to say i played with justin kimbrough said on that night he had 54. 54. i put six on it this is the second consecutive year that we've been up here on this stage you've been nominated once again congratulations on that how do you feel about that i feel very excited until i saw that allen iverson was nominated this is the honest that got triggered i retired because alan iverson he came down and he did that that crossover thing and i tried to and then he laid it up and then he hit me on the butt running by and i knew it was time to go i know listen listen listen um i'll tell you a story when i was a rookie my first game um that i was a man literally destroyed me like i ain't never had nobody bust my ass before not for real in my life and i haven't i hadn't been killed like that before in my career in my lifetime and um we played the phoenix science and kj gave me 39.99 kevin johnson yes and it was it was not off athletic ability or nothing like that it was just he was just so much smarter than me he just knew how to play the game you know what i mean i was just a puppy yeah and um you know what you did to me and i i remember i remember maury's cheeks was our coach i remember mo cheeks telling me after the game i sat in the locker room i was crying and i was actually crying in my life i never got destroyed like that yeah you know cause i was crying that was that was a honestly i remember mo cheeks after the game telling me like you know don't worry about it a.i don't worry about it a.i one day you gonna get somebody 39 99 and uh somebody getting us on tape right i made him cry yeah that that that was that was the um that was the only time somebody destroyed me and uh i can remember i love lou williams and i always think about uh one day at practice i scored like 10 in a row on them get out did allen iverson post up did he post i'm asking you a question did he post up well then that's your fault then and uh mochi said uh and lose by the cry and mochi said man hold your head up don't cry he'd do that to everybody that wasn't the truth [Laughter] but the back story to that particular day we were giving him a hard time about practice um and he's he was like i'm doing you a favor by not practicing i take your self-esteem and i say oh you must don't know me that well and we began to go back and forth about him practicing he eventually went and got dressed and we battled it out and obviously he is in hall of famer he did get the best of me that day but i stood up for myself you know so i was proud of that but uh he had one of those those ai days in practice and he just did whatever he wanted to do with me so that was that's that's gonna be the first testimony about ai in practice talking about practice there you go not a game so there's a a very iconic quote that you said i thought it was lit you said the better you look the better you play and with that let's just talk about the legend that is the arm sleeve conspiracy theorists will say you used it to cover up tats other people say you had a little situation with your elbow and then you wore it for every game for the rest of your career how did this sleeve i used to be i used to um you ever played sports of course i play basketball okay so your right hand yeah so the right side of my body whenever i would fall or something i would fall on the strongest part of my body all the time so when i was in georgetown you fall all the time whatever and my friends used to tease me because i had a big burger sack on my arm and then uh i went and had surgery on it and it was still flaring up so i would have to get it drained before every game and when it all didn't come out they gave me it was it wasn't what people said now right it was just some cloth and it pushed it in you know what i mean so then they made one for me and i wore it and then my elbow got better but i got used to it right you know what i mean and then i was like okay let me just throw some styles with it so i started putting the spider webs on it in the olympics i put the usa right usa on it and then i just started doing stuff with it do you remember the first time you saw someone else wearing a sleeve ah all right i know i know the first time i know the first time that i couldn't believe corby did it i couldn't believe he did it but the first time i got excited about it is when i seen lebron with the headband lebron told the bleacher report i didn't want to be michael or magic i wanted to be alan iverson that's the guy that wanted to emulate me one year yeah he said it i didn't want when i seen it yes so when i seen it i was like oh my god that's dope and and it was cool for him to do it and paying homage to to me and he's i mean he's colossal right you know he's a colossal superstar you know what i mean and it was just it was just dope you know pound for pound probably one of the best players that we've seen and uh you know his heart you know could never be can never be judged what he was able to give to uh to this sixers franchise man and uh you know i think anybody anytime you bring alan iverson's name up they'll always think great things about him because his ability to play the game at a high level every night like all right some of these little dudes still you know respect you and respect what you made them think when they was creating their own game gary when i say allen iverson what do you think of a great score a great competitor he did a lot of things that people didn't understand he was there every night like i was you know and everybody's looking at him like this that because of his attitude and he hasn't played and he tried to get back in the nba but look at him as what he did when he was with the sixers he was a great competitor he went at everybody he was the scorer that it was he would never be another little man scorer like that ever in history i don't think of way he can play basketball gary what were the biggest challenges in guarding allen iverson my biggest challenge was to not let him cross me over and break my ankles for one you know and then plus you couldn't let him have both worlds him and tim hardaway wanted both worlds they wanted to break you down and go to the bucket and then plus shoot the jump shot and both of them could do that so when my thing was let me just keep him in front of me and hope that he doesn't make jump shots and would it contest it and let him beat me that way instead of beating me all the ways because when he penetrates on me he's breaking everything where do you put him in your top players to have to defend where is he where is he on that scale oh he's up there i i think he's got to be in my top five he has to be in my top five because he was the hardest player because he's so small and he was so quick and he can do both you know he can shoot and he can drive and he'll finish you know it was one game where he was killing us in philly he was killing like our guards and doc gave me that look like it's your assignment now the dude never stops running so i gotta score and i gotta slow him down i was so tired after the game i was the last one in the shower just like soaking and and trying to figure out why am i so tired from gardening chasing this dude all over the court but he was a joy to compete against i want to start off uh i want to throw this at kyle this is inaugural question every time who's the first person in the league to bust your ass what you do is like oh man this this the league is real uh this man to my right oh yeah this is good this is my my first year my second year in the league and i was just playing we was in memphis and i remember something happened and the referee i was like man what do you want me to do i say referee said man you know what he won the hardest mother eff as you the referee there is i said so what i'm supposed to do yeah stay out of his way i said how am i supposed to do that but uh you know showed me the ropes and um you know it was a lesson that i learned you know what i mean i i just i think for a guy his size he was the most intimidating player in the nba i mean you think about a guy six foot 160 pounds he was intimidating because physically he had a level of speed that nobody had ever seen you know about to kill a crossover but to see webb's point the athleticism and then the relentless attack mode that he was in because that was the thing that made him so tough because some guys you would play against rick you know like they're going to take 16 18 shots a game you know you're going to have an opportunity to defend them iverson go out and take 35 40 shots he was in attack mode the entire game and that just put a tremendous amount of pressure on five guys defensively wasn't just a point guard i just never seen anybody like him he's just fearless that's what i respect most about him he brought it night in and night out you talk about guys that had an attack mode like jordan and kobe that they're always compared he's on par with them in terms of his aggressive attack to to uh to the game uh you know he saw him tear up a little bit when he was talking about this here this year this was the nba finals 2001 2001 but you know he went out and single-handedly carried them to that first game win in that series and we fortunately came back and won that but but you know when i think ai he ranks up there man you know chris you're saying top five uh guards uh he definitely for pound for pound he reminds me of charles barkley but yeah yeah that's what he reminds me of position wise top five maybe a two guards point guards depending where you put them if you move pip reminded rick 48 in game one of yeah finals against the lakers only playoff loss that the lakers had that year yeah i wasn't we were all trying to guard him that night unbelievable yeah in the category of of missed opportunities and what if and living totally up to potential does allen iverson fit in there at all for any of you here no no i don't think so even he reached it to he missed he maxed out i don't think there's any any guard that size other than isaiah that's going to have that career i i don't think anyone i think a lot of the guards like ty lawson they thanking alan iverson thanking guys like isaiah to say you know what if i'm five ten five left or even six foot i can use my quickness if i got a jump shot use the pick and roll alan obviously said that he can get knocked down a hundred times he's getting right back up yeah but that's true i think he maxed out yeah i don't think i don't think he um you won't look at allen iverson and say he did not reach his potential i mean he was mvp of our league once mm-hmm you know four-time scoring champion yeah so i you know there's nothing if you if you get more out of that yeah unbelievable talent you know uh and an unbelievable culture impact yeah he made he made it he made your your appearance your demeanor your attitude that people thought were threatening not non-threatening right and realize that it no it's just a way of was that good i think so i really do i think i think overall you know he had his qualms you know things about he probably should have done better but in terms of a a breaking down of a wall and a barrier of uh stereotypes i think he changed some of that and i think that he made guys who wouldn't wear braids wear braids he might like i don't even know if tim i'm wearing braids too long now yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah it's too long but i'm saying like like it was a it was a stereo it was a profile and i think you know the way he dressed and what he did he kind of changed the whole culture and attitude and you had guys you know i think maybe tim duncan had some braids at one time you know what i mean so it's like it's kind of all he just changed your thought process in in a good regard in that way even though there were certain things he could have did better oh who's your point guard i gotta go with i'm gonna go with ai because he was fearless he was like like me my thing was any little guy that came in there i'm gonna touch him i'll burn him or touch him up and lay him down but he was the only one besides gary he was the only one that just kept coming back kept coming iverson putting the move on brian five flat shots for shaquille o'neal while in the midst of that sweeping hook changes by that was a pass iverson around bryant oh what a move by alan iverson [Applause] so i want to ask you guys in your career who did you not want to face the most ai was mine right now i i loved i loved it i didn't it's not that i didn't want to face them but knowing that it's going to be an uphill battle you know i always had tough time with little really fast guys and as you can see right there he got by me pretty easy bubba chuck but um he was just he was just fearless he was fearless i mean he never let up i mean he's a warrior um you couldn't bully him i could bully a lot of guys you couldn't bully him i mean ai was my guy for sure uh do you remember how many points you had in that game against iverson when he scored 60. no i don't he scored 60. i was you know we lost it was a tough loss so i don't remember you had 16. that's 16. yes 16. just just rubbing it a little bit more here greg yeah you know hey you know whenever they ask you a question like that they already know that you know the answer okay okay i appreciate that obama down in the tailpipe i wore number three because iverson he changed the whole culture of the game and you know one of my powerful pounds that's a player to ever play you know six foot 155 but the stuff he was doing was unheard of man unseen so you know i got a tremendous amount of respect for allen iverson he the way he changed the game just it was an honor just to be able to play against him um the two or three years he was in the league when i got in i really looked up to ai you know he was he had heart carried his team he scored he played d and he was small you know it would have been crazy i think that would have been the person that would have that probably would have made me be starstruck a little bit you know when i when i finally played against kobe with my first game and i was like that's kobe you know i was kind of tripping out about it but if ai was on the court i probably would have been like man this is this really ai in front of me in the nba that you like to watch and maybe emulate i used to watch a lot of highlights of times iverson you know i had the uh i guess conrose that's a point guard folks remember we used to play two and two yeah then i was just coming down and doing you know the crossovers acting like ozil breaks his ankles we're on cable to watch games so i used to go to uh internet cafe pay like a one dollar so i can watch for 30 minutes he meant everything to me you know i grew up in north carolina and i love michael jordan to death but i think allen iverson had the biggest influence on the game of basketball than anybody you know i don't even think it's close and a lot of kids and even guys in the nba tell you you know uh the the sleeves the guys wearing their arms now that's allen iverson you know some guys wear it as a fad now and stuff like that but that's allen iverson when i was a kid i wanted braids because of allen iverson you know i wear number three the way that i play because of allen iverson so uh it was tough to see him retire because you know he's he's ai but like i said um it's a few guys that i played against in the league i never forget the first time i played against him and he was one of them he's a icon around the world and he's powerful power one of the greatest ever played professional sports yeah has been doing it for years you know his crossovers his his toughness one game in philly he was just rocking the points up [Applause] for two how did he do that when i just you know found myself looking i'm like oh you know it's just this guy is unbelievable yeah michael jordan number one allen iverson is number two and uh obviously kobe is number three my top three favorite players of all time steph i noticed that you uh ditched the sleeve but what was kind of the decision behind that in jail about feeling better low-key i've always wanted to be like alan that was the only way i could really come close but it just wasn't feeling right just kind of split decisions just whatever um success reason don't really matter i heard was oh yeah oh you bad teammate you this you that you don't show up for practice you don't do this you don't do that and then i get there he's practicing every day cooking cooking i promise it was it was a couple days i ain't seeing him miss bro we go out we go to miami or go wherever l.a we kick it i go out and everything next day 45. yo you was with me right yeah you was dead you was dead and you had 45 today hey man that's my special power he changed the game you know he inspired a lot of young guys you know to want to play basketball and be who they are you know just never change for anybody and he's a great player it's fun to watch you know fun to play against and he's a great person he came in his style his way i ain't care what nobody say he bought style to the game with basketball he bought flair he bought you know the tattoos he bought the braves he bought you know god's feeling he made guys feel good about themselves on the basketball court gave god swag even right now to this day everybody wants to be hey even little kids i never really saw a play everybody wants to be a alan iverson used to say you know how hard it is to shoot 30 shots a game you know how much energy it takes to shoot 30 shots a game and it's true like a lot of us don't understand like to create that many shots takes a lot of energy and you know braun's doing that plus you know he's doing so many other things and i i don't think uh and he's appreciated enough for just how much energy he puts into every single game to do what he does it's just unbelievable every time i guard allen iverson i just get in foul trouble i was just like damn dude i want to guard my dog my hero foul hey i stayed up hey i had to tell you he had bro he had dribbled the ball run right into me and then you know i'm bigger than him so i'm gonna push him for sure wow too quick and i hope you guys enjoyed the video if you did please help me out by hitting that like button subscribe if you're new and hit that notification button so you never miss an episode i'll be sure to catch you guys in my next one i'm out peace

Channel: Nick Smith NBA

Views: 283,413

Rating: 4.9105854 out of 5

Keywords: Complete Compilation of Allen Iverson's Greatest Stories Told By NBA Players & Legends, allen iverson crosses michael jordan, iverson jordan story, allen iverson michael jordan story, allen iverson true story, allen iverson party stories, nba stories allen iverson, michael jordan stories from players, michael jordan stories kevin garnett, funny larry bird stories, crazy larry bird stories, nba compilation, nba compilation funny, nba collection stories, iverson best crossovers

Id: UH3OAy_Msxc

Length: 35min 15sec (2115 seconds)

Published: Mon May 10 2021