On May 7, 2002, Philadelphia 76ers legend Allen Iverson walked into a press conference room to address the media after the Sixers suffered a blowout Game 5 loss to the Boston Celtics that ended their season. What ensued was Iverson delivering one of the greatest rants in history.
The Answer then said the word “practice” over and over again when asked about whether he makes his teammates better by practicing. The rant then turned into a viral video and you can’t even bring up Iverson’s name without also the word “practice”.
In an interview with The Athletic’s Rich Hofmann, coach Larry Brown opened gave his thoughts on the whole “practice” rant:
I’m a coach. My thing is (when) I grew up, everybody comes to practice, you work hard, that’s where you get things accomplished. But at the end of the day, your admiration is when a guy goes out and lays it on the line every single day. Allen and I talk about this all the time. He made me a better person and a better coach. And you know, there are some ways I’ll look back and I needed to make some adjustments and realizing that, “Shoot, guys were playing the minutes he played and taking the pounding he took, that sometimes I should’ve been a little bit more sensitive probably to some of the veteran players.” At the end of the day, everywhere I’ve been, my guys have practiced. But he was a different bird. I coached him differently and I’m not ashamed of that.
Iverson and Brown had their moments of strife during their time in Philadelphia, but they also had a ton of success. The 6-foot guard from Georgetown expanded his game a bit and he led the Sixers to the NBA Finals in 2001. There are a lot of great moments in their history, everybody will be focused on this one rant, but Brown will always remember the heart he played with.
Brown told Hofmann:
He was a leader on the court every game. Nobody ever questioned Allen for trying to win a game and the admiration the coaches had for him in terms of how hard he played, how competitive he was, how tough he was. … He wanted to play 48 minutes a game. I always laugh now and I tease him when you hear these guys sitting out games to rest players. If I had ever tried that with Allen, I mean, I don’t know what would’ve happened.
That is why Iverson will always be remembered fondly by not only Sixers fans, but NBA fans in general. He gave it everything he had each and every night. [lawrence-related id=30585,30593,30578]