Philadelphia 76ers legend Allen Iverson was certainly a handful. The guy led the league in scoring four times in his career as he could get a bucket in any way imaginable. He gave any opponent nightmares when he was switched on to him in any situation. He could hit them with the killer crossover and take him to the hoop, stick a jumper off the dribble, or take and make a tough shot. He was an MVP winner for a reason.
Former Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce was certainly scared to take on the challenge. He said on a recent episode of “The Jump” on ESPN that he had a lot of fear when he had to switch on to The Answer.
Pierce said:
I didn’t match up with him, but I knew I was in situations in pick-and-roll where I switched out on him. I’m not gonna lie, I was scared to death — I could play defense and all, but I knew I couldn’t slide my feet with Allen Iverson. Every night when you looked at the ‘SportsCenter’ highlights, he was crossing somebody up. All I know is when I switched on him, I was gonna give him that ole defense — I’m gonna let him do his move and I’m gonna let him go. Hopefully I can send him to the baseline because I was not trying to slide my feet with that guy. I didn’t want to end up on anyone’s ‘SportsCenter’ highlights. Period.
Iverson and Pierce had their battles, including the 2002 NBA Playoffs where Pierce and the Celtics prevailed 3-2, but Iverson certainly had his moments. Iverson averaged 30.0 points in the series and, as usual, had to do the heavy lifting for his team. Pierce averaged 30.2 points, but teammate Antoine Walker averaged 24.4 points to give him some help. That was the difference in most playoff series for Iverson and the Sixers. [lawrence-related id=31222,31215,31207]