There is a time in the NBA where all good things must come to an end and for the Philadelphia 76ers, that time came when they decided to trade away franchise icon Allen Iverson.
The Sixers had appeared to reach their ceiling when led by The Answer, and shortly into the 2006-07 season, they moved Iverson to the Denver Nuggets in a package that netted them Andre Miller. They struggled the rest of the season, but made the playoffs in 2008 and 2009.
As for Iverson’s preferred trade destinations, the Nuggets were one of those teams so he could team with Carmelo Anthony. Another was the Minnesota Timberwolves who still had Kevin Garnett. He wanted to team with the future Hall of Fame big man and try to win a title that way.
Former Sixers general manager Billy King joined Adrian Wojnarowski a while back on “The Vertical Pod” and he explained what happened (h/t to Bleacher Report):
He gave me some teams. Denver was one of them. The Clippers were one, I think. There was another one. Minnesota, to go play with KG.
Iverson and Anthony were a dynamic scoring duo out West, but they could never quite put it together as they were bounced from the playoffs in the first round in both 2007 and 2008 with a combined playoff record of 1-8. He was traded to the Detroit Pistons at the beginning of the 2008-09 campaign before finding his way back to Philadelphia in the 2009-10 season and retiring afterward.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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