Allen Iverson

Allen Iverson
Allen Ezail Iversonis an American retired professional basketball player who played for 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association. He played both the shooting guard and point guard positions. Iverson was an eleven-time NBA All-Star, won the All-Star game MVP award in 2001 and 2005, and was the NBA's Most Valuable Playerin 2001...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth7 June 1975
CityHampton, VA
CountryUnited States of America
We couldn't put the ball in the basket.
We thought we had chances to get back into the game. We turned the ball over here and there, and they did what great teams do - they took advantage of it. When you are playing against a good team like (Detroit), you have to take advantage of the opportunities and you can't throw the ball away.
I was surprised that they just let me wind the clock down and take a shot. I told my teammates that I was going to wind it down. ... I was hoping if I did miss, the ball would bounce and the time would run out.
We moved the ball around today. Everybody did a great job playing off each other.
When you rebound the ball we're able to move the ball, and we want to get out and run, try to get guys some easy baskets. We don't want to come out and play a half-court game all the time.
It makes it that much easier for me, especially when he gets that attention on the post and people double him, and I get the entry pass. I get people running out at me, I can drive to the basket or hit that shot. And running the pick-and-roll, when guys try to take the ball out of my hands, all I do is make that one little pass at the free throw line. And when (Webber) is knocking it down, it?s tough for a team to stop us.
One of the things you have to learn is that you don't have to have the ball all the time to be effective.
We understand that we're going to get the ball into Tim and play off him.
We don't have an identity as far as how we play on the defensive end. We might play well one night and on another night we won't play well. We always score the ball and average 100 points, so obviously our problem is in other areas. Until we take care of those problems, we're going to continue to struggle.
All of it is bad. We just struggled so badly offensively. We just couldn't put the ball in the basket. They did a great job with Tracy (McGrady) struggling. Sloppy, we just didn't play well, just didn't take care of the ball.
I just got more aggressive. I didn't have the ball in my hands that much in the first half because I was playing the 2-guard. When they took John out of the game in the second half, I handled the ball more and I was able to make things happen for myself and my teammates.
I honestly thought as long as I got there before the ball went up, everything would be cool. I've been doing it that way my whole career and it never was a problem, even when coach (Larry) Brown was here.
I guess it's just having time to play with each other and learning each other, just finding out how he wants to play and vice versa. He told me coming into the season that he wasn't doing his job if I didn't average four or five more points than I had been, and he was right because I am. ... We work together. We find out what plays we want to run. When we call plays for him, he tells me things he can do to get me an easy basket. And when a play is called for me, I let him know, if they take certain things away from me, what I can get for him. So it's just having some chemistry, being together and having a coach that understands that both of us need the ball and understands how both of us want to play.
We just need everyone to contribute. We feel like this is a whole new season for us.