Reality Bites!!

Friday, November 27, 2009

Allen Iverson's retirement has Ray Allen feeling old!!!!!


BOSTON — Allen Iverson was born on June 7, 1975. On July 20 of the same year, Ray Allen was born. Iverson was the first pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, considered one of the landmark classes in the league's history. That class features three most valuable players, Iverson, Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant. With the fifth pick, Allen was selected.


The two were the biggest stars in the 2001 Eastern Conference Final, a series Iverson's Philadelphia 76ers pulled out in seven dramatic games over Allen's Milwaukee Bucks.

So, then, it is no surprise that Iverson's retirement is making Allen feel a little bit old.


"It's sad," Allen said after his Boston Celtics beat, fittingly, the 76ers last night. "Not only do I think about him, but then I think about my whole class, and all of the guys that are starting to fall off. Before you know it, it's a generation past. It's like everybody's taking off and heading off to greener pastures. And then they're looking back and they're looking at me still standing here.

"These days, when I see guys going, this is like gravy time for me."

Of the top 15 from that draft — that final pick is notable because it is where Nash was selected — eight, including Iverson, are now either retired or currently out of an NBA job.

Iverson, though, is different from the other seven. A distinct player if there ever was one, he came to define a culture at times. After three games in Memphis, he was gone. Now, unwilling to adapt to a role as a bench player, he is done - at least for now, and maybe forever.

"He had issues in Memphis. What are our other teams thinking? Are other teams going to reach out to him? That's hard to say," Allen said. "Overseas is looking very attractive. If he still feels like he has basketball left in him, overseas looks very attractive. I'm sure he could make a good sum of money going overseas and playing basketball. Whether it's it in for him in the NBA, I wouldn't think basketball is out of his blood yet because I feel great, and if he feels like I feel, then he still wants to play."

"I think he still has the heart," Celtics forward Paul Pierce added. "I still think he has so much left in the tank. It's hard to believe.

"And while Pierce talked, his teammate Kevin Garnett, drafted the year before Iverson and Allen, could only stare down at the podium, shaking his head!
Courtesy of the NationalPost

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