AI-Yi-Iverson!

AI is being traded, so they say. Eventually. Ya-freakin'-hoo!

It has always been hard for me to get Iverson. I mean, the guy is a warrior on the court, fearlessly throwing himself into groups of much bigger guys to score the basketball, flying with great quickness past even the best defenders, never afraid to take the big shot or go for the great pass. He steals more basketballs in a month that Eddy Curry would in two years. He is a hustler who gets results.

The downside has been his off-court woes. How is it Philly allowed him to get so out of control? If I was paying the man that much money, I would have fined him for every missed appearance and then begun benching him for a quarter, then a game, then suspending him for a game, for a week, until he got the idea. You always start tough and then back off. No one ever started tough with AI and he thought practices and team events were opportunities to show everyone how much bigger he was than the team and so it goes. He was a constant headache to management while being a treat to fans.

I really don't think it has anything to do with cornrows or tats or bling. This isn't about black and white, or gangsta versus suit. It's about responsibility to teammates that goes beyond just 94 feet of hardwood flooring.

Winning with Iverson is possible with the right parts in place. Philly never really had what they needed to surround him with a championship team. Hey, its hard to do or everyone would be doing it. The secret is having at least one more great player who is willing to share the spotlight, a top flight complementary player, a defensive stopper in the paint to cover for AI when he goes for a steal and misses or when he is being attacked by a bigger player, and decent defensive-minded, pick-setting bodies off the bench. Oh, and at least one good spot-up shooter available for the pass out to the corner when Allen drives to the middle and has no shot. Chris Webber of five years ago would have been the second star. Iggy is the complementary guy. Korver is the shooter. Dalembert is the shot-blocker. The decent role-players? Heck, guys like Ollie and Green just aren't good enough to fit that bill and Carney is a couple of years away. Randolph is hurt. This Sixer team is going nowhere.

But Iverson is going somewhere. Where? Lots of ideas out there including Golden State.

"One of the deals King was strongly considering is with Golden State, for point guard Baron Davis, center Andris Biedrins and a third unidentified player. In addition to Iverson, the Warriors would get backup center Steven Hunter. While a source close to one of the players involved called the deal "done," the Sixers remain quiet about where they will be sending Iverson."

Now if the 76'ers pull off that deal, they will be making one of the great historic trades ever. Biedrins has become AK-47 in platform sneakers with an upside like 1995 Microsoft stock. BDizzle is nearly as good as AI by himself, when he is actually healthy that is. The unnamed player has been rumored to be people like Troy "The Horse" Murphy or even Monta Ellis, who is something of an AI as a colt. Hunter isn't good enough to give Dalembert the boot. Surely Golden State isn't that stupid!

TWolvesblog sketches some possibilities here.

Boston has a lot of drooling fans that want to see AI come there. Philly probably doesn't want to let him land so close, however. Charlotte makes sense, but AI apparently says no way! Sacramento, the Clips, Denver, Dallas, the Bulls, the Magic...and the Wolves.

I say, let it be the Wolves! AI and KG would be some kind of Frank Miller version of MJ and Scottie, with Mike James in the role of Kerr/Paxson/Armstrong/Hodges and Eddie Griffin as the weird 90% angle away from Dennis Rodman. Philly would get Ricky Davis, Randy Foye, Troy Hudson and maybe Marko Jaric or something along those lines. They might have to bring a third team into the mix to even up contracts and come up with a draft choice. But it would make sense.

Garnett is great, but he is Pippen-great, the kind of guy who would be even better with another superstar around. He doesn't have to have the ball that much and really, really wants to win for a change. He is Kareem without a Magic or a Big O, he is Malone without Stockton. Give Kevin an AI, who wants to dominate the ball but will give it up to the big guy for the finish and the TWolves become relevant again!

I do come at all of this from a selfish standpoint, since I own Allen Iverson in two fantasy basketball leagues and I really count on his scoring and steals to help me win games. Heck, his assists are pretty good as well. But a line of zeroes just doesn't warm the old heart.

In an aside, didn't Philly's Billy King just totally blow this thing? It's like the Artest case, when Indy said they were dumping him and then the process went on and on and on and on....and on. Why didn't King just stifle and work to make a trade happen before announcing that Iverson was gonzo and even making sure his locker was cleaned out and the nameplate removed!!! It was like the 76'ers weren't just moving AI, they were having an exorcism!

Making it known that Iverson was gone took part of King's leverage away, so it is likely that he gets no better than 75 cents on the talent dollar in return at best. It had better be young talent, and he had better hope the lottery pick he has for next season is a good one, because Iverson was the best player in Philly since, well, since guys like Barkley played there. This is just another bad break for Philly fans. Oh well, at least CWebb might play in the fourth quarter now, mwuhahahahahahaha!