AI in the East w/ a bunch of nobodies = makes the Finals... Yet in the West w/ Melo..

[oarabbus]

Im amazed at times how terrible some of the arguments I read here are.

Iverson had 16, 45, 32, 33, 36, 54, 23, 30, and 52 in 9 games before dude arbitrarily starts listing them...

He drops 52 on 66% shooting....and that game is cut out. What...do you think we dont remember it happening?

He dropped 52 points...with only TWO FREE THROWS....in the playoffs. And it was only his second highest scoring game of the series. But you just happen to start counting when hes held under 25 points back to back for the first time in 6 months? He put up 35, 36, and 34ppg for a 3 month stretch of that year.

You show me 5 playoffs teams in the history of the NBA with a less offensively talented number 2, 3, and 4 scorer than Aaron Mckie, Dikembe Mutombo, and Eric Snow.

Really...

Think on it and get back to me. They may exist. But you arent gonna rattle them off without a lot of thinking.

How many people took a team to the playoffs with less scoring ability out of the second through fourth leading scorers?

Raja Bell(who played 5 games in 2001) aside there were only five 10ppg seasons left in the careers of his entire supporting cast.

And 2 of them were Eric Snow. Mckie had 1. Mutombo 1....Jumaine Jones the other.

Let me say again....

Eric Snow...quite possibly the worst shooter to ever play the position...is the leading post 2001 scorer of Iversons entire real supporting cast.

His 12ppg one year is easily ahead of the rest of that team....most of which were washed up already, never were good to begin with, had hustle but no scoring talent, or would be out of the league in moments.

And Snow had to play 38 minutes a game to get that 12.

The 2001 76ers were profoundly untalented on that side of the ball.

Iverson had to carry a load like few in the history of the game.

And it worked. Better than it should have.

And 15 years later a gang of keyboard analysts are acting like it was something to make fun of.

Larry Brown...Iversons HOF 50 years in the game legendary proponent of playing the right way coach...among the most respected basketball minds of all time.

Told him to keep shooting.

I have a game on tape where hes yelling at him "Be aggressive! Be aggressive! Dont stop...we need you!". I believe its vs the Pacers.

That team was built to keep games close, slow it down, get all the rebounds, and hope AI could score enough to win it for them.

But people in here talking about field goal percentage(and manipulating the data at that) while a guys own coach designed the offense and insisted he keep shooting....


What...hes supposed to be pleasing you?

Or is he supposed to help his team win games?

Anyone acting like he wasnt keeping that team in and winning them games regardless of what he shot is flat out...a ****ing idiot.

Or they were a child at the time.

There are no other options.

Iverson did what he had to do on a team that needed him to score more than arguably any great team has EVER needed its best player to score. And the other team knew they needed him.

Which is why everyone watching him do it was impressed and so many people years later reading box scores act like it was easy.

That guy looked fully prepared to rsk his life for every loose ball, every lazy cross court pass, every layup in traffic and got knocked down, broken, and bruised more than anyone ive ever seen and just kept getting up and handing out 35 in a close win.

I remember that game he missed vs the Bucks in the playoffs...I think im still emotionally fragile from the trauma of watching Eric snow out there trying to fill the void.

Could they win a game without him? Sure. Any 12 NBA players with a good coach could compete vs another nba team. I remember a particularly brutal game he missed when they beat us when we had Ron Mercer and Jamal Crawford. Granted we did win like 15 games that year...but they won...one of the most brutal to watch games of all time. Nothing like watching Marcus Fizer and Fred Hoiberg attack a good defense.

Anyway....the gulf between the respect Iverson had from all levels...fans to coaches...and what he gets on the internet now?

Shit is a travesty.

And it shows that a lot of people talking either dont remember the time or choose to rewrite history to support an opinion held by a small fraction of the basketball world.

Because flat out...credible basketball people...thought Allen Iverson was ****ing amazing.

Oh dear lawd Kblaze's murder of ArbitraryWater definitely needs to go into the ISH all time slays thread. I've rarely seen someone get dismantled so badly. While also making me respect a player much more.

[VIP2000]

And not that it doesn't still happen today, but GMs back then surrounded superstars with terrible, terrible supporting casts. Especially in the East. Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett and Tracy McGrady made the playoffs perennially with a bunch of nobodies. A team with Paul Pierce, Antoine Walker shooting 38% and a bunch of scrubs almost made the Finals.

[riseagainst]

also remember that Melo had to go through Kobe twice in the playoffs.