HoopsHype.com Columns

Iverson playing at MVP level
by Marc Narducci / January 23, 2005

As the mid-point to the NBA season is nearing, there are many players who have surfaced as half-season MVP candidates. The player receiving the most mention, and deservedly so is Phoenix point guard Steve Nash, whose team struggled while he was recently sidelined.

Then there are the usual MVP suspects such as Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, along with some interesting new names such as LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

Somewhere out there an old candidate and not so young 29-year-old point guard, is getting very overlooked.

He's 76ers re-invented point guard Allen Iverson, somebody who usually isn't lacking in the publicity department. Yet when NBA mid-season MVP candidates are mentioned, Iverson's name isn't near the top of the list. And maybe that should change.

There is no doubt that a team's success plays a huge role in a player's MVP candidacy. When Iverson won the MVP award during the 2000-01 season, the Sixers went 56-26 and easily won the Atlantic Division. That season Iverson averaged 31 points per game, but he was playing on a veteran team, with the likes of Eric Snow, Aaron McKie, George Lynch and Dikembe Mutombo, a late-season pickup from the Atlanta Hawks.

This year Iverson is playing on a team that is much greener. Rookie swingman Andre Iguodala has started every game this season and second-year sharpshooter Kyle Korver recently re-entered the starting lineup. The starting center is Samuel Dalembert, in his third season of playing after missing the 2002-03 season due to injury.

This is a team that has shooting guards who have been reluctant to shoot. Iguodala, McKie, John Salmons and Willie Green have manned the position and none of them has been a consistent offensive threat, although the upside on Iguodala is indeed intriguing.

Which brings us back to Iverson. He is doing more, with less this season and even though the Sixers have been given the gift of competing in the watered-down Atlantic Division, they are still battling for a postseason berth.

And the main reason is Iverson. When the Sixers had a chance to be blown out of the Atlantic Division race by New Year – a tough feat for sure – it was Iverson who willed them back into playoff contention.

The Sixers were about to play eight consecutive road games, one in Indiana, before returning home for the holidays and then a seven-game trip out West that began Dec. 27 in Portland.

At the time they were 10-14 and looking very much like the lottery team they were a year ago. At that point, Iverson was already in the middle of one of his patented scoring sprees, that even by his standards was impressive. He scored 54 points in a 116-97 win at Milwaukee and then added 51 in a 103-101 home loss to Utah that preceded the road trip. Then he dropped 40 at Indiana in a 102-90 win over the Pacers on Dec. 22. He then totaled 62 points in road wins at Portland and Seattle, not always the easiest two venues to come away with a W.

Suddenly the Sixers were beginning to play with a swagger. They would finish that eight-game swing 5-3 and Iverson didn't play in the final game, an 89-84 loss at Minnesota due to an ankle injury.

In fact the Sixers are 0-2 without Iverson this season and no doubt would be deep into the lottery if he ever had a prolonged absence such as last year when he played in a career-low 48 games and the Sixers were 33-49.

Few players in the NBA mean more to his team than Iverson. He has returned to play point guard this season under first-year Sixers coach Jim O'Brien.

It's a position Iverson played during his first and part of his second NBA season before then-coach Larry Brown moved Iverson off the ball to the two-guard spot.

This year he has not only accepted the job of running the point, but has done everything O'Brien has asked of him. Many wondered how an old-school coach such as O'Brien and the flashy Iverson would jell, but that has been the least of the Sixers problems.

Iverson, well known for his previous aversion to practice, has been a model teammate and captain according to his coach.

"I have been extremely impressed with his consistency as a leader," O'Brien said.

In the past, the Sixers had strong leaders such as Snow and Iverson didn't have to take the reigns of leading the team. Now things are different. Maybe he realizes that it's at least the start of looking in the rearview mirror as far as his career goes, but Iverson appears to relish his role as elder statesman. He and San Antonio's Duncan were the captains of the Olympic team and he has taken a similar leadership role with the Sixers.

"I'm just trying to do everything the right way and have these guys follow somebody who is doing things positively," Iverson said.

No player is as beaten and battered as the 6-foot, 165-pound Iverson, who never shies away from contact and rarely escapes it either. There are still many days when he isn't able to practice because his body has taken such punishment in the games.

With averages of more than 28 points and nearly 42 minutes per game, Iverson is putting in full duty. He also averages more than seven assists. Did we mention that he is averaging more than two steals per game and still
possesses the quickest hands in the NBA?

His two knocks are his shooting percentage and turnovers. This year he is shooting slightly above 41 percent and averaging nearly four turnovers a game, but he is a high-risk, high-reward player, so the turnover total will always be high. As for the shooting, it's much better than last year, when he shot a career-low 38.7 percent.

As a point guard, Iverson is involving his teammates much more into the offense. And his value to the team can be measured by the fact that O'Brien played him the full 48 minutes twice within a three-game span last week. Not so coincidentally, the Sixers won both games, over Toronto and New Orleans. While O'Brien is conscious of monitoring Iverson's minutes, he realizes how difficult it is to pull him from a game.

"I don't like the way we look right now with Allen on the bench," O'Brien said after the Hornets win.

Nor should he.

There are few better competitors in all of pro sports than Iverson and just as few MVP candidates, at least for the first half of the NBA season.

Marc Narducci covers the NBA for the Philadelphia Inquirer and is a regular contributor to HoopsHype.com

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