SALUTING ALLEN IVERSONl AKA A.I. - AN ICON

They say life comes full circle and tonight Allen Iverson's return to where his NBA career began as a starter for the Philadelphia 76ers echoes that sentiment. However A.I.'s circle of life seems to have left many forgetting who he once was after a so so stint with the Nuggets, two failed attempts with the Pistons & Grizzlies and almost every NBA team including the lowly Knicks passing up on him. And with that said I just wanted to be one of the first to remind you that Allen Ezail Iverson aka A.I. aka Bubba Chuck aka The Answer aka Jewelz (his rap moniker) is An Icon to not only sports but to the culture of this Hip Hop generation. From being raised by a single mother in Newport News VA, convicted & spending 4 months in prison at 17 after wrongfully accused of hitting a white girl in the head with a chair during a race riot in a Virginia bowling alley brawl, having his conviction overturned for insufficient evidence with the help of former Georgetown Hoya coach John Thompson, becoming a Georgetown Hoya under coach John Thompson, being caught with a .40 cal in his Mercedes Benz s600 while attending Georgetown, becoming the first overall pick by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1996 NBA Draft, signing a $50 million dollar endorsement deal with Reebok as a rookie, breaking Michael Jordan's ankles as a rookie, his high dribble pause killer cross over, referees calling his cross over a carry, creating the most copied signature playground move of all time, creating the corn row and tattoo craze in the NBA, cutting his corn rows only to grow them back, making a rap album under the name Jewelz, shelving that rap album due to media backlash over his use of gay slurs, Jay-Z exposing his fling with Nas' baby mother Carmen on "Super Ugly", marrying his high school sweat heart, kicking his wife out of their Philadelphia mansion, kicking his cousins door down .45 in hand to get his wife back, being a loving father, being a loving teammate, crying at his scholarship press conference, taking an over achieving 76ers team to the 2001 NBA Finals against the Lakers, hitting a 3 on the corner and stepping over Tyronn Lue in game 3 the 2001 NBA Finals, 10 time NBA All Star, 4 time NBA scoring leader, 27 ppg career avg, NBA's 17th overall scorer with 24,020 career points, "practice...we're talking about practice", single handedly being the reason for an NBA dress code, abiding by the NBA dress code, making the arm band an NBA fashion statement, beefing with former coach Larry Brown, crying over former coach Larry Brown on Stephen A. Smith short lived talk show, co-existing with Melo in Denver, not co-existing with anyone in Detroit and Memphis, being purely the best small point guard since Isiah Thomas and the best scoring NBA point guard in the history of the NBA, crying at his 76er return press conference, was The Answer, but now A.I. is simply An Icon. Salute. - ICE