Allen Iverson is a Facebook superstar.
Every day, a fan somewhere posts video of an Iverson crossover or step back jumper or shot of him flying into bigger bodies in the lane. He has a lot of important black ink on his basketball-reference page. He led the league in scoring average four times, steals three and minutes played seven. He famously didn’t like to practice – “we’re talking about practice” – but he loved to play. He loves it so much that he was one of the earliest players to sign up for Ice Cube’s BIG3 league after the NBA no longer wanted him.
Yet, on my list, he ends up 70th – because AI was barely a winning player.
Iverson was the No. 1 overall pick by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1996 draft. He went before Marcus Camby (No. 2), Ray Allen (No. 5), Kobe Bryant (No. 13) and Steve Nash (No. 15). The absolute peak of Allen Iverson’s career was Game 1 of the 2001 NBA Finals. In that game, Iverson torched the Shaq-Kobe Lakers for 48 points in a 107-101 win. That would be Philadelphia’s only win in the series and the Lakers only loss of the playoffs.
The effort capped off Iverson’s finest season. His score in
my system landed him at No. 36 for single-season value.
Iverson suffered because his teams simply didn’t win that much costing him
valuable playoff points and points for winning percentage. His teams made the
playoffs eight times in 14 seasons. Four of those seasons, they didn’t get out
of the first round. Two of those years, they didn’t get out of the second.
Iverson was streaky in the postseason. Although his scoring average in the
playoffs went up, his shooting percentage went down significantly. Four times
his PER increased in the playoffs. Four times it went down. That was the same
in Box +/-.
Iverson’s teams won just 51 percent of their regular season games and only 42.3 percent of the playoff games he played in. AI is the 31st player named to my list. So far, only Spencer Haywood, Elvin Hayes and Bernard King have worse regular season winning percentages and only King and Penny Hardaway had worse playoff winning percentages.
People can argue all they want that Iverson didn’t have much help. There are just five players to a side, and players play both offense and defense. Basketball is the sport where one great player can have the greatest affect on a team. And one of the duties of a point guard is to make his teammates better. The record shows that Iverson was great at getting his, but not so great at playing winning ball.
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Allen Iverson bio info |
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Career |
1996-2010 |
|
Games |
914 |
|
Points |
26.7 |
|
Rebounds |
3.7 |
|
Assists |
6.2 |
|
FG Pct. |
42.5% |
|
All-Star games |
11 |
|
MVPs |
1 |
|
NBA titles |
0 |
|
Playoff seasons |
8 |
|
Playoff games |
71 |
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Points |
29.7 |
|
Rebounds |
3.8 |
|
Assists |
6.0 |
|
FG Pct. |
40.1% |
|
Hall of Fame |
2016 |
|
Top 100 rankings |
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|
Points |
Top 100 ranking |
|
1-year |
358.64 |
36th |
|
5-year |
1,358.71 |
71st |
|
10-year |
2,126.08 |
88th |
|
Career |
2,414.74 |
93rd |
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Allen Iverson at his peak |
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2000-2001 |
Iverson |
Top 5 |
Points |
|
PER |
24.0 |
25.90 |
|
|
Win Shares |
11.8 |
13.92 |
|
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Box +/- |
4.8 |
6.51 |
|
|
VORP |
5.1 |
6.55 |
|
|
Total Advanced Stats |
45.7 |
52.87 |
86.43 |
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Playoff PER |
22.5 |
26.15 |
|
|
Win Shares |
2.0 |
3.50 |
|
|
Box +/- |
4.9 |
8.03 |
|
|
VORP |
1.8 |
1.60 |
|
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Total Advanced Stats |
31.2 |
39.28 |
79.43 |
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Reg. Season Win % |
70.42 |
|
70.42 |
|
Playoff Win % |
54.55 |
54.55 |
|
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MVP Voting (75 points) |
1,121/1,240 |
|
67.80 |
|
Playoff MVP (25 points) |
0 |
0 |
|
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Total Score |
|
|
358.64 |
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Iverson’s 10 greatest seasons |
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2000-2001 |
358.64 |
|
1998-1999 |
271.60 |
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2002-2003 |
253.65 |
|
2001-2002 |
240.36 |
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2004-2005 |
234.45 |
|
1999-2000 |
221.37 |
|
2007-2008 |
168.20 |
|
2006-2007 |
143.34 |
|
2005-2006 |
124.42 |
|
1997-1998 |
110.04 |
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Career winning percentage |
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|
W |
L |
Pct. |
|
Regular Season |
466 |
448 |
50.98% |
|
Playoffs |
30 |
41 |
42.25% |
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