Philadelphia 76ers: Why Bringing Back Allen Iverson Would Be A Great Move

Allen Iverson was a great servant to the NBA. Photo Credit: Keith Allison, Flickr.com

Allen Iverson received an offer to join the Dallas Mavericks D-League affiliate last season. But Allen Iverson doesn’t belong in the D-League. He belongs back in the NBA for one last shot. Sure, he won’t be the electrifying, scoring champion MVP-level player he was from yesteryear, but it would allow him to go out on his terms. For too long, teams have gone against bringing back A.I for numerous reasons: Is he a good teammate? Has he lost it? And most importantly — will he turn up to practice?

Joking aside, it’s time for the stigma to be dropped. Let The Answer go out on his own terms. And which team can afford to take a flyer (pardon the Philly sports pun) on him? None other than the team that drafted him in 1996, the Philadelphia 76ers.

This move would make sense for a number of reasons. First, as I mentioned earlier, Allen Iverson deserves to bow out the way he came in. Standing at just 6’0’’, A.I busted his body every single night for the NBA. He would take the hardest hits, dust himself off and then be ready to attack the next time down the floor. He played through pain; he sold jerseys and tickets. Let the man have one more chance.

The tickets thing is a nice lead to my next point. The current Sixers team is going to be bad. Like, really bad. I’m talking Charlotte Bobcats circa-2011-12 bad. And Philadelphia fans aren’t known to be patient. This only leads to one thing: A possible half-filled — at most — Wells Fargo Center. But if you add Iverson to the fold, that instantly changes. People would flock to the WFC in order to see the last moments of AI’s glittering career.

While it could be argued that Iverson isn’t exactly a role model, there’s no doubting his experience. With the Sixers being a very young team, his leadership and experience could help develop some young players, especially Michael Carter-Williams.

No, Allen Iverson isn’t going to score 30 points a game. But he doesn’t need to. He hasn’t got anything to prove. He just wants to come back and go out the way MJ did, the way Larry did; the way most legends do: on his own terms. Give him the call, Sam Hinkie.