30 most unguardable moves in NBA history: 7. Allen Iverson, crossover
What Allen Iverson lacked in size, he made up for in fury. AI set the tone for ball-handlers of the future with his flashy approach to the game and expert use of his quickness to deceive on-ball defenders. If you reach against Allen Iverson, I promise you that he’s going to teach you a lesson, so just don’t even bother.
The art of ball-handling was revolutionized when Iverson burst on the scene as a 23.5 point per game scorer in 1996. He went No. 1 overall in the 1996 NBA Draft and subsequently won the Rookie of the Year trophy over nine other eventual All-Stars including Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Ray Allen and Stephon Marbury.
Iverson’s crossover was the most reliable move in basketball at the time. He’d break his defender down with a lightning-fast chain of dribbles. Iverson went between the legs, back-and-forth and behind the back to force his defender to react before swiftly shifting the ball to his opposite hand and rocketing to open spaces on the court.
When we talk about gravity in the NBA, we’re oftentimes talking about dominant interior players like Giannis who draw defenders to the paint. Or we’re talking about nightly shooting threats like Steph Curry, who forces defenders to pick up at 35 feet from the basket. Iverson’s crossover held great weight in this conversation. When he pulled off a crossover, the entire defense was forced to shift to make up for the poor ankles of his primary defender.
There’ve not been very many ball handlers in the same conversation as Allen Iverson. He set the standard for the modern NBA’s ball-handlers and even then, most of them have never come close to the ball-handling wizardry that Iverson brings to the court. His crossover is etched into the basketball history books forever.