The NBA All-Star Weekend Thread

[therealworldschampion 0]

Yeah it's nowhere as bad as it was a few years ago with the whole "Practice" spiel..I think the Olympics last year really was a maturing episode for him...

[The Electrifyer 0]

I saw this thing on Sports Center that said Steve Nash has scored the most points without dunking but.....can Nash even dunk? Has anyone seen him get himself up there?

Yes actually. Living in Canada, I saw once him do a little stint teaching some basketball fundamentals. He dunked it in at the very end.

[Styles 0]

I think it was the addition of "MVP" Gilbert Arenas that got them their.

Gil was just nervous. It was his first All star game, he should have plenty more to shine in. Antawn Jamison had a decent game off the bench though...

[Guest Mindless_Aggression]

Yeah, Iverson's been quite mature for some time. One of the more well spoken guys in the league too, but you won't ever hear anything about that.

 

Good all star game. I almost felt a bit of sympathy for Kobe Bryant, the guy's on an island to himself, but I got over that pretty quick.

[Ripper 0]

Iverson has never been a thug, never did anything "thuggish" and his persona is all because of his hair and tattoos.

 

And for the ten thousandth time, the "practice" spiel was not about him not wanting to practice and the fact they keep using it out of contest is just stupid. They were there talking about the rumours of him getting traded because he had missed practices during the year. His whole statement was, "I come out in everygame and leave everything on the court and we sitting here talking about trading because of practice? Practice? Not because of a game...But practice."

 

Fuck the media and their treatment of iverson, who in all these years in the NBA, has never gotten in a fight, has never gotten two tecnicals that I can remember, and you can not say you have ever seen him give anything but his all on the court, and he is a "thug" because of his appearance.

 

 

Oh...and congrats on the MVP.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

A) I thought Iverson had a criminal record

 

B) Larry Brown was saying that either Iverson or himself had to go. Iverson no-showing and coming late to pracitces were one of the things that Larry Brown said that he didn't like about the situation. The analogy that he made was between Iverson and an employee who doesn't show up to work when he doesn't want to.

 

C) I feel like every time he opens his mouth now, he's phony. I feel like he's just trying to impress people and make them think he's a good guy. I'm not saying that he isn't, but I think he tries too hard now.

[Fökai 0]

Blatantly stolen from an ESPN article two years ago...

 

February 1993 -- Arrested for fighting in a bowling alley in Hampton, Va. He spends four months in prison before then-Gov. Douglas Wilder grants him clemency. The Virginia Court of Appeals overturns the conviction in June 1995.

 

March 1996 -- Selected to All-America team after sophomore season at Georgetown University.

 

June 1996 -- Selected as No. 1 overall choice in NBA draft by Philadelphia 76ers.

 

April 1997 -- Scored 50 points for his fourth consecutive game with at least 40, breaking Wilt Chamberlain's 37-year-old rookie record of three consecutive 40-point games.

 

May 1997 -- Selected NBA rookie of the year.

 

August 1997 -- Pleads no contest to gun charge after police near Richmond, Va., pull over a car, in which Iverson is a passenger, and find a gun belonging to Iverson and two marijuana cigarettes. Completes 100 hours of community service, two years of drug testing and three years' probation, after which his record is cleared.

 

July 1998 -- Two of Iverson's friends in Virginia borrowed his car and were pulled over on drug charges. Iverson was not charged.

 

July 2000 -- Promised to have more of a business-like attitude following a season that saw him fined more than 50 times for being late to practice and suspended one game for missing a shootaround.

 

October 2000 -- Reprimanded by NBA commissioner David Stern for violent references and derogatory lyrics directed toward gays and women in his unreleased rap CD.

 

May 2001 -- Named NBA MVP after leading the league in scoring and steals.

 

June 2001 -- Led the 76ers to the NBA Finals for the first time in 18 years. They lose to Los Angeles Lakers in five games.

 

August 2001 -- Married Tawanna Turner, longtime fiancee and the mother of his two children, Tiaura and Allen II.

 

September 2001 -- Named America's best athlete by Time magazine.

 

October 2001 -- Rashan R. Langeford, Iverson's close friend and a groomsman at his wedding, is shot to death in Newport News, Va. Iverson wears a black armband with Langeford's nickname, ``Ra,'' and taps it before every free throw.

 

November 2001 -- Agreed to lifetime deal with Reebok, superseding 10-year, $50 million endorsement contract.

 

May 2002 -- Held news conference to express displeasure about trade rumors, lashing out about criticism of his practice habits. The next day coach Larry Brown said Iverson will not be traded.

 

July 2002 -- Charged with four felony counts and related offenses for allegedly forcing his way into his cousin's apartment with a gun and threatening two men.

 

-- The Associated Press

 

And the best part of it all:

 

[iverson]

 

For the year 2G the rap game change for one name

 

Jewelz aim to slain anything on this plane

 

Remains are found when the best kept secret get heated

 

You went platinum wit a ghost writer,

 

so in the game you won you cheated

 

My slang bang when you need it

 

You man enuff to pull a gun be man enuff to squeeze it

 

(*gunshots*) Die if you don't believe it

 

Anything to do wit millions I'ma be wit it

 

Hats off to the hardcore niggaz FUCK the rest

 

In my guess y'all useless, just talkin music

 

Never mistake me for a fake MC

 

You got the wrong idea nigga I'm CT fool

 

Get murdered in a second in the first degree

 

Come to me wit faggot tendacies

 

You'll be sleepin where the maggots be

 

Ain't nuthin kinda used to beef actually

 

but when it's on I raise first automatically

 

Won't catch me as a victim and a rap casualty

 

Dynasty Raiders hit VA in the summertime

 

Ten Bentleys in one line

 

Gats in each hand, twin 45's in mines

 

Snipers hittin niggaz long distance for a rate

 

Sons and daughters, one order you'll be floatin in water

 

Bad news home of the Dynasty Raiders

 

One luv to the ol school niggaz

 

They in the jail tryin to raise us

 

Even the ones that tried to blaze us

 

but couldn't even graze us

 

See dem bitch azz niggaz y'all killin don't amaze us

 

Y'all slobbin I'm spittin wit a mouf full of rage

 

(DIS MY NIGGA JEWELS REPRESENTIN BAD NEWS

 

YO MY HOMIE SAY DAT SHIT)

 

Everybody stay fly get money kill and fuck bitches

 

I'm hittin anything in plain view for my riches

 

VA's finest fillin up ditches, when niggaz turn to bitches

 

die for zero digits; I'ma giant yall midgets

 

I know killaz that kill for a fee

 

that'll kill yo' ass for free, believe me

 

How you wanna die fast or slowly?

 

Fast as a rolie, slow as a rolie polie

 

I bought yo shit it was weak, trashed it now you owe me

 

All the hardcore niggas know me

 

I aint knockin, I'm jus gon' bust up in the motherfucker

 

Takin anything that's rightfully mines

 

Lust, AKs, rifles, and nines

 

Physique crew, thick designs

 

wit jewels that shine all the time

 

Ain't nuthin sweet about this rate of mystique

 

Got niggas while you eat shit sleep and beat yo meat

 

die reachin fo heat, leave you leakin in da street

 

Niggas screamin he was a good boy ever since he was born

 

but fuck it he gon life must go on niggas don't live that long

 

but hoes in wigs niggas that think they head strong

 

got niggas hollerin Jewelz dead wrong on this song

 

THIS TYPE OF MURDA DONT NEED NO HOOK

 

JUST FORTY FUCKIN BARS FROM DA MOUF OF A CROOK!!!

 

YO!!

[Styles 0]

Ripper...wrong since this morning.

[Damaramu 0]

Oh and this local radio guy hates AI. He says he's a thug that hangs out with rappers and gangsters and he's just a street thug. Is AI really like that? I know he had that commercial saying he wasn't a gangster or thug or anything.

 

It's the redneck view of him.....

Really? Because the guy saying this is from Maryland.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Iverson has never been a thug, never did anything "thuggish" and his persona is all because of his hair and tattoos.

 

And for the ten thousandth time, the "practice" spiel was not about him not wanting to practice and the fact they keep using it out of contest is just stupid. They were there talking about the rumours of him getting traded because he had missed practices during the year. His whole statement was, "I come out in everygame and leave everything on the court and we sitting here talking about trading because of practice? Practice? Not because of a game...But practice."

 

Fuck the media and their treatment of iverson, who in all these years in the NBA, has never gotten in a fight, has never gotten two tecnicals that I can remember, and you can not say you have ever seen him give anything but his all on the court, and he is a "thug" because of his appearance.

 

 

Oh...and congrats on the MVP.

I completely agree with this. Iverson has done NOTHING wrong in several years, and he's painted as some kind of villainous thug.

[Guest Vitamin X]

I feel the same way about Iverson as I do about Kobe, in that I feel bad for both of them for the media portrayal of them. Watching one guard the other last night in the All-Star game was really enjoyable, especially watching Kobe actually play defense in the game.

 

Seems that people don't grasp the concept of forgive and forget, though.

[Ripper 0]

February 1993 -- Arrested for fighting in a bowling alley in Hampton, Va. He spends four months in prison before then-Gov. Douglas Wilder grants him clemency. The Virginia Court of Appeals overturns the conviction in June 1995.

 

Okay, everyone that has never gotten in a fight in highschool can throw stones here. Everyone else that has ever gotten in a fight in highschool can say nothing. Only differnce is that because there were more than 5 people fighting, Virginia law calls it gang activity and therefore called for prison time. So if you or you friends have ever gotten in a fight in your history of existance, then you did the exact same thing. Hardly "thug" material.

 

August 1997 -- Pleads no contest to gun charge after police near Richmond, Va., pull over a car, in which Iverson is a passenger, and find a gun belonging to Iverson and two marijuana cigarettes. Completes 100 hours of community service, two years of drug testing and three years' probation, after which his record is cleared.

 

Um, bullshit. Iverson BOUGHT the car. It wasn't HIS car so to speak. He was in the back seat. The gun was found under the passenger seat and the marijuana was in the ashtray. So basically, you are calling him a thug because he was in the car with someone that had a gun in there? 'Kay...

 

July 1998 -- Two of Iverson's friends in Virginia borrowed his car and were pulled over on drug charges. Iverson was not charged.

 

How this at all has anything to do with him, don't know.

 

October 2000 -- Reprimanded by NBA commissioner David Stern for violent references and derogatory lyrics directed toward gays and women in his unreleased rap CD.

 

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. He recorded a rap CD. Get d fuck over it. He said nothing that isn't being said by others in hip-hop.

 

October 2001 -- Rashan R. Langeford, Iverson's close friend and a groomsman at his wedding, is shot to death in Newport News, Va. Iverson wears a black armband with Langeford's nickname, ``Ra,'' and taps it before every free throw.

 

Yeah...that thug.

 

July 2002 -- Charged with four felony counts and related offenses for allegedly forcing his way into his cousin's apartment with a gun and threatening two men.

 

Oh, now this is the funny one. ESPN jumped all over it. At the end of the day when it was all shown to be Bullshit, ESPN barely reported it. Real story. He hAS A FUCKING KEY TO THE APARTMENT THAT HE IS PAYING HIS COUSINS PART OF THE RENT ON. He goes to the place and his roomate and friend are there, Iverson is looking for his wife. They leave. Roomate calls his lawyer and after 2 hours of talking with him calls Iverson and says if he doesn't pay him so much money he will call the cops. Apparently Iverson said go fuck yourself, cause he calls the cops. Says. "He didn't pull a gun, but it looked like he had a gun in his sweat pants". The other guy there says "I didn't see any gun in his sweat pants" ESPN reports "Iverson pulled a gun on two men" The guy said that Iversons cousin said that his wife said that he (iverson) kicked her out the house naked. ESPN reports this he said she said shit as fact, when all parties (including neighbors) denied this happened.

 

 

ESPN put his mug shot as lead story on the site and on sportscenter. When it was all dropped after the judge called the case "embarrasing and laughable" it was a sidenote on the website. FUCK ESPN. They have their favorites and they have there ones they will protect more than anything. All you can say about iverson is that he got in a Fight in Highschool and he was in a car where a gun and marijuana was(and he passed the drug test given to him later that week by the way). Yet he is the thuggiest thug to ever thug according to stupid people. George Bush's record is longer than that.

 

Ripper - waiting for the OUTRAGE over Shaq having a song with a rapper talking about killing Madd Skillz and his family since 2004.

[Fökai 0]

Never said you were wrong - but be reasonable, Iverson has been painted in a different light since the assault charges were dropped.

 

...except for the Maryland homer who hates A-I for reasons that haven't been throughly explained.

[Ripper 0]

Never said you were wrong - but be reasonable, Iverson has been painted in a different light since the assault charges were dropped.

 

...except for the Maryland homer who hates A-I for reasons that haven't been throughly explained.

I WOULD say that he has been painted in different light, but when ESPN runs a little story about how Kobe went from the elite(shows images of Magic, Bird, Jordan, Dr. J) in terms of role models to the "bottom" (shows images of Dennis Rodman, Iverson, Sprewell) I say they still push that overall notion about him, only not as openly as they did before.

[AboveAverage484 0]

Ripper should be Allen Iverson's lawyer or something.

[Ripper 0]

Maybe I am.

 

 

 

 

Ripper - still not knowing what the fuck that smilie means since 1999

[The Czech Republic 0]

Maybe I am.

 

 

 

 

Ripper - still not knowing what the fuck that smilie means since 1999

[Guest Vitamin X]

When you're good enough to get the Best Smiley, the Frog Smiley, and the Secret Smiley, then we'll talk. Until then, keep on digging, Watson.

[Ripper 0]

Goddamnit someone is going to explain that to me.

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

... One of the more well spoken guys in the league too...

Are you serious? Iverson is many things, well-spoken is not one of them. He's a great player and has quieted down as a citizen, but let's not exaggerate.

 

Re: the "thug" aspect. I agree that he's not an actual thug, and that he can be portrayed negatively. However, Iverson doesn't do very much to counteract that portrayal. Everyone knows that your speech, your clothes, and the way you look have a bearing on your reputation. He has every right to choose to speak the way he wants, dress the way he wants, and tattoo himself up one side and down the other...but negative connotations will be attached to his current images. The way he presents himself is not the way a "torchbearer" should. I don't expect him to laser off all his ink... but if I was convicted of a crime and I knew I was thought of as a thug, I'd stop wearing the cornrows and I'd start dressing in suits and ties.

 

If Kobe went boozing in public and bragging Wilt-style about women he was fucking, I'd criticize him too.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

but if I was convicted of a crime and I knew I was thought of as a thug, I'd stop wearing the cornrows and I'd start dressing in suits and ties.

 

Yeah. Gotta please the white man!

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

Yes...because all black people think cornrows are great and that suits are for white people.

 

If you really have a problem with my previous post...replace "cornrows" with "a hairstyle that is perceived socially to be unprofessional" and "suits and ties" with "clothing that is perceived socially to be professional."

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I can not really comment on ghetto culture, but this whole business that Iverson should present himself the way WE view as non-threatening and acceptable is somehow troubling.

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

How do you dress for work?

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

has never gotten two tecnicals that I can remember

I love AI, but let's not go that far. He's gotten a few technicals in his day, mainly for bitching about a call/non-call. He's no Rasheed, but he has picked up a few T's.

[Ripper 0]

has never gotten two tecnicals that I can remember

I love AI, but let's not go that far. He's gotten a few technicals in his day, mainly for bitching about a call/non-call. He's no Rasheed, but he has picked up a few T's.

two in a game though? How many times has he been ejected?

 

Re: the "thug" aspect. I agree that he's not an actual thug, and that he can be portrayed negatively. However, Iverson doesn't do very much to counteract that portrayal. Everyone knows that your speech, your clothes, and the way you look have a bearing on your reputation. He has every right to choose to speak the way he wants, dress the way he wants, and tattoo himself up one side and down the other...but negative connotations will be attached to his current images. The way he presents himself is not the way a "torchbearer" should. I don't expect him to laser off all his ink... but if I was convicted of a crime and I knew I was thought of as a thug, I'd stop wearing the cornrows and I'd start dressing in suits and ties.

 

The only CRIME that Iverson has been convicted of was having a fight in highschool. And thats a great message to the kids. Being a great person in the community, that means jack shit, its you appearance that really matters kids. Iverson doesn't whiten up his image (and yes that is what you are pretty much saying.) therefore he deserves his tag? What ever.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

two in a game though? How many times has he been ejected?

Ah, I didn't pick up that you were talking about 2 in 1 game. In that case, I don't recall that ever happening. I thought you were just talking about T's in general.

[Damaramu 0]

So not having tattoo's and dressing nice is whitening up your image?

 

So then what's a biker with tons of tattoo's and long hair that dresses ratty? Is he a black man inside b/c anybody that dresses nice "whitens up"????

 

So Ripper if you were to go in for a job interview and you had to wear a suit and tie for the job would you say "Nah fuck this man! I am not going to play to whitey!"

 

or what about Denzel Washington? That guy dresses nice all the time. So does Will Smith. Have they gone "too white"?

 

Seriously we need to stop thinking of the way people dress, act, and speak as indicitive of their race.

"He talks like he's black!"

"You act white!"

That shit needs to stop in society.

[Ripper 0]

well that was certainly a cute little rant, but it has jack shit to do with what I said. You might as well went on a rant about who had better chemistry with Fred between bubba and grady and it would have been just as revelant.

 

We are not talking about society or dress being indicitive of ones race. We are talking about a poster suggesting that Iverson no longer dress the way in which he does so that he can stop being viewed as a "thug". Seeing as blacks don't call iverson a thug, because, I don't know...we have common sense, him changing his image would be to become non threatning in the eyes of the idiots who look at him and say "thug". Mainly white people.

 

Basically what was being suggested was that he remove all that silly "ethnic" garb and "ethnic" hair do and conform more to what is considered the norm.

 

Who said shit about dressing nice is being white? Dressing to convince white people you aren't a thug and something they would feel threatend by is whitening up your image. Changing to conform to what whites are telling you is wrong with you is whitening up your image.

 

Denzel Washington dresses that way because he WANTS to. Will Smith dresses that way because he WANTS to. You dress to an interview because you are going into a persons business and must adhere to their rules if you want employment from there. Iverson having to change his wardrobe in his everyday life so some dumbass sports reporter doesn't think he is a thug is a completely different issue.

 

Bottomline, iversons number one problem is that he is precieved as too "black" rather people want to admit it or not.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

Dama and Spicy sound like ignorant white people, who have their own personal stereotypes and biases. They're not racist, they're just really stupid when it comes to issues on race.

 

Hope I don't get banned.

 

I agree with Ripper; "all the charity work in the world doesn't matter, because if you dress in a stereotype that I follow, you're setting a bad example". I guess it would be better if he kept all his money and said "fuck off" to all of the people he gave his money back to, so long as he spent that money on expensive suits and decided that he would keep it all for himself.