Hey, folks. Allen Iverson here. Yeah. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but I'm here for a reason. We're talking about Worst of the Night, man. We're talking about Worst of the Night. We're talking about Worst of the Night. We're not talking about practice. We're talking about Worst of the Night. When you come to Basketbawful, and you read what's written here, you've read what's written here right? You've seen this site give everything it's got, but we're talking about Worst of the Night right now.

Doubters and haters: Nothing's official yet, but it will be. I'm gonna be back home, back playing in Philadelphia. They just offered me a one-year contract. Don't get used to me doing guest posts for Basketbawful, because the Sixers offered me a one-year deal. Now, there's some mean spirited people in Philadelphia, but It's like that everywhere and I understand that, I accept that part of life. But there is whole bunch of love in Philadelphia, more love than hate in Philadelphia, for Allen Iverson. I'm blessed with what God gave me. He game me talent. When I was going through my little thing, coach Brown, Larry Brown, he would be tap me and say, hey A.I., hold your head up, it's gonna be alright, things get better. He went through those things with me so right now, the Sixers coach, he knows who he is coaching.

If you're like an inside person, you always know what's going on, if not, it's always Allen Iverson is the bad guy, the guy that can't get along with his coach. Why wouldn't I get along with the guy that is trying to accomplish the same thing I'm trying to accomplish? I don't have an ego. Being an All-Star is everything. I still have yet to accomplish what I've been trying to do from Day 1. Personally I just want to win a championship. If I don't believe it, then they don't need me on the court. I've just got to believe that in my heart. There's nothing less than that. I don't care about just going to the playoffs; I've been to the playoffs before. I don't want to just go to the playoffs, I don't want to go to the playoffs and win the first round, second round, and not win the whole thing because it's bittersweet.

I'm here to win. Don't laugh. I'm here to win. That's the reason. That's the only reason. I believe that whatever we have, regardless of a trade being done or not, I feel we have a shot. I've just got to believe that we're going to be all right. I've got to just play basketball. I don't care. I feel like if we don't make a trade, we have to get it done with what we've got. If that many people recognize how hard I go every night and what I put into my game, to make myself and my team better, it means a lot to mean. I'm fortunate; I'm blessed to be in the situation that I'm in right now.

I know you people, you probably don't believe in me after what happened in Detroit, what happened in Memphis. I don't have any problems with the Pistons, the Grizzlies, the organizations at all. I just didn't want to go through that. That was my only problem. I don't want to go through that. I don't want to lose and all season have to go through that. Why? I don't feel that it's right. I lost. I lost. I mean me, my coaching staffs, my teammates, the organizations lost. You don't hear about any one of my teammates going through this. It's me. It's just me.

I always let LeBron know. They love you man, they love you right now. But please believe me. The first incident, the first time something happens, they are waiting man. They are waiting.

I read the articles and my friends and people tell me things but it's all on me. I accept it but the shit hurts. But it's not just about me. Yeah I got some shit I need to get better in but everybody does. But you don't talk about everyone else, you just talk about me. And why because I make money? Well, get ready. 'Cause I'm gonna prove everybody wrong.

Charlotte Bobcats: Last time I was with the Sixers, people always asked me, were you on the same page with Larry Brown. Yeah we were on the same page. I didn't have a problem with coach. I love Larry Brown. You people may not believe it or feel me when I say it, but I do. He's helped me do so much in my career, helped me be the player that I am. If there's no Larry Brown, then there's no MVP, Allen Iverson. He's done a lot for me as far as helping me on and off the court, but, I mean, when you lose, that's the type of shit that happens. That's what goes on when you lose, you know. When you win everything is everything. But when you lose, it's all about Allen Iverson and Larry Brown. When we won, I know that I got the praise and Larry Brown got the praise, but when we lost it was on me and Larry Brown. That's something that I have to learn to accept and deal with.

Well, coach still has to accept it, especially on nights like last night. His Bobcats got beat 108-90 at home by the Boston Celtics. Ain't really no shame in that. The Celtics are a great team. They are. But coach, he takes it personal when a team comes in and shoots, like, 54 percent from the field, almost 60 percent in threes against his guys. Just 'cause they don't be defending, that's not coach's fault. They weren't scoring, either, hitting only 40 percent of their shots and going 2-for-11 in threes. That's bad on both sides of the ball. You can't blame Larry Brown for that. It's not like he was coaching them and said, "Let 'em hit 60 percent on one end, then shoot bad on the other end." You know?

Coach was pretty upset after the game. He said, "It was like the varsity against the JV." And it was. If the JV rode to school on the short bus. Coach also said, "I'm happy for our fans. They got to go home and watch [North] Carolina and Michigan State. If any of them were smart, they would have left early and watched that game." Damn.

Ray Allen, quote machine: Something not many people know about Ray, he's a funny guy. He really is. I got to hang out with him one year at the All-Star game, and that guy cracked my shit up. He's not, like, obvious funny, he's more, what d'you call it, quiet funny. Anyway, he's been shootin' bad lately. It happens. Shooters slump. Kobe slumps. LeBron slumps. I slump. Even Jordan slumped. So what that Ray'd gone 6-for-23 on threes over his last four games. Shooters shoot. Don't matter if you're slumpin'. Shooters shoot the ball. That's their job. Do coal miners stop hitting rocks just because they didn't find coal the last time they hit a rock? No. They keep hitting rocks until they find coal again. Hey, even Doc Rivers said during the shootaround that "he hasn't forgot how" to shoot.

Well, he proved that againt the Bobcats. He went 5-for-6 from downtown and 10-for-10 from the line. When you guys, I mean, the press, asked him how he did it, Ray said, "I put some baby oil on the rim." See? Quiet funny.

The Phoenix Suns: I'm human man, somebody that bleeds, somebody that cries, somebody that makes mistakes. I'm real just like everybody else. I'm not perfect. I make mistakes along the way. I've been in jail three times. Well, the Suns are human, too. And the Knicks, they made a jail break on those guy in New York last night. Those teams went into that game with opposite records -- 14-3 for the Suns, 3-14 for the Knicks -- and the Suns had the best record in the league. People, they look at a situation like that and say, "Hey, the Suns should win easy." Well, the Suns are human. They aren't Superman. They aren't Jesus. They're human. Human beings have bad night. Human beings give up 23 points off 17 turnovers, let their opponent hit 14 threes, grab 19 offensive rebounds, stuff like that.

It was rough, man. They Suns didn't score 100 points for, like, the first time this season. The Knicks scored 39 points in the first quarter. Hell, Larry Hughes had more assists (12) than Steve Nash (8). Nash, he said, "Terrible performance. I'm embarrassed. Obviously just a disasterous effort. We just have to wash it away and pick it up tomorrow." He's right. That's all you can do. You people, the press, you're gonna look at this game, take it apart, make like it means something big, like a big deal, until the next game. That's what you guys do. It's your job. I get that. But damn, man. It's one game. One game. Not a loss in the playoffs, not a loss in the Finals. One game.

Amar'e Stoudemire: When I think about those 19 offensive rebounds the Knicks had, the first thing I think is, "Why wasn't Amar'e Stoudemire crashing the boards? This is a guy is an All-Star player, a guy who thought maybe he should be up there with the MVP group a year or two back. Listen, I've been MVP. MVP isn't just about scoring points. MVP isn't just about doing it in practice. It's about killing yourself on the court. Well, when you end up with as many turnovers (5) as rebounds (5), and you're a big guy but get outrebounded by Larry Hughes (6), then it's time to look at yourself in the mirror and aske, "Why am I not rebounding? Why am I not helping my team?"

The Golden State Warriors: See, this is what I'm talking about. Everybody was all ready to jump off the Nuggets bandwagon after they lost to the Timberwolves the other day. They had a season-low for points in a quarter (12), blew their biggest lead of the season (17 in the first half) and got held to a season-low for points at home (100) in that loss. Next thing you know, they matchin' their season high for points in a quarter (44), getting a season high for points in the first half (69), and winning 135-107.

Chauncey Billups knows what it's all about. He said, "That's what's great about the NBA. The next night, the same thing can happen and you can show that you learn from your mistakes. We came out up 14 at the start of the third and we said, 'Let's try to put them away this time, not just talk about it. Let's do it,' and I was proud of us for that."

I know what y'all are thinking, and no, I don't have any hard feelings about getting traded to Detroit, and I'm not jealous of the success the Nuggets had after they traded me. That's just business. It's not personal, it's business. The NBA, the game, it's a business. I understand that.

Anyway, the Warriors looked like they were running a layup drill, only for the other team. Denver had, like, 62 points in the paint. The Nuggets shot almot 55 percent. Chris Anderson (14 points) and Nene (18 points) combined to shoot 12-for-16 from the field, and Birdman had 5 blocked shots too. The Warriors, they only had 6 blocks as a team. Monta Ellis, he had it going against the Pacers the day before, but he only went 4-for-10 and got outscored by Vlad-uh-meer Rad-mano-vich (17 points, 7-for-14). If Vlad-a-whatever is outplaying your franchise player, you probably lost the game.

The Portland Trail Blazers: The Blazers are slumpin'. I mean, they are straight up slumpin', as individuals, as a team, just slumpin'. People say they're supposed to be a great team, but great teams don't usually lose three in a row, with a couple of those games at home or whatever. Their offense stunk last night (39 percent shooting), but the real problem was their defense. The Heat shot 53 percent. That's pretty high. Coach Brown, he always said, defense wins championships. Well, the Blazers may be second in the leage in points allowed (90.5), but they've gave up 106, 108 and 107 points in their past three games. So it might be a little early to be calling them a great defensive team.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to dis those guys. They seem like good guys. I don't know them personally or anything, but they seem like good guys. Are they the "Team of the Future" or whatever? I don't know about that. That is in God's hands. I do not know that. That's God. God does that, It ain't up to you or me to say if the Blazers will do this or do that. That's up to God. It ain't up to anyone in here. That is up to God. He handles that. You know that. It's like LaMarcus Aldridge missing the game with, what did they call it, a right knee bone concussion? Now, that wouldn't have kept me out. I would have probably played anyway. But I've been blessed. I don't know about LaMarcus Aldridge. Is he blessed? God knows. I don't, but God does. God has more control over your body. I do not care about how much you eat, how many weights you lift or how good you eat, if God says you're gone, you're gone.

The Oden Watch: Dude had a career-high 20 rebounds and 4 blocked shots, but he also had 5 fouls in 30 minutes. Now me, I always expect to play 40, 45 minutes a game. The only way you can help your team is by staying on the floor. How you gonna help your team by sitting on the bench?

The New Orleans Hornets: Some people are hating on the Lakers because their schedule has been pretty easy so far. I'm not even sure they've even played a road game. Have they? I don't know. And yeah, they've had back-to-back games against the league's worst road teams, but you gotta play the teams you gotta play. It's not like David Stern is gonna come in and say, "Hey, the Lakers are playing great, we should make them play better teams, more road games." That's stupid.

Lamar Odom agrees. He said, "We don't draw up the schedule. When you're playing against teams you feel might be a lesser opponent, we just want to concentrate on doing things just like we do them in practice. We want to play the same way against everybody, and for the last couple of games we've been able to do that."

As a player, that's what you have to do. You can't be listening to the press, to the doubters. Hey, I understand the press has to find storylines or whatever. They get paid to do their job. I am nowhere near criticizing them about how to do their job because I'm not. They're human, they do what they do, that's their job. I'm not here to critique them on what they do. I don't like the way he pronounced that word or this, that and the third. I don't do that to them. I'm just saying, you can't blame the Lakers because they've had a favorable schedule, can't judge them on that. That's all.

As for the Hornets, they're just confused. The players, they aren't on the same page, aren't on the same page as the coach. Are they the reason Byron Scott was fired? They had a lot to do with Byron being fired. If they'd done a lot better, then it probably wouldn't have happened. That's the realism of it. When coaches get fired, the players have a lot to do with it. I think David West, he gets that. He gets it, because he said, "In these last couple of games, we just don't have a clear definition in terms of what guys are supposed to do. There are too many guys trying to score, and that's us being sporadic. We can't decide where we're going to go with the basketball."

'Course, it would probably help them know what they're going to do with the basketball if Chris Paul was playing point guard instead of, who is it, Darren Collison? I mean, Collison took more shots (14) than David West (9). You can't be havin' your point guard take all the shots and your leading scorer getting froze out. I mean, unless your point guard is also your leading scorer, like I was all those years. Collison needs to look for his shot and get everybody involved, like I've always done.

Lacktion report: Now we're talkin' about lacktion. Well, Chris is, anyway.

Generals-Raptors: Sonny Weems was so shocked by the prehistoric defeat at the hands of DC's designated losers, he forgot to jump over the Goombas in level 1-1 for a 4 second Super Mario. Fellow Toronto resident Antoine Wright bricked once from Bloor Street and also fouled and lost the rock once each for a +3 suck differential in 6:31.

Celtics-Bobcats: Doc Rivers's self-coached squad celebrated another notch in the win column with plenty of currency, as Brian Scalabrine earned a 3 trillion (3:02) and JR Giddens giddily grabbed 2.1 trillion (2:05) in cash. Derrick Brown gave Charlotte a +4 in 7:06 via two bricks, one foul, and one rejection.

Heat-Blazers: Joel Pryzbilla made four boards for Portland in 13:49, but no shot attempts combined with two giveaways and five fouls led to a 7:4 Voskuhl.

Labels: Allen Iverson, Boston Celtics, Charlotte Bobcats, Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Lakers, New Orleans Hornets, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, Worst of the Night