Speak no evil? Not Allen Iverson!
On how much longer he'll play:

"Until I can't be Allen Iverson on the court, until I can't dominate. When you look at the scouting report and my name is not the first name, you have to stop; then it's time to go. I don't want to be an old guy sitting on the bench for a championship team. I'm not coming off nobody's bench."

Sounds like something he might have said recently doesn't it? But it's not.

Iverson spoke those words to Sports Illustrated way back in April of 2007, a few months after the Philadelphia 76ers traded him to the Denver Nuggets.

At the time, Iverson also said:

"After being in Philly so long and not believing I would ever leave, the day I became a Nugget, I felt this was where I wanted to finish my career. All I see are positive things. I had a conversation with my kids [he has four in Colorado], and they said they love their school, love their classmates. Everything here seems so good."

Of course, a little over a year later, everything that had once seemed so good went to hell (and by "hell" I mean Detroit). Iverson is now three cities removed from where he once wanted to finish his career. Although he is back in the original place he wanted to finish his career, so he has that going for him...which is nice.

To his credit, Iverson stayed kinda-sorta true to his word. He's not sitting on the bench for a championship team. Or a good team. Or even a halfway decent team. However, he's not exactly dominating, and I doubt he's been the first name on any scouting report for a while. But at least he still has, you know, his pride.

Bonus bawful! Fill in the blanks on Iverson's infamous "practice" rant! [via the Basketball-Reference Blog]

Labels: Allen Iverson, Classic quotology