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

This isn't a Photoshopped graphic or a picture from some hell dimension.The great Dominique Wilkins actually played for the L.A. Clippers.
After what he deemed a "senseless" trade from the Atlanta Hawks to the Los Angeles Clippers, Dominique said: "I've always wanted to be in Los Angeles and I'm happy to be with the Clippers. The Clippers are a team that will take care of me and that I will play hard for." -- March 21, 1994.

Postscript: Less than five months later, the Clippers withdrew a contract offer and 'Nique signed a three-year deal with the Boston Celtics.

As for the Hawks...they dealt the greatest and most-beloved player in franchise history AND a first round draft pick for Danny Manning. However, Manning played only 26 regular-season and 11 playoff games with the Hawks before rejecting a long-term contract offer and signing with the Phoenix Suns. Which might have been for the best, since Manning blew out his knee and never really recovered.

On the bright side, 'Nique finally won that elusive championship. If you count Euroleague and Greek Cup titles (which you don't.)

Labels: Atlanta Hawks, Classic quotology, Danny Manning, Dominque Wilkins, seneless trades

The Redeem Team, besides that whole "restoring American basketball dominance" thing, proved to be excellent ambassadors during their stay in Beijing. I bet David Stern couldn't have been happier unless there were two of him. (Not an implausible notion, and it would explain a lot, but I digress.) Still, the overwhelmingly positive Olympic experience reminded me that there have been other not-so-great moments in NBA international relations. To wit:

On February 28, 2001, the Sacramento Kings visited the Golden State Warriors and ran way with a 122-101 victory. But what they won on the court was soon lost in the ensuing public relations nightmare: Sacramento point guard Jason Williams had gotten into a shouting match with some fans during the game. A particularly nasty shouting match.

The fracas started when a man named Michael Ching, who was sitting behind the Kings' bench, told Williams to "Get used to sitting on the bench." White Chocolate, known far and wide for his clever eloquence, responded with: "Are you gay? Are you a fag?"

Since it was entirely possible that Ching did not, in fact, prefer penis over vagina, Williams moved on to the next best thing -- racial epithets! -- calling Ching a "slant-eyed [bleep-bleeper]" and and saying that "I will shoot all you Asian [bleep-bleepers]. Do you remember the Vietnam War? I'll kill y'all just like that. Just like Pearl Harbor, do you remember that?" Then, to underscore his rather statement (which was rather dubious, historically speaking), Williams pantomimed shooting a machine gun at Ching and even made machine gun sounds with his silly mouth.

Unbelievably, the immediate followup to this confrontation was a visit from an arena security guard, who threatened to remove Ching and his friends from the game, claiming complaints had been made against Ching for the incident. Understandably outraged, Ching demanded to speak with someone from the Warriors' front office. He had to wait until the end of the game, but he finally got to speak with Robert Rowell, the Warriors' vice-president of Business Operations. Rowell promised that "something would be done."

Unsatisfied with that rather vague resolution, Ching wrote a letter about the incident and mailed it to Warriors owner Chris Cohan, general manager Garry St. Jean and Rowell; Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof; and NBA commission David Stern and deputy commissioner Russ Granik.

More than a week passed before Rowell got back to Ching. I bet Ching was expecting some sort of heartfelt apology. What he got instead was a stern reprimand for sending out the letter. According to Ching: "[Rowell] said, 'You know I don't appreciate you doing this, going to all this stuff."

Meanwhile, the story had hit the press...and Williams was completely unrepentant. "People say all types of things to me, curse words, talk about weed, everything. They can get personal with me, but I can't get personal with them, I guess. Hopefully, I'll learn my lesson one of these times."

Sounds like he learned a lot, huh?

And still no action was taken by the NBA front office. I know it seems hard to believe, since we live in an era in which players are punished for standing up off of the bench and Kobe Bryant has been suspended twice for accidentally smacking people in the face during jump shots, but it's true. Another week passed before the league finally took action, fining Williams $15,000. In response to the fine, Williams issued a written statement with a canned apology that was dripping with sincerity: "I did not intend any disrespect to the Asian community or any other community. I was wrong and I apologize."

Somewhat ironically, this incident caused Nike to cancel a Williams-centric advertising campaign which would have digitally altered the color of Williams' skin from white to black. (Said Nike spokesman Scott Reames: "The premise is that there's no black basketball and no white basketball. Jason's point is, 'I play basketball; it doesn't matter what color my skin is.'") Nike, of course, claimed that the decision was made before the Ching controversy. That's Nike for you.

It's unknown whether the league forced Williams to attend a diversity training workshop, but rumor has it that Shaq left a message with his agent that said: "Tell Jason, 'ching-chong-yang-wah-ah-soh.'"

Labels: Classic quotology, David Stern, international relations, Jason Williams, Nike