Allen Iverson’s Hall of Fame career was defined by his incredible scoring and ball-handling ability, but there are few moments that Iverson is recognized more for than his infamous “practice” rant. Iverson has since embraced the rant as part of what fans remember about him, but at the time it earned him a label of being a disgruntled, hard to coach superstar.
Now, Iverson finds himself as a coach himself and the Sixers legend is learning what it’s like to be on the other end of the bench. Iverson and Larry Brown famously clashed in Philadelphia over stylistic differences and what they should be doing on the floor, and coaching in the BIG3 is making him understand the challenges of being a coach better than he ever knew during his playing days.
Iverson recently sat down with Corey Maggette as part of the BIG3’s “Fresh Off The Court” series, and The Answer discussed the BIG3 season to this point, MVP candidates, and what he’s learned about the difficulties of coaching.
“Definitely. Definitely,” Iverson said. “It’s a talent. It’s a special talent to be a coach. You got to get all of the guys to buy into one thing. You know what I mean? You have to leave the selfishness at the door.”
We are seeing more and more former NBA players getting into the coaching side of basketball after they retire and for each of them there are different challenges and lessons they learn in that transition. For Iverson, him noting the difficulties of leaving selfishness at the door and finding ways to get everyone buying in seem to be a bit of introspection into the things that made him have difficulties with coaches during his NBA playing days.
