Allen Iverson will soon be inducted to the Hall of Fame, and the Philadelphia 76ers legend has been in the news in recent months explaining why he wore Air Jordans, reflecting on his time in the City of Brotherly Love, and even clarifying his thoughts on practice all these years later.
A.I.’s most recent interview was with Jadakiss for Livin’ Legends, and in the conversation, The Answer gave the rapper four-fifths of his all-time starting five. Iverson listed Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal, and said the fifth person could be “a lot of dudes.”
Iverson is clearly influenced to pick guys he played against, and that’s totally understandable. His other choices besides Jordan are maybe debatable, but each of those guys is definitely an all-time great regardless. As for his fifth choice, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, and Wilt Chamberlain are all names that come to mind, but that’s a tough list to choose from.
Iverson also gave his five best players of today’s NBA besides LeBron, and he selected Steph Curry, Russell Westbrook, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and Carmelo Anthony. Melo is probably the one that sticks out the most there, but give A.I. a break since he and Melo go back to the days when they were teammates in Denver. Irving also may be a bit controversial, but he did hit the game-winning shot in Game 7 of the NBA Finals this season, and we know how Iverson loves his offensive-minded point guards, so we’ll give him a pass on that as well.
