Allen Iverson is inarguably one of the toughest and most unique players in NBA history. He’s beloved around the city of Philadelphia, the place he called home for the best years of his basketball career. He was set to make his return to the court in front of his adopted hometown crowd this weekend for the BIG3 tournament stop and fans in Philly couldn’t have been more psyched.
Iverson and his 3’s Company squad will face Tri-State on Sunday night in Philly, pitting two 76ers legends against each other in Iverson and Julius “Dr. J” Erving (the coach of Tri-State). Unfortunately, Philly fans got disappointing news on Instagram Sunday afternoon when Iverson announced that he would be sitting out the game due to an undisclosed health issue.
“To all my fans out there, based on advice from my doctor, I will not be playing in the game tonight,” Iverson said. “I will be there to coach my team and beat Dr. J’s team. I’ll be interacting with all my fans, and we’ll have a great time. You will see some great basketball. I love you fans for supporting me all of the years up to today, and I’ll see you when I get there.”
There wasn’t any additional information as to why Iverson won’t suit up for his squad 3’s Company’s game against Tri-State, which will likely lead to all sorts of speculation. The Answer has played sparingly so far, which he says was the plan all along, and his team is just 1-2 through it’s first three games and sits in fifth place in the standings.
He’ll still be on the sidelines coaching on Sunday night in Philly, which is the good news, but fans that paid to get one more glimpse at Iverson will sadly have to settle for him barking out orders rather than crossing over opponents.
