Kyle Korver came into the league with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2003 as a second-round draft pick by way of Creighton. The star of those 76ers teams was Allen Iverson, and Korver has some amazing Iverson stories from his time in Philly.
Korver, now with the Cavs, went on the Road Trippin’ Podcast with teammates Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye and Fox Sports Ohio’s Allie Clifton and offered up his favorite Iverson story, which is timely considering it’s about the first game after the All-Star break. Korver tells a tale about Iverson getting benched for missing the first post-All Star break practice, and the subsequent interview A.I. gave to the media that Korver felt was even better than Iverson’s legendary “practice rant” (the story starts around the 26-minute mark).
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“For All-Star break, coach [Chris] Ford was like, ‘If you’re not back for practice at a certain time, you’re not gonna start the next game.’ He was really talking to A.I., cause the rest of us were gonna be there. So, A.I. just didn’t come. Like, he wasn’t there. He didn’t come at all. The next game was our game in Denver, and coach Ford was just like, ‘You’re not gonna start,’ and he was like, ‘I’m not gonna play,’ and he was like, ‘OK.’ So the next day, we were in Memphis…
“So we’re in this gym and he comes up to do his interview, so I’m behind him pretending like I’m shooting baskets because I want to hear everything that he’s saying. I’m shooting like two-foot shots just working on my form so that I can hear him. He’s like, ‘I don’t know no former eight-time scoring champ that come off the bench. I don’t know no former 10-time All-Star that come off the bench. I don’t know no former MVP that come off the bench. I don’t know no former Olympian that come off the bench.’
“And this dude read off his whole resume right off. ‘Why is it always Allen Iverson’s fault?’ I was like, ‘This is amazing!’ And it got no love. I was surprised to hear, it wasn’t picked up on SportsCenter or anything. I was like this is the best interview I have ever heard in my whole life.”
It’s a tremendous story and is made even better because Korver does his best Iverson impersonation when detailing what he said in the interview. Also, because the internet is great, a clip of the interview lives on YouTube.
It is a terrific interview, and I assume the sound of shots going in behind A.I. is coming from Korver. My personal favorite Korver-Iverson story is one he told me while he was with the Hawks about a shooting slump he was in early in his career and how Iverson walked over to him and told him to never stop shooting because “shooters shoot.” That’s great advice not just for basketball, but for life.
(h/t For The Win)
