AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -Allen Iverson has won an MVP award and been selected to nine All-Star games – but has never won an NBA championship.
He was at his best during the 2001 NBA finals, scoring nearly 33 points a game to give the Philadelphia 76ers a shot at a title.
Iverson insists he’s shooting for Plan B with the Detroit Pistons, hoping to complete his career with that elusive crown.
“I’ve tried to my ways plenty of times and it hasn’t been done,” he said. “Maybe there are things I’ll have to change.”
The Pistons hope Iverson makes his debut with them Wednesday night in Toronto – and A.I. is looking forward to playing alongside All-Stars Richard Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace, along with Olympian Tayshaun Prince.
“Throughout my career, I’ve been double and triple-teammed a lot,” Iverson said. “With this squad, it will be hard for teams to do that.”
home debut Sunday night against the Boston Celtics in an oddly intriguing NBA game for early November.
Iverson spoke at length Tuesday – a day after the blockbuster deal that brought him to Detroit from Denver – about the ways he’s grown as a person and a player.
Then, he set himself up for an exchange that showed he’s mature enough to be the butt of the joke.
“One thing is for sure, I’m going to do whatever the coach wants me to do,” Iverson said.
“Even practice?” Joe Dumars asked, mockingly.
“PRACTICE?!” Iverson replied with a sparkling smile, using the word he spoke over and over in Philadelphia in 2002.
Dumars, the Pistons’ president of basketball operations, welcomed Iverson at a packed news conference and delved into a deal that has created unprecedented excitement for a storied franchise with three NBA titles.
“I can’t think of one that has created this kind of buzz,” said Dumars, who has been a Pistons player and executive for two-plus decades.
The Pistons sent All-Star point guard and former finals MVP Chauncey Billups, top reserve Antonio McDyess and project Cheikh Samb to the Nuggets for Iverson.
McDyess and Samb have not been required to report to Denver.
the cost-cutting Nuggets buy out his contract.
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