Multiple NBA sources say Allen Iverson is facing alcohol and gambling issues that have derailed his career and threaten his post-basketball well-being, Stephen A. Smith of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports in a column published Monday. According to multiple NBA sources, there is widespread concern that the four-time NBA scoring champion, who left the Philadelphia 76ers in February to deal with his daughter's illness and will not return this season, "will either drink himself into oblivion or gamble his life away," Smith reported. Iverson's gambling problem is serious enough that he has been banished from casinos in Detroit and Atlantic City, N.J., according to Smith. The report comes as Iverson is dealing with significant personal problems. Iverson's wife Tawana filed for divorce on March 4, the same day the Philadelphia 76ers announced that the All-Star guard would not return for the rest of the season. In the divorce filing, made at Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta, Tawana Iverson said the couple's 8½-year marriage is "irretrievably broken" and sought full custody of the family's five children, child support and alimony. Iverson, who played 25 games for the Sixers this season, returned to Atlanta in February to be with his family and deal with an undisclosed illness affecting his 4-year-old daughter, Messiah. Smith, who has covered Iverson closely for years, wrote in Monday's column that Iverson needs someone with "the ideal combination of compassion and toughness" in his life. And former Temple coach John Chaney said that person is John Thompson, Iverson's former college coach at Georgetown. "[Thompson] is the one guy who'll have a chance of slowing this train wreck down, who could wrap his arms around Iverson and have an impact, because clearly it has not been done," Chaney said, according to Smith. "But there's still this one question: Will [Iverson] listen?" Iverson started the season with the Memphis Grizzlies but only played three games, amid disagreements over playing time, before announcing a short-lived retirement. He signed the 76ers as a free agent in December, making a tearful return to the city where he spent his first 10½ seasons, won four scoring titles, earned the 2000-01 MVP award and led the Sixers to the 2001 NBA Finals. Iverson was traded to the Denver Nuggets in 2006 and played for the Nuggets through 2008, when he was dealt to the Detroit Pistons. Please lock if posted already.
What's wrong with AI's daughter? I did a google search and all I found was his 15 year old daughter posing in her underwear for Myspace. I don't really feel sorry for him. I mean maybe for the drugs and alcohol, but not for the gambling. Oh, and his daughter if she is ill.
I never liked him, but it's really kind of sad. "Remember, Caesar, thou art mortal" and all that. Always sucks to see someone who was just that good fall like that. < Good. >
These aren't recent developments, they're problems that have continued to plague him throughout his entire career and they're only now coming to a boiling point because he's at the end of the career. In other words, he's always had those problems but no one cared and just accepted that how's A.I. was, as long as he played good basketball.
It's a crazy addiction I guess it's the adventure of risk. Especially if you have money to throw out. If you're a millionaire and you throw down 100,000 thats like nothing to you, but after a while it adds up without you realizing.
Allen's 4 year old, Messiah, has an unknown illness. either the doctors don't know or they are keeping it all private... she's been sick all of this season according to the news... as I said in another thread, I DO feel bad for him. his life is unraveling out of control and he needs professional help. no amount of money or street cred can help him right now. not to mention his NBA career is officially over now. he just didn't go out the way he could have. I said that over and over again in Memphis. he could have written the end to his own career graciously...
