Gary Payton and Allen Iverson were obivously friends off the court, and it showed in their buddy to buddy relationship that they carried throughout their whole career. Payton revealed that he was the main inspiration behind the “Practice” rant by Iverson.
It was revealed in the Payton interview that they were under the influence of alcohol during their rant discussions. Now story has come out that Iverson may have been under the influence of alcohol during the press conference.
According to the new Iverson book written by Kent Babb, “Not a Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson”, the star guard from Georgetown had been drunk for the press conference and also had other crazy “behind closed doors” incidents throughout his NBA career.
Drew Magary of Deadspin.com had an advanced copy of the book and revealed some secrets we did not know about Iverson and his issues.
Iverson once threatened his wife, Tawanna, that he would pay a man $5,000 to have her killed.
Iverson also told Tawanna that he would pay someone a million dollars to testify in divorce court that they had an affair with her. (Side note: His price scale for nefarious deeds strikes me as poorly thought out)
Tawanna has also accused Allen of numerous instances of spousal abuse, including stepping on her bare foot and grinding his boot heel into it, and punching her in the back while laughing out loud. “That’s a kidney shot,” he told her.
Iverson was an absentee father who once left his young kids alone in a hotel room for a whole night to go get hammered. He also once told one of his sons, “You ain’t no real nigga. You a white boy, you preppy, you rich boy.”
As an avid 76ers and Allen Iverson fan, this story comes as a big surprise to me, even though we all know Allen Iverson had issues on and off the court. In one of his last games as a 76er, Chris Webber and Iverson both showed up late to the fan appreciation night game and were benched indefinitely.
We don’t know how accurate these accusations and stories may be, but one thing we do know that all of these incidents didn’t ever seem to take away his star power on the court.
