Episode 30: IVERSON: Chapter 2
Nicknamed "The Answer," Allen Iverson was an eleven-time NBA All-Star, won the All-Star game MVP award in 2001 and 2005, and was the NBA's MVP in 2001. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.
However, Iverson's rise to prodigious success and influence was a long, winding, complicated road with peaks and valleys. From Hampton, VA to Bethel HS; Circle Lanes Bowling Alley to John Thompson and Georgetown; Prison to #1 Overall Pick; ROY to MVP; The Crossover, The Stepover, The Sleeve, The Finals, The Cornrows, The "Practice" Rant, The Dress Code, The Rap Album, The Marital and Financial Troubles—talking about Iverson's place in basketball history and impact on culture is an incredibly nuanced, complicated undertaking.
Ben Craw joins the pod for our most ambitious deep-dive yet, The Life and Times of Allen Iverson, an on-going series examining the life and impact one of modern sports most influential figures.
CHAPTER 2
The bowling alley brawl (4:15), Hampton, VA's place is racial history (5:50), outsourcing's effects on race relations (6:40), racism and the struggle for resources (9:00), Iverson and his friends go to the bowling alley on February 14th, 1993 (10:40), Steve Forrest and allegations of racial epithets (12:40), a brawl: the black kids vs. white kids (13:40), Barbara Steele gets a concussion (15:00), Iverson alleges he fled the scene and wasn't involved in the brawl (20:30), AI remains active with Bethel's basketball team after the bowling alley incident (21:50), AI calls Gary Moore immediately after the brawl, professes his innocence, they hire a lawyer (23:40), Iverson is charged and tried as an adult even though he was only 17 years old (26:00), July 1993: the trial (29:30), Hampton Circuit Judge, Nelson T. Overton (30:30), conflicting testimonies about Iverson's involvement in the brawl: he said, she said (32:30), Nike's involvement in AI attending a high school basketball camp (33:30), Colleen Killilea (35:30), Maiming By Mob (38:00), September 8th, 1993: AI is handcuffed and goes to prison (43:00), AI is sentenced to a minimum security work-camp (46:00), local and national media coverage of the Iverson case (48:30), Newport New Daily Press had no African American staff members on their editorial board (50:30), Iverson's time in jail (55:00) and Douglas Wilder—the first African American governor ever elected in the history of the United States (58:00).
Enjoy the show? Wanna share an Allen Iverson memory? Got an angle or story you'd love to hear covered on the pod? Let us know!
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