1996 nba draft的八卦，YOUTUBE、PINTEREST和Yahoo名人娛樂都在討論

今天來回顧一下 Kobe 的生涯如何在NBA開始的。

有在關注歷史的小人物應該都知道，Kobe 是在那怪物梯的1996年，第13順位被黃蜂選進NBA的。那為什麼前面12隊都不願意選 Kobe? 又為什麼黃蜂明明選了 Kobe 卻又要把他換出去?

這一切都是當時湖人總裁 Jerry West 的預謀!

根據 West 自己後來的說法，當年選秀前的測試，湖人找來剛退役沒多久的防守名將Michael Cooper (生涯可是負責看管MJ, Drexler等級的) 來測試防守Kobe…結果竟然被Kobe摧毀了!

在當下Jerry West就在內部直接喊出，當時高中才要畢業的Kobe, 已經比當年湖人陣容的任何一個球員都還更優質。

當時的湖人陣中主將為Eddie Jones, Nick Van Exel, Vlade Divac, Cedric Ceballos 等明星，但是缺乏超級明星等級的球員。West會這樣說，很明顯Kobe展現了他在當時湖人陣中沒看到的特質，也深信Kobe就是湖人期待已久的未來巨星。

但是當年湖人只有第24順位，不可能有任何選到Kobe的機會。所以West只好用球員去換選秀權。在前一年，黃蜂陣中因為Larry Johnson和Alonzo Mourning雙彈頭不合，才剛把Mourning交易去熱火；因此欠中鋒的黃蜂其實很樂意的接受湖人願意把當時打出身價的Vlade Divac。

根據後來的說法，黃蜂在選秀前五分鐘才收到湖人要他們選Kobe的消息，而說真的他們也不在意，因為重點是在Vlade.

但是湖人刻意低調是有目的的，因為Kobe一直在選秀會前都和當時的紐澤西籃網講好，要在第八順位被選去做Dr. J 的接班人。

所以湖人只好一方面對外放話，說Kobe如果不爽就要回義大利打球 (Kobe高三之前在義大利念書)，一方面完全不表達對Kobe有興趣，試圖降低他的身價。

放風聲這招有收到效果；籃網後來選的是同樣來自費城Villanova的射手 Kerry Kittles。

其實當年也有傳出76人對Kobe有興趣，尤其是在測試會上，Kobe表現得遠優於後來的狀元Allen Iverson. 再加上Kobe又是費城子弟，高中時在Lower Merion還打破賓州高中單季最高得分紀錄，而之前的紀錄保持人，則是NBA傳奇Wilt Chamberlain.

從影片中不難看出來，Kobe高中時的動作，流暢傑出又有爆發力；充滿了Michael Jordan的影子。而他的33號也成為在上周末時費城選擇紀念他的背號。

那為什麼後來76人放掉 Kobe? 據說在測試的面試對談中，76人高層認為 Kobe有 obsessive, 偏執性人格；認為是個性上的缺陷。

誰知道，Kobe就是因為有這樣的偏執人格，才造就了他能夠不斷挑戰他原本就已經是頂級的才華，成就他成為歷史上偉大球員的生涯。

曾經有一句話形容Jerry West的眼光:

“He can spot talent through the window of a moving train”
他可以透過移動中的火車發掘出才華

雖然Kobe一輩子以孤僻，不需要依靠別人著名，但若要選擇一位造就他偉大生涯背後最重要的推手? It’s gotta be West. Jerry West.

#Kobe #JerryWest #1996Draft #TurnFlawIntoStrength #Day4of24

#EZTALK #你不知道的美國大小事
#KobeBryant #Kobe #BlackMamba #一次搞懂NBA賽事
永遠的黑曼巴 Kobe Bryant 🏀

Even if you’re not a basketball fan, you’d have to be living under a rock not to know who Kobe Bryant is. Michael Jordan may be the GOAT, but Kobe, also known by the nickname Black Mamba, is almost as famous.
即使你不迷籃球，你也一定得要與世隔絕，才可能沒聽過柯比布萊恩。麥可喬登是史上最偉大的籃球員，但綽號黑曼巴的柯比也是不分軒輊。

Born in Philadephia, Kobe spent a lot of his childhood in Italy, where his father, Joe Bryant, played professional basketball after retiring from the NBA. Returning to the U.S. fluent in Italian—and basketball—at the age of 13, Kobe played so well in high school that he was drafted into the NBA straight out of high school.
柯比出生於費城，父親喬布萊恩從 NBA 退休之後就一直在義大利打職籃，所以他童年時期幾乎都待在義大利。13 歲時，柯比帶著一口流利的義大利語跟籃球技術返回美國。由於他在高中籃球打得非常好，在高中就直接被選入 NBA。

Kobe joined the Los Angeles Lakers as a shooting guard in 1996, and would stay with the team for his entire 20-season career. And what a career it was! During that time, he led the Lakers to five NBA championships, played in 18 All-Star games, was a 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, a 12-time member of the All-Defensive Team, 2008 NBA MVP, and two-time NBA Finals MVP winner. He even won two gold medals as a member of the U.S. national team in the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics.
柯比在 1996 年加入洛杉磯湖人隊，擔任得分後衛，整個 20 年職業生涯皆效力於湖人隊。真是了不起！這段期間他帶領湖人隊拿下 5 次 NBA 總冠軍，入選 18 場全明星賽，15 次 NBA 最佳陣容，12 次最佳防守陣容，2008 年 NBA MVP，2 次 NBA 總決賽 MVP 得主。他甚至分別在 2008 年與 2012 年的夏季奧運中，以美國國家代表隊的成員贏得兩次奧運金牌。

After a series of injuries, Kobe decided to retire from the NBA in 2016 at the age of 36. But Kobe didn’t just spend his retirement playing golf. He kept busy writing books, making films and teaching his daughter Gianna, also a talented basketball player, to follow in his footsteps. And then, on January 26, 2020, tragedy struck. The helicopter that Kobe and Gianna were flying in—along with six family friends—crashed on the way to a basketball game, killing everyone on board. Kobe was 41-years-old, and his daughter just 13.
經歷一連串的職業傷害後，柯比決定在 36 歲，也就是 2016 年，從 NBA退役。不過，柯比退役之後不是只打高爾夫球而已。他忙著出書、拍片，並教育跟他同樣是天才球員的女兒吉安娜跟上他的腳步。接著在 2020 年 1 月 26 日，悲劇發生。柯比、吉安娜，連同 6 位家人朋友，搭乘前往籃球比賽的直升機墜毀，無人生還。當時柯比 41 歲，他的女兒年僅 13 歲。

1. live under a rock「與世隔絕」
2. GOAT「史上最偉大球員」：為Greatest of All Time的縮寫。
3. Black Mamba「黑曼巴」：是分布在非洲撒哈拉沙漠以南的一種大型毒蛇，而柯比之所以有「黑曼巴」的綽號，是因為他投籃與灌籃迅速，有如黑曼巴蛇爬行一樣迅速。
4. NBA「美國男子職籃」：為National Basketball Association的縮寫。
5. draft sb. into「徵召，招募」
6. shooting guard「得分後衛」：得分後衛的主要任務就是盡可能投籃得分，一般擔任此位置的球員在體型體能的要求較嚴格，需要有速度跟爆發力。
7. NBA Championship「NBA總冠軍」
8. All-Star Game「NBA全明星賽」：是美國職籃協會舉辦的年度球星表演賽，每年約於2月舉行，由觀眾與教練選出全聯盟的東西區明星球員出戰，是NBA明星週末（NBA All-Star Weekend）的壓軸比賽。
9. All-NBA Team「NBA最佳陣容」：是美國職籃協會每年頒獎的榮譽之一，用來表彰當季聯盟表現最好的籃球員。
10. All-Defensive Team「NBA最佳防守陣容」：用來表彰當季聯盟防守表現最好的球員。
11. MVP「最有價值球員」：為Most Valuable Player縮寫。
12. NBA Final「NBA總決賽」：為爭奪NBA最高榮譽「NBA總冠軍」的賽事，也是NBA 季後賽（NBA playoffs）的最後一輪比賽，於每年6月初舉行。
13. follow in one’s footsteps「仿效某人，步上某人腳步」

--
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For those who were there at McDonough Gymnasium on August 4, 1994, few will forget the arrival of a 6-0 freshman guard who needed no introduction. The rumors of Allen Iverson's arrival to the Kenner Summer League were true, and by game's end, Iverson had scored 40 points. By the Sunday afternoon final, before an overflow crowd inside the gym and a crowd of those outside who could not get in, Iverson finished a combined 99 point effort in three days against some of the best collegiate talent in the city. This, of course, from a player that had not played organized basketball in over a year.

The Allen Iverson years had begun.

A brief profile can't do justice to tell the story of one of the greatest pure athletes ever to attend Georgetown, a man without peer in his talent over two years at the collegiate level. Just a year before his Kenner debut, few would have imagined Allen Iverson ever playing college basketball.

Iverson was not only a 31 point a game guard for Bethel HS, but a football player of tremendous skill. As a quarterback and defensive back his sophomore season, he produced nearly 1,600 yards offense and 13 INT's. By his junior year, he accounted for 2,204 yards, 21 touchdowns by rush or interception, and 14 touchdown passes. In a region which has produced NFL quarterbacks such as Michael Vick and Aaron Brooks, there are those who will still say "Bubbachuck" Iverson was better than both of them. Schools such as Arkansas, Kentucky, Duke, and three dozen other top programs across two sports were vying for perhaps the greatest two-sport star the Tidewater had ever produced.

When he led Bethel to the state title, someone asked what it was like to win the title. "I'm going to get one in basketball now," which he did. In late February, 1993, en route to the state title he had promised, Iverson was one of a large group of Bethel teammates at a Hampton bowling alley when a fight broke out between students from rival schools trading racial insults. Three people were hurt in the aftermath. Despite conflicting testimony from eyewitnesses and no clear evidence linking him to the crime, Iverson was one of four black students arrested.

Racial tensions were heightened when the prosecutors passed on a misdemeanor assault charge and charged Iverson with three counts of felony "maiming by mob", which carried a 20 year prison sentence. Despite video evidence which did not place Iverson in the crowd at the time of the fight, he was convicted in a racially charged case.

The 20 year sentence was later reduced to five, and Iverson was granted clemency by Gov. Douglas Wilder three months later, sending Iverson to a detention program at an alternative high school. (The original charges were thrown out by the Virginia court of appeals in 1995.)

In the spring of 1994, with Iverson still in detention, his mother approached John Thompson with a plea to help her son get to college and start a new chapter of his life. Though Thompson had passed on a number of troubled players in the past, he offered Iverson a scholarship in April of that season, contingent upon his completion of high school and his legal release, which was granted 48 hours before his Kenner debut.

By his debut in a Georgetown uniform in November 1994, Iverson had been the subject of intense national media attention. In the Hoyas' annual exhibition with Fort Hood, Iverson scored 36 points, five assists, and three steals in 23 minutes. Local columnists were in awe.

"Hang his number up in the rafters," wrote Tom Knott of the Washington Times. "He's better than most of the point guards in the NBA right now."

"I saw Lew Alcindor, Austin Carr, Moses Malone, Alonzo Mourning, Albert King, Ralph Sampson and Patrick Ewing play in high school," said the Post's Thomas Boswell. "Now, I have two memories on my first impression top shelf. The man who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Allen Iverson."

Iverson opened the 1994-95 season in Memphis, TN in a 97-79 loss to defending NCAA champion Arkansas, scoring 19 points. Six days later, he scored 31 in a nationally televised game with DePaul, followed by 30 four days later against Providence, leading the team in scoring 22 times that season. His only game under double figures for the season (and his career) was a game where he played only ten minutes in a loss at Villanova, a game Georgetown coach John Thompson threatened to forfeit when a group of Villanova students paraded through the Spectrum in black and white-striped prison garb, with a sign comparing Iverson to O.J. Simpson.

"You accept certain ribbing, but there is a line," Thompson said after the game. "I can condone any Christian university sitting and watching that happen...If that happens [again], I going to walk. It that simple." Such fan behavior was not seen thereafter.

Later in the season, with President Bill Clinton in attendance, Iverson scored 26 as the Hoyas routed Villanova, 77-52. He followed it up with 21 to beat Syracuse, 28 versus St. John's, 31 in a Big East tournament opener with Miami (a game that saw Iverson outscore the entire Hurricane team at the end of the first half), and 27 versus Connecticut in the semis. In the NCAA regional, he scored 24 in the loss, but held Jeff McInnis to 1 for 8 shooting. By season's end, Allen Iverson had been named Big East Player of the Week nine times, Rookie of the Year, a second team all-conference selection, and honorable mention All-America recipient. Having led the Hoyas in points and steals en route to the school's first NCAA regional appearance since 1989, Iverson was already a star. By 1996, he would become nothing less than a sensation.

The leaser of a talented team that featured four future NBA stars, Allen Iverson dominated the 1995-96 season as no Hoya has done before or since. Adept at the crossover dribble that became his NBA trademark, lightning quick to the basket, and able to score on opponents at will, Iverson was largely unstoppable. Even more impressive was an effort to improve his shooting touch, for despite averaging 20.4 points as a freshman in 1994-95 (2nd all time for a Georgetown rookie), Iverson only shot 39 percent from the field, 23 percent from three, and 19 percent from three in Big East play. For his sophomore season, his field shooting increased to 48 percent, his three point mark to 36 percent. The results were striking.

In the pre-season NIT versus Temple, Iverson shot 50 percent for 24 points and a career high 10 rebounds. After a 23 point effort against Georgia Tech, he scored a career high 40 against Arizona, one of two 40+ point games that season. In Big East play, Iverson could ring up points with ease, such as the game where he scored 21 points in only 20 minutes against Rutgers.

In the final three months of the season, Iverson led the team in 21 of the team's 25 games: 40 against Seton Hall, 39 against St. John's, 34 against Providence. He scored 30 in a wild win over Memphis, and followed it up two nights later with 26 in an upset of #3 Connecticut. For the game, Iverson totalled 26 points, 8 steals, and 6 assists, including a soaring dunk past Ray Allen and the Huskies. It was the highest ranked team any Georgetown team had defeated since 1988. His best performance of the season might have been a 37 point, 8 rebound, and three steal effort against #6 ranked Villanova, playing only 27 minutes. The 106-68 win represents the sixth largest margin of victory and the largest margin ever by a Georgetown team against a top 10 opponent.

Iverson was capable of an off game; unfortunately, two came at particularly inopportune times for the Hoyas' hopes for a national title. Entering the 1996 Big East Final with a #1 seed on the line, Iverson shot 4 for 15 and the Hoyas lost by one, 76-75. As a result of the loss, Georgetown was seeded #2 behind top ranked UMass, and in the regional final between the two teams Iverson struggled with a 6 for 21 effort in the loss. For the season, though, his statistics were astonishing: his 926 points broke the then-record by 124 points. He set new single season marks in field goals, field goal attempts, three pointers, three point attempts, steals, minutes, and scoring average (25.0), the latter of which ranked 7th in the nation that season. The Big East's defensive player of the year, he was named a consensus All-American amidst numerous other awards.

If he could somehow have stayed four years, Iverson undoubtedly would have shredded the Georgetown record books. But whatever hopes existed for Iverson to resist the lure of the NBA were short lived, particularly with the news that one of his sisters had fallen ill. Seeing the opportunity to take care of his family's medical needs, Iverson announced for the NBA draft soon after the end of his sophomore season, becoming the first Georgetown player in the Thompson era to do so. The compact that had bound so many great Hoya players to a four year commitment--from Ewing to Williams, Mourning to Mutombo--had now been broken.

The first pick in the 1996 NBA draft, Iverson signed a $3.9 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers and a ten year, $50 million deal with Reebok. His effort on the court is well known and respected, but for all the media portrayals of Iverson as the anti-hero, an icon of a "Hip Hop Nation" that ran counter to the NBA's carefully constructed marketing image, or as a symbol of all that is allegedly wrong in professional basketball, he remains remarkably well-grounded.

Married for six years and the father of two, Iverson is fiercely loyal to his teammates and to his childhood friends. He considered it an honor to play for the U.S. Olympic team in 2004 when other NBA stars passed on the offer, and maintains a number of charity events to benefit his local community. In comparison to his NBA career, his years at Georgetown were largely free of the intense media and personal scrutiny, providing at least two years where he could grow as a person as well as a basketball player.

His arrival and exit at Georgetown is still a source of debate in some circles, but his performance on the court is not. Allen Iverson found a home, even briefly, at the Hilltop, and remains one of its brightest stars. "In my heart, I know I'm a basketball player," Iverson said following his 2006 NBA trade, "being that I know I can play with the best of them."

From that first Kenner League game on 1994, no one has doubted it since.

For those who were there at McDonough Gymnasium on August 4, 1994, few will forget the arrival of a 6-0 freshman guard who needed no introduction. The rumors of Allen Iverson's arrival to the Kenner Summer League were true, and by game's end, Iverson had scored 40 points. By the Sunday afternoon final, before an overflow crowd inside the gym and a crowd of those outside who could not get in, Iverson finished a combined 99 point effort in three days against some of the best collegiate talent in the city. This, of course, from a player that had not played organized basketball in over a year.

The Allen Iverson years had begun.

A brief profile can't do justice to tell the story of one of the greatest pure athletes ever to attend Georgetown, a man without peer in his talent over two years at the collegiate level. Just a year before his Kenner debut, few would have imagined Allen Iverson ever playing college basketball.

Iverson was not only a 31 point a game guard for Bethel HS, but a football player of tremendous skill. As a quarterback and defensive back his sophomore season, he produced nearly 1,600 yards offense and 13 INT's. By his junior year, he accounted for 2,204 yards, 21 touchdowns by rush or interception, and 14 touchdown passes. In a region which has produced NFL quarterbacks such as Michael Vick and Aaron Brooks, there are those who will still say "Bubbachuck" Iverson was better than both of them. Schools such as Arkansas, Kentucky, Duke, and three dozen other top programs across two sports were vying for perhaps the greatest two-sport star the Tidewater had ever produced.

When he led Bethel to the state title, someone asked what it was like to win the title. "I'm going to get one in basketball now," which he did. In late February, 1993, en route to the state title he had promised, Iverson was one of a large group of Bethel teammates at a Hampton bowling alley when a fight broke out between students from rival schools trading racial insults. Three people were hurt in the aftermath. Despite conflicting testimony from eyewitnesses and no clear evidence linking him to the crime, Iverson was one of four black students arrested.

Racial tensions were heightened when the prosecutors passed on a misdemeanor assault charge and charged Iverson with three counts of felony "maiming by mob", which carried a 20 year prison sentence. Despite video evidence which did not place Iverson in the crowd at the time of the fight, he was convicted in a racially charged case.

The 20 year sentence was later reduced to five, and Iverson was granted clemency by Gov. Douglas Wilder three months later, sending Iverson to a detention program at an alternative high school. (The original charges were thrown out by the Virginia court of appeals in 1995.)

In the spring of 1994, with Iverson still in detention, his mother approached John Thompson with a plea to help her son get to college and start a new chapter of his life. Though Thompson had passed on a number of troubled players in the past, he offered Iverson a scholarship in April of that season, contingent upon his completion of high school and his legal release, which was granted 48 hours before his Kenner debut.

By his debut in a Georgetown uniform in November 1994, Iverson had been the subject of intense national media attention. In the Hoyas' annual exhibition with Fort Hood, Iverson scored 36 points, five assists, and three steals in 23 minutes. Local columnists were in awe.

"Hang his number up in the rafters," wrote Tom Knott of the Washington Times. "He's better than most of the point guards in the NBA right now."

"I saw Lew Alcindor, Austin Carr, Moses Malone, Alonzo Mourning, Albert King, Ralph Sampson and Patrick Ewing play in high school," said the Post's Thomas Boswell. "Now, I have two memories on my first impression top shelf. The man who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Allen Iverson."

Iverson opened the 1994-95 season in Memphis, TN in a 97-79 loss to defending NCAA champion Arkansas, scoring 19 points. Six days later, he scored 31 in a nationally televised game with DePaul, followed by 30 four days later against Providence, leading the team in scoring 22 times that season. His only game under double figures for the season (and his career) was a game where he played only ten minutes in a loss at Villanova, a game Georgetown coach John Thompson threatened to forfeit when a group of Villanova students paraded through the Spectrum in black and white-striped prison garb, with a sign comparing Iverson to O.J. Simpson.

"You accept certain ribbing, but there is a line," Thompson said after the game. "I can condone any Christian university sitting and watching that happen...If that happens [again], I going to walk. It that simple." Such fan behavior was not seen thereafter.

Later in the season, with President Bill Clinton in attendance, Iverson scored 26 as the Hoyas routed Villanova, 77-52. He followed it up with 21 to beat Syracuse, 28 versus St. John's, 31 in a Big East tournament opener with Miami (a game that saw Iverson outscore the entire Hurricane team at the end of the first half), and 27 versus Connecticut in the semis. In the NCAA regional, he scored 24 in the loss, but held Jeff McInnis to 1 for 8 shooting. By season's end, Allen Iverson had been named Big East Player of the Week nine times, Rookie of the Year, a second team all-conference selection, and honorable mention All-America recipient. Having led the Hoyas in points and steals en route to the school's first NCAA regional appearance since 1989, Iverson was already a star. By 1996, he would become nothing less than a sensation.

The leaser of a talented team that featured four future NBA stars, Allen Iverson dominated the 1995-96 season as no Hoya has done before or since. Adept at the crossover dribble that became his NBA trademark, lightning quick to the basket, and able to score on opponents at will, Iverson was largely unstoppable. Even more impressive was an effort to improve his shooting touch, for despite averaging 20.4 points as a freshman in 1994-95 (2nd all time for a Georgetown rookie), Iverson only shot 39 percent from the field, 23 percent from three, and 19 percent from three in Big East play. For his sophomore season, his field shooting increased to 48 percent, his three point mark to 36 percent. The results were striking.

In the pre-season NIT versus Temple, Iverson shot 50 percent for 24 points and a career high 10 rebounds. After a 23 point effort against Georgia Tech, he scored a career high 40 against Arizona, one of two 40+ point games that season. In Big East play, Iverson could ring up points with ease, such as the game where he scored 21 points in only 20 minutes against Rutgers.

In the final three months of the season, Iverson led the team in 21 of the team's 25 games: 40 against Seton Hall, 39 against St. John's, 34 against Providence. He scored 30 in a wild win over Memphis, and followed it up two nights later with 26 in an upset of #3 Connecticut. For the game, Iverson totalled 26 points, 8 steals, and 6 assists, including a soaring dunk past Ray Allen and the Huskies. It was the highest ranked team any Georgetown team had defeated since 1988. His best performance of the season might have been a 37 point, 8 rebound, and three steal effort against #6 ranked Villanova, playing only 27 minutes. The 106-68 win represents the sixth largest margin of victory and the largest margin ever by a Georgetown team against a top 10 opponent.

Iverson was capable of an off game; unfortunately, two came at particularly inopportune times for the Hoyas' hopes for a national title. Entering the 1996 Big East Final with a #1 seed on the line, Iverson shot 4 for 15 and the Hoyas lost by one, 76-75. As a result of the loss, Georgetown was seeded #2 behind top ranked UMass, and in the regional final between the two teams Iverson struggled with a 6 for 21 effort in the loss. For the season, though, his statistics were astonishing: his 926 points broke the then-record by 124 points. He set new single season marks in field goals, field goal attempts, three pointers, three point attempts, steals, minutes, and scoring average (25.0), the latter of which ranked 7th in the nation that season. The Big East's defensive player of the year, he was named a consensus All-American amidst numerous other awards.

If he could somehow have stayed four years, Iverson undoubtedly would have shredded the Georgetown record books. But whatever hopes existed for Iverson to resist the lure of the NBA were short lived, particularly with the news that one of his sisters had fallen ill. Seeing the opportunity to take care of his family's medical needs, Iverson announced for the NBA draft soon after the end of his sophomore season, becoming the first Georgetown player in the Thompson era to do so. The compact that had bound so many great Hoya players to a four year commitment--from Ewing to Williams, Mourning to Mutombo--had now been broken.

The first pick in the 1996 NBA draft, Iverson signed a $3.9 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers and a ten year, $50 million deal with Reebok. His effort on the court is well known and respected, but for all the media portrayals of Iverson as the anti-hero, an icon of a "Hip Hop Nation" that ran counter to the NBA's carefully constructed marketing image, or as a symbol of all that is allegedly wrong in professional basketball, he remains remarkably well-grounded.

Married for six years and the father of two, Iverson is fiercely loyal to his teammates and to his childhood friends. He considered it an honor to play for the U.S. Olympic team in 2004 when other NBA stars passed on the offer, and maintains a number of charity events to benefit his local community. In comparison to his NBA career, his years at Georgetown were largely free of the intense media and personal scrutiny, providing at least two years where he could grow as a person as well as a basketball player.

His arrival and exit at Georgetown is still a source of debate in some circles, but his performance on the court is not. Allen Iverson found a home, even briefly, at the Hilltop, and remains one of its brightest stars. "In my heart, I know I'm a basketball player," Iverson said following his 2006 NBA trade, "being that I know I can play with the best of them."

From that first Kenner League game on 1994, no one has doubted it since.

I have grouped all the dunks by AI as a Nuggets.

Enjoy.

Won the gold medal at World University Games with the US Team in 1995.

Named Big East Rookie of the Year 1995
Named Big East Defensive Player of the Year 1995, 1996.

1st pick in NBA Draft 1996

Was named MVP of the 2000-01 NBA season.

Attended Georgetown University from 1994 to 1996 where he was coached by the legendary John Thompson.

Drafted first overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in 96.

Rookie of the Year 1997.
NBA Rookie 1st Team 1997.
Rookie All-star game MVP in 1997.

NBA All Star 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.

All Star Game MVP 2001, 2005.

NBA MVP 2001.(Shortest MVP in MVP history)

All NBA First Team 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005.

In 2001, Led the 76ers to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1983 (lost to the LA Lakers in 5 games).

Played for Georgetown University.

Played Quarterback in HS and led his school to state titles in football and basketball his senior year.

Under lifetime contract with Reebok.

Daughter Tiaura (b. 1995), son Allen II, or "Deuce" (b. 1998).

Led the Bethel High School Bruins (Hampton, Virginia) to the 1993 basketball and football state championship; the then-16 year old played point guard and quarterback.

Released a rap album, Slow Motion, with appearances by his friends Ma$e, Jermaine Dupri, Da Brat and Kool-G-Rap.

Georgetown University's all-time leading scorer.

Named after his father, Allen Broughton, who left the family and never married Iverson's mother.

Since 1998, he has hosted the Allen Iverson Celebrity Classic to benefit the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Lives on the same street as M. Night Shyamalan.

Wife Tawanna, gave birth to their 3rd child, Isaiah Rahsaan Iverson, the baby weighted 7 lbs. and was born at 9:30 A.M. on August 8, 2003.

He founded the Crossover Foundation.

Allen's third child, son Isaiah Rahsaan, was named for Isiah Thomas and the late Rahsaan Langford, Allen Iverson's close friend who was shot to death in October 2001.

Olympic Bronze Medalist (2004 - Basketball).

He and wife Tawanna welcomed their fourth child, daughter Messiah Lauren Iverson on August 16, 2005 at 11:47 AM, weighing 6 lbs, 12 ounces.

Currently playing for the Denver Nuggets