wilder的八卦，YOUTUBE和Yahoo名人娛樂都在討論

#瑪姬編：J個眼神太欠收編惹><
浪浪狂伸肉掌求收編！緊抱他手塞奶萌翻

影片授權：Desiray Miracle-Wilder
#浪浪 #收編 #握手

《斯卡羅》一二集觀後感與小彩蛋分享

公視粉絲團真壞，斯卡羅 SEQALU：Formosa 1867一次就上兩集，真的是逼人一口氣看完吶！我還真的看完了...根本停不下來～

心得：
超精緻的史詩劇，只看兩集就可以說，是我所見過最用心的台灣史詩劇。

對於19世紀末的台灣生活，尤其是房舍的考究十分仔細，還有劇中不斷穿插的5種語言：原、台、客、華、英，真的是聽得很過癮啊～雖然只聽得懂三種XD

其實看片尾的致謝名單，就知道他們聯繫了多少在地部落的耆老進行調查甚至協助，一部戲劇能做到這個程度，除了感動已經沒什麼話好說了，還原度真高。

－－－

這邊小小幫大家整理一下「斯卡羅」事件的背景：

「斯卡羅」是一個由許多部落組成的部落邦聯，位於中文文獻中稱呼此區眾部落的「瑯嶠下十八番社」範圍之內。（感謝眾高人指點與《傀儡花》作者陳耀昌醫師臉書分享）

斯卡羅是一個很特別的統治實體，族群的主體為排灣族，所以劇中族人使用排灣族語與穿著，然而他們的統治階級是從知本社（卡大地布）南遷的卑南族，雖然好幾百年前因打輸普悠瑪部落而來此，但因為他們仍武力高強、善於使用巫術（強弱果然是比較出來的），而使得恆春半島南方的排灣族等民族臣服，形成一種有點類似島內殖民的統治組織。但也因為被排灣族環繞的關係，耳濡目染下這支卑南族人的文化也漸漸被排灣化了。這裡要注意的是，因為不是所有南恆春排灣族都臣服於斯卡羅，所以不適合直接拿來代稱整個地區；當時台灣清國勢力範圍外的狀況，可以想像成歐洲那種小國林立的狀態。

早在荷蘭時代，《熱蘭遮城日誌》（江樹生，2003，已絕版）中就有提到「瑯嶠君主」這個用法，也提及該族群的強大。

然而，為拓展殖民地事業的荷蘭，在1642年底，由荷蘭東印度公司任命戰地指揮官Johannes Lamotius率軍前往基隆淡水等地，想奪走西班牙人的城堡（淡水紅毛城等等，不過今天的淡水紅毛城是荷蘭人在西班牙人原址上重建的就是了），也征服北部的居民。而在任務結束返回台南時，也順路征討虎尾、二林等不順從的聚落，就這樣回到安平古堡。放假一陣子之後，他率領了一支300人的軍隊再次向南挺進，目標：征服瑯嶠君主。

結果，該次遠征大敗數個瑯嶠十八番社成員，毀了許多舊社，君主更敗逃知本。（因荷蘭時期年代久遠，此部分其實存在多種不同解釋，本文僅取其一）

這應該就是正片開頭，龜仔甪（音作「鹿」）社族人宣稱「為祖先報仇」、12分鐘搶先看版中「幾百年前，斯卡羅被洋人殺的家都沒有了」的由來。這新仇舊恨的糾葛，原來是起源于荷蘭，羅妹號船難的美國人不管是劇中還是史實中，真的都死得莫名其妙... 被報錯仇了...

沒辦法，現代人都會臉盲了，也就別為難人家分不出來美國人和荷蘭人了（其實我也分不出來啊！！）

好啦，大概就是這樣，剩下的自己看～ 否則又會變成萬言書喔～

－－－

＊小彩蛋：

1. 柴城＝車城，社寮＝射寮=屏東海生館旁邊

2. 龜仔甪＝龜仔角＝社頂公園一帶

3. 羅妹號船員上岸的地方，大概在墾丁青年活動中心到墾丁福容大飯店之間的海岸。（自李仙得手稿比對地圖地形推測）

4 .那個第二集突然開口講很標準很出戲的英文的總兵劉明燈啊...他大人就是在草嶺古道寫「雄鎮蠻煙」和「虎字碑」的那位啦！下次去走草嶺古道，記得多看兩眼真跡啊～或者可以直接看我和Joeman 去走的影片就好，空拍超精彩喔：https://youtu.be/QnmYd9ieJzM

5. 我說那個梅花鹿的部分... 溪裡那幕那隻中央大公鹿，鹿角的叉好像有點不自然XD 然後在任何有狩獵活動的地方，鹿群都不會等到人離那麼近才跑掉喔～ 這邊有違事實，比較像卡通常見的「人與自然共融共處」的烏托邦世界觀裡，但那是不存在的；或者只存在於沒有狩獵人又多的地方，比如說能高安東軍（扶額頭

6. 根據伊能嘉矩「臺灣文化志」，羅妹號是在七星岩附近觸礁失事，距離台灣還有8海哩遠（14.8K），船員是乘坐救生艇登陸的，而不是片頭「大船就擱淺在海岸邊」的樣子。

7. 第一集龜仔甪社把船長夫人的頭丟回海中，但史實上，那是李仙得和卓杞篤簽訂條約之後，他們才把頭還給美國人。

8. 另外，羅妹號那名倖存的船員，並不是直接被送到府城。而是不知受何人幫助，逃到打狗（高雄）後自己向官府稟報，消息上呈台灣府，經英國領事館傳遞至北京辦事處，再由該國公使移牒美國公使蒲安臣（Burlingame）。當時，一艘停泊在安平港的英國軍艦哥爾摩蘭號（Cormorant）有前往墾丁進行搜救任務，但一接近海岸就被龜仔甪的族人攻擊，只能趕緊躲回船上，甚至向陸地開砲擊退族人（居然有這段，怕），最後無功而返。經歷這段插曲後，才輪到李仙得上場，來到台灣，要找龜仔甪族人算帳，但龜仔甪首領不買單，加上清廷敷衍，才有後續美國派兵殺來台灣的故事。

9. 李仙得這趟來台灣的故事他自己有寫成書，有中譯版《南台灣踏查手記：李仙得台灣紀行》，對這段歷史有興趣的朋友，這是一本不可錯過的著作。不過很遺憾...博客來最後一本現貨被我買走了，明天到貨，椰（欸

10. 我年初去山型者 Wilder在那山那谷辦的WILDER LAND有遇到温貞菱 Wen Chen-Ling 本人，那時候她和謎卡 Mika on the road 一起在溪邊放空，我那時候有眼不識泰山... 還問她是誰（眼神死）記得跟她講過幾句話的感覺... 她本人根本就是劇中蝶妹的感覺，輕飄飄的啊～這次看《斯卡羅》，真的很佩服她能背好講好這麼多種語言的台詞，太強了！！而且那帶一點英文的口音，有夠自然！讚讚！

我吐槽到這邊，你可能會覺得「欸等等，這時間軸怎麼差有點多？」但是畢竟《斯卡羅》可是經過兩次改編的歷史（陳耀昌改編一次，劇組再改編一次），而導演接受訪談時也已表示：「一部片不需要去、也不可能去承載所有歷史的真相。」

這部分我是認同的，本來就不應該把《斯卡羅》當成一部正史來看，而是以看《三國演義》那樣的心情，去欣賞當代影視劇作如何將150年前的台灣生活樣貌、族群互動、服裝居住乃至語言樣態，活生生的還原到眼前。

我可不會說《三國演義》因為不符合史實所以不好看哪...

而這部劇最大的價值是，《斯卡羅》可以是個起點，喚起我們的意識，去探究那些固著於這片土地上，長的硬邦邦，卻有著記憶溫度的真實歷史，深切的認識流在自己血液中的台灣基因。

台灣沒有史詩？滿腦子中國五千年？
講這種話的人，只是沒看書罷了。
今年起，也可以說，他只是沒看公視罷了。

－－－

誰說台劇沒人才、不好看、沒質感？那個時代早過去了，《斯卡羅》證明了，你如果還沒看到好看的台劇，就只是經費不足而已啦～一集1550萬，總算能摸到韓劇邊邊的製作費，果然可以拍出國際級的水準啊！！！

我會繼續追下去的（腦粉貌），
期待下週六（我是日，Netflix）！

#圖片來源中央研究院台灣百年歷史地圖1924日治地形圖

我在wilder land!

📷： @billwang1129

王艷薇 Evangeline Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_BJh1Mu7PPce7e6ZjwA0xtD5eoGgL4W-
王艷薇 Evangeline IG : https://www.instagram.com/evangeline.wilder/
SKRpresents IG : https://www.instagram.com/skrpresents/
Listen: https://www.soundscape.net/a/2031

BTS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WCJb_LCLzo

我好想念我的爸爸媽媽
這四年 謝謝他們可以支援我讓我有來台灣追逐夢想的時間
我逼自己不能讓他們失望
不斷跟自己說熬過去就會沒事
我不能自私 如果我失敗了 我會找其他工作好好孝順父母

現在我明白 其實不管多久 他們都會永遠的支持我
只是希望我過得開心
他們的聲音就像天使親吻過的聲音
讓我在異鄉繼續的生活 繼續的打拼

給你最重要的人

一個人在陌生城市中生活著；這種感覺艷薇最熟悉。但因為背後有父母無條件的支持，她才有辦法完成她音樂這份夢想。艷薇把父母親形容成 ‘被天使親吻過的聲音’，因為他們就像她在遠方的守護神，透過電話傳達出的聲音給艷薇力量繼續走下去。像黃昏的來臨，艷薇的溫柔歌聲配著感人的歌詞傳達她對父母的感激，也透過副歌高低起伏的旋律給出她所能給予的力量和溫暖。艷薇終於開始了解自己，能夠掙脫所有捆綁她的限制，也是因為有父母的支持，回頭看這幾年獨自一人在異鄉追求夢想的過程，他們是她生命中最重要且無法缺少的恩人。
_______________________________________________

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_______________________________________________
天使親吻過的聲音

詞 / 吳易緯
曲 / 王艷薇 Skot Suyama陶山
編曲製作：Skot Suyama陶山
鋼琴：Andrew Page

MV攝影：Kaley Emerson
MV剪輯：陳昱辰 (Chensport)


當你是那消逝的虹
我願是雨 從至高的天空墜落
等待 放晴後 終於能 攀著風 和你擦身而過
等待 和愛 Say Goodbye

只要你 呼喊著 我姓名 我就有力量
只要能 凝望著 你笑容 就擁有嚮往
只要我 失去夢 失去自我 流浪無盡黑夜
被天使 親吻過的聲音 引領我飛翔

當你是那逐浪的花
我願是你 腳下踩的溫柔土壤
如果 會流淚 是因為 終於能 仰望你的綻放
明白 和愛 Say Goodbye

只要你 呼喊著 我姓名 我就有力量
只要能 凝望著 你笑容 就擁有嚮往
只要我 失去夢 失去自我 流浪無盡黑夜
被天使 親吻過的聲音 引領我飛翔

哪怕擁有的一切明天毀滅
哪怕這世界不再需要我
我會尋一個角落 靜靜地唱著 我們的歌

呼喚著 你姓名 我就有遠方
只要能 凝望著 你笑容 就擁有嚮往
只要我 失去夢 失去自我 流浪無盡黑夜
被天使 親吻過的聲音 引領我飛翔

只要你 呼喊著 我姓名 我就有力量

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.