Done by Default II?

The Memphis Grizzlies have announced late in the afternoon, November the 16^th, through a statement signed by General Manager Chris Wallace that the team will waive 10 time All Star Guard Allen Iverson. According to the statement, the one year contract will be terminated in a mutual agreement in which Iverson will receive only a fraction of the $3 million dollars he was scheduled to earn. AI will be put on waivers tomorrow and if he clears it, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent on Wednesday night.

The ironic thing about it is that Iverson was brought in to boost attendance for the Grizzlies who recorded a league worst last season and leaves the team before playing a single home game. Now that he’s officially gone, the Grizzlies should be happy for it, happy that he decided to walk away this early on the season and didn’t have enough time to cause that many problems to mess up the minds of their youngster. Besides the economic dimension of the deal and the attempt to boost attendance, the Iverson deal never made sense to begin with. Besides the Oklahoma City Thunder, no other team in the NBA has as many prospects as the Memphis Grizzlies and to bring a guy like Iverson that would take away minutes and shots wasn’t a very good strategy and then when they tried to correct that they forget whom they were dealing with.

This whole situation is more Iverson’s fault than anybody else’s. His inability to accept a role coming off the bench put him in this position at this stage of his career. Imagine this guy leading the Lakers’ second unit or the Cavaliers’, teams that are fighting for championships but lack scoring out of the bullpen. Maybe his main problem is with the minutes because he would be the main option on every team’s second unit shooting a lot and probably be an option at clutch situations but what he could do is look on a different way: fewer minutes now means minutes for a longer period of time however his inability to realize that he’s not the big shot anymore took him out of a 2-7 team that clearly can’t translate talent in wins.

Iverson claims that the team never informed him he would come off the bench and if that’s the case and was the plan all the time, then they have a piece of fault too. Everybody who is an NBA fan saw what happened last season when AI couldn’t come off the bench for a playoff team. Who on Earth would believe he would be OK being Mike Conley’s back-up? Although it was always the right thing to do, allow those guys to grow and develop together, if that was the plan all the way, they might as well have talked to Iverson to realize what they were getting into.

The end for Iverson in Memphis could easily mean the end for him overall. The only team that showed interest in him on the offseason was the Clippers and the idea was the bring him off the bench too, so now that Iverson emphasized once again his feeling about it, he closed yet another door in the NBA. Now that he’s officially out of Memphis, a lot of rumors about the Knicks and the Bobcats have been talked about. Except for the fact that Larry Brown is there and that they are such a terrible offensive team, I can’t see it happening. They just traded for Stephen Jackson and getting a guy like Iverson now will definitely killed even more their playoffs chances, while the Knicks are a very believable scenario. Donnie Walsh is dealing the season as throwaway one anyway, so you might as well do it selling people some excitement and entertainment however all the Marbury soap opera could have scared him off a little bit.

And just like Stephon Marbury, Allen Iverson could also be done by default. Not because of craziness but because of his inability to accept the fact he’s not the big shot anymore. Iverson is the face of an Era that thankfully if gone, an Era when individual talent was more important than the actual team and his inability to adapt to the new times and his new conditions might finish his career before he actually reaches a point when he should and that’s incredibly sad. Iverson will probably be a Hall of Famer because of all the numbers and the classic moments but it sucks to see him leaving for the back door.

Check More At: MVN

Leave of Absence: http://basketballoutsider.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/leave-of-absence/

Sixth Man in Memphis: http://basketballoutsider.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/sixth-man-in-memphis/

Mess of the Minutes in Memphis: http://basketballoutsider.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/mess-of-the-minutes-in-memphis/

~ by Rafael Uehara on November 17, 2009.