MacArthur also
said, "I shall return."
On Wednesday, after a dispiriting 111-98 loss to the Nets in which he played only 17 minutes and 20 seconds and scored four points, Allen Iverson said won't do the latter if he feels his skills, his health and his playing time are doing the former.
Iverson, a free agent after this season and one of the NBA's grittier warriors now in his 13th season, said he'd be willing to hang 'em up if he couldn't find the right situation for 2009-10.
"I won't do this again, in my career," Iverson said of his role as a role player with the Pistons. "I'll retire before I do this again. I would leave the game before I do this. I can't be effective like I know I can playing this way.
"It's just that I'm not used to it. Just not something I've had to do. Like I said, it's hard for me mentally and physically."
Iverson, who came to the Pistons in a Nov. 3 trade for Chauncey Billups, missed 16 games because of a back injury, has also been limited by a injury to his right shin, which he injured in his first scrimmage after returning from his back injury. The physical maladies are weighing on Iverson.
"I'm a competitor. I love to play," Iverson said. "There's nothing more that I like to do than play basketball. I love to play. I don't think I'm any good at playing basketball if I'm not happy. I don't think too many people would be.
"I'd rather be playing basketball and be happy at the same time. Basketball has always made me happy, it's always been a safe haven for me. It's always made me happy."
He did say he would be satisfied with his career -- as is -- if he did choose to retire.
"I'm with happy with my career and the things I've done in my career," Iverson said. "I'm blessed, I feel blessed to accomplish the things I have accomplished in my career and do the things I've done. I would feel fine if I had to do [retire]."
But he wouldn't like it if he felt he had to make that choice.
"It's not something I want to do," Iverson said, "because I love playing the game so much and I want to be out there on the basketball court, if that's something I need to do, then so be it.
"At this point in my career, I just want to be somewhere where I can be happy. That's the most important thing to me. I don’t want to not want to go to work. When you're doing what you love to do, you're supposed to love doing it.
"And once I get to that point when I don't love it anymore, I won't do it."
On Wednesday, it sounded as if he were close.
"No, I'm not happy at all. I would be lying if I said I was," Iverson said. "But I'm trying to do everything I can to be happy other than basketball. This is just one phase of my life not my whole life.
"Basketball is not my whole life. I have other part of my life, other people in my life that I'm surrounded with that make me happy. This is just a stepping stone in my life."
About halfway through the fourth quarter of the game, a friend IMed me about Iverson.
"Have you even noticed AI playing tonight?"
Noticed, yes ... especially when a former NBA MVP and nine-time All-Star gets a little more than a quarter-hour of playing time, his lowest total of the season.
But, what he meant was "impact." A.I. once was a guy teams planned for, schemed for, accounted for at all times. He could change the course of a game as quickly as he could crossover helpless defenders.
But at 33-years-old and with 33,000 falls, bumps and bruises on his slight frame since he entered the NBA in 1996, A.I. is not that guy any longer, especially if he's not on the floor.
And with his contract expiring at the end of this season, Iverson's value to his current team and any potential future team has never been lower.
Maybe that's why after the game, Iverson sat on his chair in the visiting locker room at Izod Center with a faraway look in his eyes, looking at nothing in particular.
Or maybe he was just seeing his basketball life flash before his eyes.
www.mynba.com
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu