{"id":450113,"date":"2015-06-07T16:03:32","date_gmt":"2015-06-07T20:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/?p=450113"},"modified":"2019-01-06T20:18:02","modified_gmt":"2019-01-07T01:18:02","slug":"allen-iverson-true-to-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/allen-iverson-true-to-the-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Allen Iverson: True To The Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

words \/\/ Nick Engvall<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Allen Iverson is 40 years old. For better or worse, he\u2019s never changed. Neither has how polarizing he is. You either love Allen Iverson, or you hate him. It\u2019s rare that you find any basketball fans with feelings in between.\u00a0Even now<\/a>, years after he last played professional basketball in any regard, he is a talking point on a regular basis. What is it about AI that makes him relevant to the media and to sneaker consumers?<\/p>\n

Allen Iverson never won an NBA Championship, so compared to Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, he doesn\u2019t stack up from a historically accomplished sense. LeBron, KD, DRose and the current roster of the NBA\u2019s best players still routinely have the attention of beat writers and Twitter commentators to keep them relevant. Iverson\u2019s 11 All Star Game appearances and Most Valuable Player award line up nicely with another former superstar, Charles Barkley. However, even with Sir Charles\u2019 TV time in front of the masses as a weekly analyst on TNT\u2019s Inside the NBA<\/em>, Barkley doesn\u2019t keep the attention of haters the way Allen Iverson does.<\/p>\n

Most of the world is fed by societal norms\u00a0and raised to fit into those predetermined expectations. If you follow the rules and go with the status quo, you can become successful, so long as you are comfortable with always having someone else one step above you. The more you defy that, the more you\u2019re outcasted and the more \u201cthe man\u201d stacks the deck against you.<\/p>\n

This is true for athletes and entertainers especially, but also for the rest of the world. As his former coach Larry Brown once said, \u201cAllen Iverson could have been the most popular athlete the NBA has ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thankfully, for myself and his true fans, Allen Iverson never fit into the mold.<\/p>\n

Iverson was blessed with the athletic skill and heart of half a dozen men, compacted into a 6 foot, 165 pound frame. His physical abilities, whether with a football or a basketball, were nearly unbelievable, and by the time he was pointed out as the scapegoat for Hampton, Virginia\u2019s long running racial tension, the world had seen him. They saw the passion and intensity he played with.<\/p>\n

Iverson came along at the perfect time to be a hero, and the perfect time to be a villain. In the mid 1990s, ESPN began to become mainstream. Which meant the average high school kid in urban American cities could get their first glimpse into athletes across the country in a way that wasn\u2019t really possible before. That view also gave us a look into the struggle that AI had to go through, including the infamous bowling alley incident.<\/p>\n

Iverson was wearing black and white Nike Air Maestros the first time I saw him on TV. He caught an alley oop and threw it down two-handed. At the time, I was about the same size and in high school like AI, and could barely get down a single-handed dunk. From then on, I began following Iverson. If you didn\u2019t know him then, when he landed at Georgetown, and wore shoes like the Nike Air Way Up and the Concord Air Jordan 11, you had to take notice, because the media began paying attention<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n

After being the number one overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft by the 76ers, the wait for his signature sneaker began. When the Reebok Question<\/a> came out that fall, it was like you had to choose between Jordan and Iverson. That made The Crossover<\/a><\/em> an even more important moment than most people understand. But the choice to wear Iversons meant something more, because Iverson represented something more.<\/p>\n

The Question was the first time basketball sneakers represented the new era of hip hop, because Allen Iverson represented hip hop in everything that he did. The way he played, the way he dressed, the way he talked — it was different than the rest of the NBA and he was a threat to the league\u2019s status quo.<\/p>\n

While stars like Michael Jordan were dealing with a\u00a0gambling problem, and Charles Barkley was often drinking<\/a>, Allen Iverson was not only a problem, but he became the solution to the NBA\u2019s problems. AI had cornrows, tattoos, baggy clothes and the \u201ckeep it real\u201d attitude that made him easy for David Stern and the NBA to use as a distraction to brush other player\u2019s problems under the rug. Iverson had his issues, there is no denying that, but there was never a time that he made excuses, or felt the need to be anyone other than himself, which only solidified his tremendously dedicated fan base.<\/p>\n

The uncompromising nature of Allen Iverson only became more appealing because he continued to find success in the league. With scoring titles, all star appearances and a league MVP, his footwear became as important to the game as anyone else\u2019s. In fact, you could argue, his first ten signature sneakers rival any other player\u2019s first ten shoes from a signature line. Not to mention, he has one of the longest running signature sneaker lines as it is.<\/p>\n

Iverson\u2019s sneakers will undoubtedly hold the test of time. After all, they have for nearly twenty years thanks to the dedication of his fans who stick by him, buying his shoes and wearing his Reebok gear, because he wears his heart on his sleeve. If Allen Iverson was on the court, he was willing to sacrifice it all, diving into the crowd for a loose ball at any given moment. It\u2019s rare to find a player like that even today, especially one that has the talent and superstar status that AI had.<\/p>\n

The Answer may get unfairly targeted by the media, but even he would tell you, it\u2019s nothing he can\u2019t handle. Allen being Allen will always upset the people in this world that never had the courage to be themselves, and it’ll also be the primary reason his fans love him like a brother. Rest assured, good or bad, Allen Iverson will continue to be the show everyone wants to see, just like he has for his first 40 years. Because, as he says, \u201cI can\u2019t be the Allen Iverson that you want me to be. Only Allen Iverson I can be is the Allen Iverson that I am. And if you love that, then cool. And if you don\u2019t, shit, fuck it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

words \/\/ Nick Engvall: Allen Iverson is 40 years old. For better or worse, he\u2019s never changed. Neither has how…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4667,"featured_media":450126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1225458],"tags":[1404,1225459],"cultivate_rss":[],"class_list":{"2":"type-post"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAllen Iverson: True To The Game | Snkrs Day<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Where to buy Allen Iverson: True To The Game shoes. Snkrs Day has release dates, prices, and where to find Allen Iverson: True To The Game for sale.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/allen-iverson-true-to-the-game\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Allen Iverson: True To The Game\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Where to buy Allen Iverson: True To The Game shoes. 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