Tag: Iverson

By The Associated Press (CP) – 7 hours ago

ANKARA, Turkey — Former NBA all-star Allen Iverson has scored 15 points in his debut for Besiktas Cola Turka but failed to carry his team to victory against Hemofarm Stada.

Hemofarm Stada defeated Besiktas 94-91 in a European Cup game on Tuesday in Istanbul. Turkish fans shouted “Allen Iverson, the son of Besiktas Cola Turka” during the match.

The 11-time NBA all-star had agreed to a US$4-million, two-year contract with Besiktas after no NBA team offered him a contract for the season.

Iverson is 17th on the NBA’s career scoring list with 24,368 points over a 14-year career with Philadelphia, Denver, Detroit and Memphis. He won the league’s Most Valuable Player award in 2001.

Allen Iverson’s first interview on Turkish soil shortly after his arrival in the country where he will spend the next two years playing for Besiktas. He says it is the “most important thing to be accepted and wanted and appreciated” and that he hopes to “bring a lot of excitement for the fans”.

Anticipation that Allen Iverson was headed to Istanbul grew for weeks. In true Iverson fashion, he was supposed to be there Saturday, to be greeted by throngs of people, to sign autographs, to be introduced to his new teammates with Besiktas. But he missed his flight, supposedly because he arrived at the airport without his passport. (Where, oh where, have we heard something like that before?) He is holding a 2-year contract worth $4 million, but the celebration was delayed until yesterday, when he was surrounded (mobbed?) by dozens of photographers and media members at Ataturk Airport, with giddy fans singing what seemed to be fight songs.

Philadelphia Daily News

ISTANBUL — The Turkish basketball club Besiktas says former NBA star Allen Iverson’s arrival in Istanbul has been delayed by two days.

He was scheduled to arrive Saturday and meet fans before a game at Besiktas’s Cola Turka Arena.

Besiktas said in a statement posted on its website Friday that Iverson’s arrival had been pushed back because the 11-time NBA all-star and former scoring champion was not able to complete his preparations for the move on time.

Besiktas said Iverson would now arrive in Istanbul on Monday.

Iverson agreed to a US$4-million, two-year contract with Besiktas after no NBA team offered him a contract for the season.

By FRANK WARD

DailyPhiladelphian.com Editor

Allen Iverson will always have a place in our hearts. The small guy played much bigger than his size and gave us memories that we won’t see for a long time on any hardwood in these parts.

Still, we also know the other side of AI; the overt defiant side. That’s what Turkey will now see.

Allen Iverson missed his flight to Turkey and will have his introduction to the fans delayed. This will be far from the last time we hear of AI troubles across the ocean.

Iverson has reportedly missed his flight to join his new team in Turkey and we doubt this will be the last time the team will need to readjust around the former NBA MVP. Iverson is simply playing for money at this point to cover his gambling debts. How else can you explain a guy playing overseas on the downside of his career?

AI foreshadowed the fact that he will play by his rules during his two-year, $4 million contract during negotiations. He reportedly wanted a cap on the amount the team could fine him. He has every intent of breaking rules, skipping practices and games. As much as AI needs a support system and his family, don’t be surprised to see him hop on a plane in midseason and disappear to the US for a week here or there.

If AI didn’t confine to rules of NBA hall-of-famers such as Larry Brown, do you really think he’ll stay out of trouble in Turkey?

Yeah, didn’t think so.