Sixers News: Book Claims Allen Iverson Once Threatened to Have Wife Killed
By Tim Kelly
Allen Iverson was an incredible player for the Sixers. He wasn’t always an incredible person.
Since Allen Iverson‘s NBA career ended in 2010, the former Philadelphia 76ers’ star has seen his name appear on TMZ quite a few times. Iverson said in an interview last month that rumors of him struggling in any aspect of his life were ‘a myth’. And in 2015, that may be the case.
Iverson, normally someone who doesn’t like to be in the public eye, has been noticably public as of late. Much of that had to do with the fact that Iverson was promoting his Showtime documentary “Iverson”, which essentially told his side to the story of his basketball career and his life. There was also a story published recently by Bleacher Report that suggested that had Iverson not gotten into legal trouble late in his high-school years, he was prepared to play football at Notre Dame, rather than going to Georgetown to play basketball.
Those stories painted Iverson in the light of the misunderstood star, who was an incredible athlete. Essentially, he was the Eminem of the sports world, if you will, because he wasn’t understood by those around him and really didn’t wish to be judged by the public. Unforutnately, to showcase the talent that he had, being judged by the public was a necessarry evil.
Many view Iverson as a role model. But, like Eminem, the role model status comes with an asterik, at least to a degree. For as many stories as are written about Iverson that talk about all that he overcame, there seems to always be one or two that remind you that even once he overcame those struggles, he couldn’t seem to distance himself from his past. And maybe he didn’t want to.
Tuesday, Kent Babb’s book Not a Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson was released to the public.
Drew Magary of Deadspin passed along some of the rather chilling details in the book.
- Iverson once threatened his wife, Tawanna, that he would pay a man $5,000 to have her killed.
- Iverson was and perhaps still is an incorrigible drunk. He showed up to his infamous “PRACTICE?!” press conference sh*tfaced.
- Tawanna has also accused Allen of numerous instances of spousal abuse, including stepping on her bare foot and grinding his boot heel into it, and punching her in the back while laughing out loud. “That’s a kidney shot,” he told her.
- Iverson was an absentee father who once left his young kids alone in a hotel room for a whole night to go get hammered. He also once told one of his sons, “You ain’t no real nigga. You a white boy, you preppy, you rich boy.”
I’ll be the first white person to say that Iverson calling his son a “white boy” as what he deemed to be an insult isn’t a shot at white people, but rather an example of someone who has a history of not always being politically correct using a sterotype when he was probably inebriated.
Also, I’m not sure that it is breaking news, or at the very least a suprise, that Iverson probably wasn’t totally present at his “Practice?!” press conference.
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However, the first and third bullet points are ones that excuses can’t be made for. And for that matter, the part about Iverson leaving his young kids in a hotel room while he got drunk is a pretty awful accusation. Threatning to hire a hitman is unfathomable.
Iverson is still married to Tawanna, and again, the two seem to have stayed out of the gossip-mill over the last year plus. It’s also worth considering that Tawanna has never come off as a great person herself, so she probably did and said many horrible things as well. None of that excuses Iverson’s actions by any means, though.
The age-old debate over whether athletes are role models was one that Iverson was frequently used as an example in. On one hand, he overcame a rough childhood to became an NBA legend. On the other hand, he never seemed to overcome being a guy that you wouldn’t want your kids to look up to in his personal life. It could be that role models should be people that are at home for the child, but as Iverson the parent proved, parents aren’t always the best role models. So aiming to be like Iverson the athlete isn’t a bad thing for a young kid. Aiming to have his troubled off the court life isn’t something that one should do.
He was misunderstood to a degree, and wasn’t prepared to be a celebrity. For some, that made him special. And for others, it will be why they look down on “the answer”. The real answer on what type of guy Iverson was and is probably lies somewhere in between the two extremes.