Iverson lives up to his stereotype so hard it hurts

LETS DO THIS DBB KEEP IT UP!!!!

“practice?”

WHO"S NEXT?

“If I can’t practice, I can’t practice. It is as simple as that. It ain’t about that at all.”

Here’s another photoshop for our club

This reminds me of all the time when Chauncey missed practice.

Oddly enough, it’s all good.

This gives Curry a moment to assert authority early in the season.

Meshing Iverson into the Pistons’ chemistry is job number one, and a “distraction” like this could actually help.

Iverson needs controversy to play well like Rasheed needs techs to play well.

I’m in here, I’m supposed to be the franchise baster, and we talkin bout practice man

How am I supposed to increase the Piston’s salary cap margin by practicing?

What a joke. I played basketball for a small-time NIAA Division 2 school in college. And we played games on Christmas day! And I wasn’t even on a full scholarship!!

We the fans are paying Iverson $22 million dollars so he can skip practice just weeks after being acquired. He’s pathetic. He may have great talent, but he has never been a team player.

I was optimistic that being immersed in Pistons’ culture would help change that, but this is obviously a serious blow to my confidence.

I hope that he gets booed by the fans when he steps on the court, fans – many of whom – most likely worked all week, and some even on Thanksgiving. Please, AI, get over yourself for the sake of our franchise and its fans.

Man, what I wouldn’t do to trade #1’s with Denver again.

BG – you want jr smith? Yikes!

We aint spoda be practicin’ on turkey day fool! Blue colla aint my thing, eat’n turkey my thing and stuffing and yams some tators, gravey. Leave some room for the pie, pie in the sky fool. I say bring the guy off the bench! Till we get DICE back. Let him miss all the practice he wants. He can take every shot he wants for 15min/gm. It’s not like we don’t have enough guards. Let DICE handle it when/if he comes back. HOW TALL ARE YOU PRIVATE AI? Love, peace, & hair grease.

I didn’t know they stacked @!$# that high.

I’m going to say this is good in the long run.

It will force the rest of the team to re-examine and enforce “Pistons culture” to AI over time, even though that culture hasn’t always been in evidence in recent years at key points. I think Detroit will now refocus and return to being a team first group that is interdependent.

AI is going to have to bite his tongue and enjoy playing with the second unit for awhile and I think that may have positive effects for the rotation (it gets him and Rip off the court at the same time to start) and it gives the second unit PLENTY o’ offense.

Pluses from “talkin’ ’bout practice” include the team getting it’s focus sharpened, Rip gets to feel a bit better about his offense, and the team goes back to having super depth with the return of McDyess.

AI is not going to be any trouble and it really is only one practice (on Thanksgiving no less) that he missed. Of course it’s not good in the short run as AI himself said the team needs to practice together but I’m willing to be it’s really a blessing in disguise.

The second unit is now AI/Afflalo/Herrmann/McDyess/Kwame? That’s good.

I see that Manny is being Manny.

Are we done spinning this? Cuz I think it’s bad. I don’t think this situation is a good one at all. Maybe I’m missing something.

Matt makes good points in his Fanhouse article.

Agree….DICE isn’t back yet and this doesn’t seem like someone who wants a belt as much as him. Do you think he is going over his options right about now? ugh

There’s nothing good about this folks. This dude’s a wild card and leaves a nasty feeling in my stomach (and no that’s not the turkey.)

What’s a guy to do but sit and watch our former captain lead his new team.

Ugh.

Well before we all fly too far off the handle, I have it on good authority that all 20mm of AI’s expiring contract were at the pistons practice facility at 10am sharp

All this after Curry went to bat for AI with the lack of defensive coaching in Denver the last couple of years. Thanks coach, gotch your back. NOT

@Forty:
That’s precisely what I meant when I said this:
“How am I supposed to increase the Piston’s salary cap margin by practicing?”

You and I agree too much. Are we related? :)

I remain excited about what AI can bring to this team. If it is a miserable failure, we get a $20 mil check. Also, if dude pulls a Marbury and sits on the sideline for the rest of the season (which he won’t), we get to see what this kid Bynum is made of.

Look, Iverson’s legacy is in his hands right now. He has an opportunity to punctuate it on the positive, championship or not. He’s not going to ruin this opportunity, one missed practice or not.

I’m curious, if the Practice video never happened, would the press be making such a big deal out of a player missing a holiday practice?

Mw – I agree that it’s pretty incredible that iverson chose to do this after saying he’s turned over a leaf, joking about practice, saying how much practice has helped, etc.
 
But I’m not sure curry should be making long-term strategic decisions like whether stuckey or ai starts on the basis of one disciplinary issue. I also think it’s unfair to say the team has struggled solely or primarily b/c of incorporating iverson. I’d argue, outside of rip (who started slow last year btw), the biggest underperformers have been bench players – maxiell and stuckey have been mostly awful this year. I think you can maybe blame rip’s funk on ai…at least partially. But the second unit suddenly taking a big step backward seems outside ai’s control. We’ve also been in the middle of a murderous schedule since he joined the team and are still 9-5.

I’m not impressed with AI’s judgment here. But I just think we need to maintain perspective. Maybe AI’s calculus was as simple as “I know this will cost me a trivial sum of money, it’s one practice on thanksgiving, and it will be irrelevant in may.” Not the stuff classic sports movies are made of, but is it really worth trying to “break him” and having this get 10x worse?

Mp – darn u but I agree again. This is only a top story b/c of the rant (and who could blame the media – it’s hilarious). That said, iverson knew his past would bring attention to this when he chose to skip practice. So I’m not willing to give him a total free pass. It’s a little like saying pacman jones going on wrestelmania or whatever is only a bad decision b/c he’s pacman jones…well yeah!

Allen Iverson only thinks about Allen Iverson.. shocker!

Give the minutes to Bynum and Stuckey for now. They decided their team mates and working toward a chanpionship were worth an hour of their Thanksgiving day.

I’m not calling for the return of Chauncey Billups or a banning for eternity of AI. It’s a punk move, regardless of what it means in the end.

Okay, I am probably going to come across as an AI apologist but I dont care. Do the crime then do the time and move on. Lets wait and see what AI has to say for himself and THEN throw him under a bus. Best case, AI accepts his fuckup and we all skip off into the sunset.

any official statement from iverson yet?

I see a very humble, big apology in our future. That our six months of trouble with a $20 million payback at the end. Win/win.

I wonder if Joe said the same thing to AI that he did to Sheed when he first came over. “Just play ball and I got your back.” I believe this qualifies as not “playing ball.”

That said, I agree with Laughton. Punish him and move on.

This seems like more of a decisive moment for Curry than it does for Manny— er, I mean AI.

AI can join the Marbury Man on the all malcontent team.

However, having said that with Dyess returning at a reduced rate we will have about $40 million in contracts for next year on the books assuming Kwame returns, $36 million if he doesn’t

The luxury tax level is close to $70 million which is where we currently are.

So that will give us about $30 or $34 million for next summer and the Lebron summer depending on how much we use next summer

How much of that Mr. D. chooses to spend could be strongly affected by the U.S. economic situation and Michigan in particular especially especially since many experts are predicting the economic situation to worsen in 2009 now that the rest of the world’s economies are going into the tank along with us.

The Michigan economy will definitely worsen. Even when the 3 auto companies weren’t broke yet, shit was real tough.

This is the one reason I wonder what’ll happen in 2010, the 2004 team had a bunch of relative no=names and ’Sheed, who was damaged goods to a degree, and those guys went out and got the title. But.

I’m kinda concerned that the biggest fish in the ‘10 Free Agency aren’t going to want to play here. I can already guarantee LBJ has no interest in repping the D.

Ugh.

Enough talk about “next year, salary tax, free agents, what if this happens…” What ARE we talking about?! Everyone’s a GM and not a fan? Save it for your fantasy leagues.

Have we lost sight of the fact we have a full season ahead of us NOW to try and make something happen? The vibe I’m getting is a lot folks see this year as a wash already, and that sucks as much as missing practice.

I don’t think it’s a wash, I just know why Billups was traded for Iverson, and this is an Iverson thread. I don’t do fantasy anything, I just come to DBB to discuss present and future teams.

I know, I tend to be preachy. I’ll get off my soapbox. I’m just fired up and pissed off is all.

Let me ask this Skylar, in your opinion the sole reason the CB/AI deal went down was to clear up cash for the future?

MW is right. What AI did was a tremendous slap in the face to everybody who showed up for practice yesterday. I’m pretty unhappy about it. It’s a difficult situation for Curry and Dumars because of the accountability thing that everybody complained about last year. I think their hand is forced with a guy who’s traditionally (fairly or not) been portrayed as a malcontent. I don’t think they can sit him for only one game and have it be enough to get everybody in the locker room’s attention.

This isn’t a good thing for the team. I don’t think this is going to help the guys who’ve been uneasy about the trade feel any better.

From a fan’s perspective, this sucks because it can become a major media story line which means we’re about to be subject to about 34 mind numbingly stupid columns from the MSM.

Eric, I think Joe was looking long-term, and this was the best deal for the team as well as sending Chauncey to another conference, let alone the place he’s from. Dumars said he was gonna shake the roster up, and he chose to ship Chauncey. Not the sole reason, but I think looking at the deal, the 2010 Free Agency is what stands out the most to me, I don’t think Iverson is a long term Piston is all. However I was excited to see him here and I still am.

I hope AI shows some class and is a little apologetic and respectful to the team, so we can move on.

On the FPCB front, the Toronto Star has a good article about him gunning for the MVP here:

http://www.torontosun.com/sports/basketball/2008/11/28/7562141-sun.html

My reaction to this is that it shouldn’t be as big of a deal as it has become. It was a one hour practice. I don’t think Iverson is to be blamed for the team’s recent struggles and rather that it’s a lack of a system and role – but even if I did blame Iverson, how in the world is a one hour practice going to solve all of the team’s conceived problems? In our real bad losses to Minnesota and NJ – it was rebounding and effort. In our two Boston blowouts it was interior and pick and roll defense – but it has really only been that bad against Boston. The loss to Phoenix was justified. So, really, when it boils down, the losses have been effort – defending the interior, rebounding, rotating – not the type of losses that garner a one hour mandatory Thanksgiving day practice. The person that needed to be there the most was Michael Curry not Allen Iverson – so he can figure out how he wants to use the talent he has and explain that to his team.

Someone else mentioned that A.I. probably weighed the fine and just decided to do it based off that. In reality, he knows that that nothing covered on a Thanksgiving practice couldn’t just be gone over the next day before the game. I would assume A.I.‘s family hasn’t relocated yet – and that would also put him in a different position than nearly everyone else on the roster. I could be wrong about this – but it seems a safe assumption. Going away from family for a couple hours is different than not being able to see them because you have an hour practice. All the high school and college players that talk about playing on Christmas and holidays. That’s great. Are you the third leading scorer in NBA history? No? OK, I guess your high school playing isn’t really relevant then.

Worst part about this is that benching A.I. hurts the Pistons. Not A.I. He gets paid whether he sits on the bench or not. It doesn’t hurt him – but relying on Stuckey, who has had two good games so far this season, just so Curry can flex his muscle is stupid. Pride is not power. Curry is a first year coach that has often times looked completely clueless and was a schlub player in the NBA – Iverson isn’t going to respect him whether he sits on the bench all year or starts every game. Fact is, Iverson is now the best scorer on a team that has struggled to score and Curry needs to find a way to utilize him with the other guys on the roster – benching him out of pride isn’t probably going to get that done any more than telling him to “go out there and be Allen Iverson”. He asked for it.

This definitely lame on Ai’s part, but we really don’t know all the details so I’m trying to back off the ledge and take a wait and see approach. We’ve all been late to work or missed class in our lives. Obviously the stakes are bigger when you make 20m a year, but there will be plenty of time to crucify him later so lets give him the benefit of the doubt.

@Forty, “But I’m not sure curry should be making long-term strategic decisions like whether stuckey or ai starts on the basis of one disciplinary issue. I also think it’s unfair to say the team has struggled solely or primarily b/c of incorporating iverson.” Definitely agree, and I don’t think Curry would do that (at least I hope not). Sounds like this is just a one game demotion. In any event, bringing Iverson off the bench probably isn’t going to solve any chemistry poblems since he plays so many minutes he’ll be on the court alot with Hamilton as well as everyone else.

Juicebox, this is a different group that needs a different set of rules coming off the Flip tenure. Curry absolutely has to flex his muscles or AI and Rasheed, and to an extent Rip, will all test him. The whole argument for hiring Michael Curry was his leadership and the fact that the players respected him and would listen to him and that the breakdowns that occurred under Flip wouldn’t happen anymore.

I think that everyone’s reaction to this is predicated on the very reasonable assumption that the entire reason for Curry to hold the practice was to get more time in with AI.

Help Papa Bear, HELP! I’ve wandered out of the “no-spin zone” and can’t find my way back!

The problem is more that he DELIBERATELY missed practice. I think you have to bench him the whole game even if you can’t withhold the money.

Or you do something funny that could undercut the story. His teammates could make him buy them all dinner or something. Something that draws him in and makes him see how much fun they all have together.

QD – it’s fair to say ai owes the team a round of delicious canadian club

This I like, tough love, baby, tough love…