After having his sore back examined by doctors at Georgetown University this morning, Allen Iverson has been advised to rest for two weeks before being re-evaluated. From my FanHouse post:
Without him, the Pistons have gone back to their familiar brand of basketball, winning three straight by playing tough defense with a lot of ball movement on offense -- in Thursday's game, all five starters scored at least 16 points. If this trend continues over the next two weeks and the Pistons are able to climb back into the race for home court advantage in the first round (they're currently three and a half games behind the Hawks for the No. 4 seed), it seems likely that Iverson's role upon returning will be limited to 20-25 a minutes a game.
Assuming Iverson is re-evaluated two weeks from today and cleared for action, his first game back would likely be on March 20 at home against the Clippers. There would be 15 games left in the season. If his timetable was pushed back any longer, you have to wonder if the Pistons would decide to shut him down rather than risk disrupting their chemistry so close to the playoffs. At this point that's purely hypothetical, but it wouldn't be all that surprising.
Etc., etc.
What say you? Do you think A.I. has played his last game as a Piston? Is the injury a calculated P.R. ruse to allow him to quietly fade into the background? I honestly don't know what to think.
Update: As PistonsNation points out, a "back injury" immediately preceded AI's trade to Denver a couple of years ago.