Allen Iverson on why leaving the 76ers felt like a huge burden off his shoulders – “It’s a relief not to be carrying the whole weight of the team anymore”
Allen Iverson on why leaving the 76ers felt like a huge burden off his shoulders – “It’s a relief not to be carrying the whole weight of the team anymore” originally appeared on Basketball Network.
When Allen Iverson arrived in Denver in December 2006, the move sparked immediate buzz. After a decade as the face of the Philadelphia 76ers, the sight of Iverson in powder blue alongside Carmelo Anthony felt like a basketball fever dream. The Nuggets were getting a superstar and inheriting one of the most fiercely individual forces in NBA history.
But for Iverson, the trade meant something different. It meant change. And for a man whose career had been built on shouldering the impossible, the biggest shock wasn’t the altitude, the new system, or the West Coast travel schedule. It was what he no longer had to carry.
Iverson in Denver
Iverson had already played over 30,000 minutes in just over ten seasons before his foray in Denver. And for the first time in years, he wasn’t expected to play superhero every night or be the go-to guy for every victory.
“It’s a relief not to be carrying the whole weight of the team anymore,” Iverson said via GQ. “Not to go out night in and night out, score 40, 50 points, and still lose. Now you got not just Carmelo but so many guys. Actually, I felt coming here that I wouldn’t get all the attention from defenders that I used to get in Philly. That’s been the biggest surprise for me. I think it’s a respect that people have for my game.”
Iverson came into the league in 1996 as a lightning bolt wrapped in a 6-foot frame. From the moment he crossed up Michael Jordan as a rookie, there was no mistaking the weight he carried. In Philadelphia, every possession, fourth-quarter run and playoff dream seemed to rest on his shoulders.
He led the league in scoring four times and minutes per game five times while playing through bruises, back spasms and a barrage of double teams. In the 2001 Finals run, he dragged an undermanned Sixers team to a single win against the Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant-led Los Angeles Lakers. It became the defining image of his career. Braids flying and jersey oversized, he was also a symbol.
That honesty cracked the surface of what life had become in Philadelphia. For years, Iverson bore the brunt of expectations and criticism. He played through pain, he argued with coaches and he rarely, if ever had an elite scorer next to him to draw attention away.
The supporting cast in Philly, though hardworking, was rarely built to lighten his load. Denver offered something else. With Anthony just entering his prime and a young supporting core that included J.R. Smith, Marcus Camby and Nene Hilario, there were weapons, real ones.
Role for the Nuggets
Defenders still keyed in on Iverson, of course, but it wasn’t the suffocating swarm he had grown used to. Teams could no longer afford to collapse on him without worrying about Anthony erupting or Smith hitting 3-pointers from the wing. That shift gave him space he hadn’t seen in years.
And for a player whose game was built on speed, angles and improvisation, space was a luxury. And a revelation.
Denver was far from perfect. The Nuggets didn’t make a deep playoff run with Iverson in the lineup. In fact, they fell to the San Antonio Spurs in the first round in 2007 and then got swept by the Lakers in 2008. But Iverson’s time in Denver wasn’t about championship parades or redemption arcs. It eventually was about experiencing the game from a new angle, one where he wasn’t Atlas, carrying the weight of the franchise on his back.
That brief stretch, playing beside another volume scorer like Carmelo, allowed Iverson to test the waters of something he hadn’t known before. It was also an inflection point in his story.
Not long after, the former league MVP was traded again, this time to the Detroit Pistons. The Nuggets, meanwhile, made a run to the Western Conference finals in 2009, after shipping him for Chauncey Billups
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