Iverson And The End Of The Shooting Point Guard

Iverson's career is going in limbo. There is no doubt about that. He failed to fit in the Piston's team play, he doesn't have the quickness he used to, and he is now in one of the worst NBA franchise.



But with the end of Iverson's career, it is the end of a certain idea of the NBA that is disappearing. Actually, an NBA concept that borned with Iverson's arrival in the league. Iverson has been a unique player in the NBA: A small player with amazing quickeness and scoring abilities. Due to his particularity, The Sixers had to accomodate the team and the system to get the best out of Iverson's amazing talent. They made him play shooting guard, got a bunch of great role players on his side to help him on the defence end, but also get rebounds (Tyronne Hill, Dikembe Mutumbo among others).



Not so long after Iverson's arrival (actually the very same year), two other wonderful players came in: Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis. They had the very same kind of profile: strong athletic skills and quickness despite their lack of size, and strong scoring skills. Those three ones had 4 to 5 amazing years in the league. They seemed to be unstopable and where clueless questions for opponents, which were struggling to get a defensive response.



But as the years go by, we have seen that those three players career went into limbo. Their huge ego resulting from their scoring option number 1 status made them considering terrible career choices. You can see the Marbury's drama in New York. Steve Francis got injured and no team was willing to get such a player in their roster.



The same thing for Iverson.