Book: Allen Iverson was drunk during 'practice' rant
A new biography on Allen Iverson suggests that the Sixers guard was drunk during his infamous "practice" rant.
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3 min read
It is no secret that Allen Iverson liked to have a good time. But according to journalist's Kent Babb, Iverson had a bit too much fun before he entered the room for his now infamous 2002 press conference.
At the press conference, Iverson reacted quite strongly to a question about his practice habits and repeated the phrase "we're talking about practice" 22 times.
Iverson was clearly on edge and he has since said that he was agitated because the press conference was, "about me (possibly) being traded from Philadelphia. Nobody ever talked about that, never heard why I was upset or what the conference was about." This is quite true but according to Babb, Iverson acted this way because he was under the influence of alcohol. Babb suggests that Iverson went to drink with a friend after an arguement with then Sixers head coach Larry Brown.
From Babb's book "Not a Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson" via ESPN:
According to the book, King suggested that Iverson speak to reporters four days after the Celtics had eliminated the Sixers in the first round of the 2002 Eastern Conference playoffs. The news conference came on the heels of Iverson showing up late for a meeting with Brown, then arguing with Brown about the player's future in the parking lot of the team facility. According to the book, Iverson asked Brown -- who days earlier had said any Sixer could be traded -- if he was on the block. Brown said no.
After his talk with Brown, Iverson left with a friend and returned later for the news conference. "I assumed he went and fooled around somewhere," Brown said, tipping his hand up like a bottle, the author wrote in the book.
Before the news conference, King said he could tell that something was off about Iverson, but "if we thought that he was drinking or whatever, we'd have never done it."
Wrote Babb: "Some were entertained, and others watched the train wreck unfold, knowing from experience that Iverson was drunk."
King tried to think of a way to stop the press conference, the book said, while Croce, watching on television, said he suspected Iverson was drunk and asked his wife to shut off the TV.
John Smallwood, a Daily News columnist who was in attendance, was also quoted as saying: "He was lit. If he had been sober, he would have been able to get himself out of that. He never would've gone down that path. Maybe you had to have been around him all the time to know the difference, but we all knew."
Iverson has yet to comment on Babb's book or this particular incident but the author is sticking to his assumption.
From a recent interview Babb did with a Philadelphia radio station:
“Larry Brown told me that he disappeared and came back, was slurring, red eyes, all this stuff,” Babb continued. “If you look at the video now, especially knowing it, you could tell. And I never knew, I wouldn’t have suspected that thought I guess it makes some sense. All these people who were in the room and in the facility that day, to them it was a foregone conclusion that he’d gone and thrown back a few pops in the last three or four hours before that press conference. Because there was kind of this opening of time and Larry Brown believes he went to the bar. A lot of other people within the organization and the media believe he would have gotten himself out of that kind of a train wreck of a press conference, had he not had a little bit of a buzz going.”
Iverson was a polarizing figure when he played and it looks he will forever be scrutinized.
