On Friday evening, Philadelphia 76ers icon Allen Iverson will officially be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The Answer had a handful of influential teammates over his years in the league, but none more than Aaron Mckie, who was acquired by the Sixers in 1997 in the trade that sent Theo Ratliff to the Pistons.
After announcing his retirement back in October 2013, Allen Iverson was asked which teammate was the most positive influence for him over his years and to no one's surprise, it was McKie.
“Aaron McKie,” Iverson said and he repeated the name three more times. “I mean he was my teammate but he was on another level. He was my teammate but he was my friend.”
Iverson paused long and hard in between his thoughts, fighting back tears.
“He helped me so much in my career,” Iverson continued. “I talk about the mistakes that I made in my career. I made a million of them, but if it weren’t for Aaron McKie I would have made two million of them. He is just somebody I always listened to and could talk to about anything.” [CSNPhilly.com]
With Iverson set to get enshrined in the Hall of Fame tonight, McKie wrote about him in a column for the Player's Tribune, hoping to give fans some incite into some things they may not know about the 2000-01 Most Valuable Player, including his artistic ability.
Allen is a student of the game. People don’t understand that. Everyone knows Allen would read the newspaper, and that he and Phil Jasner, theDaily News columnist who was usually critical of him, had a special relationship. But Allen also studied the game, too. Allen read the comments — all the comments. He knew going into games which people had said they were going to stop him, and he’d have done his research on how to destroy them. He relished that. If you talked to the press about Allen before a game, that put a target on your back.
AI can draw! Yessir, as in paper and pencil sketches. It’s a semisecret about him: He’s a really good artist. He would always draw pictures of us and just slide ’em in our locker. He’d have headphones on and he’d be going at it on a piece of paper. Then all of a sudden, he’d just bust out laughing looking at his own drawing.
To read the full column from McKie on Iverson, click here.
