In the past few days, the comparison between Iverson and Irving has not stopped, because Durant gave an interview with Bill Simmons after winning the championship, and what he said became after the media "polished" it: "In my opinion, Irving is better than Iverson now."
In fact, what the media has exposed is a bit out of context, just look at the above picture you will also think that Durant is indeed saying that Irving is better than Iverson, but if you find the original words, you will find that Durant is saying: "In my opinion, Kyrie is better than AI, I am just from a technical point of view, Kyrie has better possession", less "technical point of view" is really too much meaning.
Durant also realized that the remarks had been misunderstood, saying on Twitter: "When I say That Carey is stronger than AI, I'm talking about specific dribbling techniques, which is a normal comparison, right? Afterwards, Durant also made a comment that Iverson is a tough player, leading the 76ers to the Finals alone, Irving can't do it, and replied: What the does this have to do with dribbling skills, which can be seen that Durant himself is a little angry.
To tell the truth, the media like this kind of saliva, even Maddy was provoked by this kind of saliva, he said in ESPN's "The Jump" program: "I will never say that Irving is stronger than Iverson, this era has no idea how strong Iverson is", this sentence is actually a bit like Kobe Bryant said, "People now have no idea how good Iverson is."
Here we don't talk about Irving and Iverson's dribbling who is better, because this itself is a very difficult thing to compare, from Tim Hardaway to Iverson, and then to the current Irving, Curry, everyone's dribbling has their own style, when the two sides of the comparison are Iverson and Irving, considering that their ball sense is both historical level - ball sense This thing is also a difficult thing to define, with an appreciation point of view, in fact, there is really no need to be higher than a high.
What we're talking about is how strong is Iverson?
While it's common for people of every age to tout their opponents— like Bryant and Maddy's compliments with Iverson — it's a common thing, but just as Miller and Barkley like to blow Jordan the most, some things are strong even across times, Iverson, really strong.
Scoring is what Iverson is best at, he and Kobe Bryant are the most able to score after Jordan retired, the third grade he won his first scoring king, from 1999 to 2005, Iverson got a total of 4 scoring kings, career average of 26.7 points per game ranked seventh in history, the playoffs are averaging 29.7 points per game in the second in history, second only to Jordan, to the finals, this year's Durant is super god, each game has 30+, He averaged 35.2 points in five games, but Iverson averaged 35.6 points in the same five games in 2001, outpacing Durant.
In the ten years after Jordan retired, it was actually the most blowout period for the NBA's quality scoring guards, at least 4 of the top ten in the scoring list for several consecutive years were shooting guards, and the four pointbacks we are familiar with and Ray Allen, these point guards are all placed in the existence of the best team now, but Iverson is able to stand out from these people, you can even say that until 2005 Iverson was the best pointing guard in the league, yes, Kobe Bryant has too dazzling O'Neal around him. Maddy briefly took the scoring title twice, Carter struggled with the Raptors, Iverson, he and his 76ers, and his loyalty were truly fascinating during that time.
Although his height is only 1 meter 83, or even less, what does it matter, his change of direction can make it difficult for people who are 20 centimeters taller than him to defend, take what is often said now, even if you know that he is going to cut to the right, but you just can't defend, at that time, Iverson was the only representative of the world's martial arts, and other players were always half a beat slower than him.
He has so many classics to pursue, starting with Jordan, this little man constantly influences the league. In those days, if there was a player who said he was going to rely on someone to win the championship, then the coach would absolutely push him next to the water dispenser, but Iverson was the exception, he relied on his quick stop jump shot and passer to bring the team to the finals, his scoring ability was too good, people liked this kind of performance, like Iverson, liked his style.
This is another place we are going to talk about, Iverson brought hip-hop into the NBA, which is a very resistant thing to Stern, Stern wants the NBA to be portrayed as a white-collar noble sportsman, but Iverson is a maverick, he wears a baseball cap, a thick gold chain around his neck, and appears in public in a fat T-shirt and trousers, so that Stern must issue a dress code - Iverson has always been the object of Stern's crackdown, however, the more he suppresses, the more popular he is, These are all earned by his strength.
He had a loyal tattoo on his neck, he got up again and again after injury, and even came on the court after licking the blood dry on the sidelines, by the way, his entire career averaged 41.1 minutes per game — the highest in the regular season in the past three years was only 38.1 minutes, taking the 2001 playoffs, the 76ers played 22 games, and iverson only rested 1.8 minutes per game under high intensity.
How do you express how strong he is? Single-core led the 76ers to the Finals and won a victory at the hands of the Lakers, which is the most well-known thing in Iverson's career, the Lakers and the 76ers had a huge gap in strength that year, and it should have been a one-sided game because of Iverson's presence that became interesting, although iverson and the 76ers were the losing side in the Finals, but now when we talk about the 2001 Finals, what comes to mind is not holding the ball after the game or O'Neal grinning with two trophies, but " Iverson beat the OK combo to win the first game", presumably, that's how strong Iverson is.
In fact, we don't want to compare Owen, as Maddy said, this is unfair to Owen, the media's out-of-context interpretation will let Owen and Durant carry the pot? This does not fit. But it must be said that Irving is still young, his future is still very long, and he has a long way to go from Iverson, but no matter who he likes, it is not too much, these two people are really too lethal.
Finally, about Iverson, some of his strength is not only manifested in basketball, so to speak, how many people in that era began basketball dreams because of Iverson, which is probably Iverson's biggest influence.