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If you read my post yesterday, you can see that I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about Allen Iverson. I’m quite obviously rooting for his career to continue and, eventually, end on a high note. But I see the writing on the wall for one of the worst retirements ever from a Hall Of Fame-caliber player. It’s become increasingly difficult to defend him, but I recently tried to do just that in a conversation with one of my Outside The NBA colleagues. I wasn’t planning to post this anywhere while we were having the debate, but I thought it was an interesting look at two different perspectives on the situation. Continue Reading

Joe Murphy/Getty Images

Apologies if this is a bit jumbled – I’m not going to pretend I have all the answers (no pun intended, seriously) here. This is me trying to make sense of where Allen Iverson’s career is right now. It’s a bit difficult, as I’ve been watching the guy since I was 10. His draft class is a special one to me – I’m a part of the generation that grew up while these guys were maturing as professionals. For most of my life as a basketball fan, Iverson was a lock to be an All-Star and he was respected as one of the best players in the game. He was polarizing at first, as the old guard wasn’t fond of, um, I don’t know what exactly. The crossovers, the tattoos, the shot attempts? All I know is that my dad didn’t like him. But after a few years, things changed. He won the MVP, he led his team to the finals, and people like my dad changed their minds. My theory: when you watched the man play at his peak, it was downright impossible to hate him. To see a guy that small take that many hits, play through that many injuries, hit that many big shots… You had no choice but to love his game.

Now, though, things have changed. Drastically. Continue Reading

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This past week, I’ve been tweeting and League Passing my face off and loving every minute of it. I’ve seen buzzer-beaters, incredible dunks, and one of the most captivating individual performances I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. Here’s a recap of the week that was, using selections from the Outside Twitter account as a guide. Continue Reading

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I’m not a basketball lifer, I’m aware of this. I’m a white kid from Toronto. I didn’t see my first basketball game (in person or on TV) until 1995. I didn’t really get into basketball until I was 16. Yet here I am, confounded by the sheer idiocy that’s going on in and around the NBA. I can’t know more about basketball, interpersonal skills and basic math than people paid 6 or 7 figures to know these things right? Right? Continue Reading