Aww look at little innocent and clean-cut A.I. pictured above, fresh out of Georgetown before all the tattoos, cornrows, hoes, Henny, and gambling. The future was bright for the talented basketball star, but now the tables have taken a turn for the worse for Allen Iverson. His wife is divorcing him, he’s not returning to the NBA, and now PROFESSIONAL sh*t-talker Stephen A. Smith is throwing this guy way under the bus for having a gambling and drinking problem.
Flip the script for more details regarding Stephen A. Smith’s yang yang talking and A.I.’s response via Twitter:
Allen Iverson is in trouble, folks, deep trouble. The combination of alcohol and gambling – and a once-promising career in tatters because of the first two – won’t culminate in anything short of disaster if help does not arrive in short order.
If numerous NBA sources are telling the truth – and there’s no reason to believe they’d do otherwise in a situation of this magnitude – Iverson will either drink himself into oblivion or gamble his life away. Iverson’s wife, Tawanna, having hired some high-powered Atlanta attorney and filed for a divorce last week, does not help matters. Nor does it help that she’s already separated from her husband, with custody of their five kids and seeking both alimony and child support.
When you consider Iverson’s well-known penchant for alcohol and his banishment from casinos in Detroit and Atlantic City, if disgust and sadness don’t come to mind, at least one question does:
Where is Pat Croce when you need him? Or Iverson’s coach at Georgetown, John Thompson?
Where is the person with the ideal combination of compassion and toughness who would shelter Iverson at the same time he’s holding his feet to the flames? Someone whose vested interest is in Iverson’s well-being, someone who doesn’t need his money or cachet? In other words, someone he does not have in his camp right now. Or someone who has an impact, and needs to utilize it.
Take the more than $200 million he has earned in his career, subtract Uncle Sam’s take, alimony, child support for five kids, and no millions forthcoming, then ask yourself what the 6-foot guard has left.
With his lifestyle, his mistakes, his lack of preparation for a life beyond the glory.
Talk to anyone remotely associated with Iverson and they can’t deny that he is ill-prepared for a post-basketball career. His cohorts still look to him as that mercurial box-office star who won four scoring titles and a league MVP award, not as someone who simply dreams about those days right now.
Allen’s response via Twitter:
To my fans: You all know that my life isn’t perfect. I am going through some very tough times right now, like I am sure that we all do from time to time. However, I will stand tall like always with “rhino” thick skin. Even though I have become used to hearing people say things about me that aren’t true, it still hurts. I encourage you to continue your ongoing support and I want you to trust that this is another obstacle in my life that, with God’s help I will overcome. God Bless You All.
Damn. Sh*t is real for “The Answer,” and too bad for him, all that “stuff” that Stephen A. Smith is talking about is probably true. We know for a fact that he goes hard when it comes to gambling, and sources have witnessed him waste through hundreds of thousands of dollars in one night. SMH.
We might have to agree with Stephen when he says Allen needs a prayer. Poor thang.
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