http://www.nykfanpage.com/editorials/viewarticle.php?articleid=215

excerpt: In the corporate powerhouse known as the NBA, its commissioner, the affirmative David Stern, wants Allen Iverson dead. Not deceased as in the Godfather of Soul James Brown (rest in peace) but dead as in the boxing career of Mike Tyson. He wants the somewhat detrimental image that the urban icon ad troubled NBA superstar represents to be done and completely over with.

The party is over. There's nothing happening. Go home.

Oh, it's nothing personal. It's just that the NBA is a long-standing enterprise which generates billions of dollars and as the case with any business, the product itself always has to be protected.

Perhaps originally, Stern underestimated the global impact that Iverson, an exquisite product of the Hip Hop Generation, would have upon his exuberant arrival into the NBA. When the "powers that be" instructively inserted the name Allen Iverson into its ever-present and money-driven marketing machine, it imminently failed to properly analyze the intangibles of a person built on being respected not for what others want him to be but simply for being himself. You see, Iverson is the definition of real. Not how the term is defined in Webster's Dictionary, but how it is widely perceived amongst today's generation -- Generation Y. Real, meaning what you see is what you get, and not attempting to be anything other than who or what he matter-of-factly is. No hidden clauses. No fine print. No unanswered questions. There is nothing false nor fake about him. Simply put, when you look at Iverson, what you see is the unsolicited truth. He is also the reason why fellow NBA superstar Kobe Bryant is widely considered as being fake.

Iveron made the NBA a more hip environment. I agree.

Before there was Iverson, there was Sprewell.

oohah

Posted by bigpimpin:
Simply put, when you look at Iverson, what you see is the unsolicited truth. He is also the reason why fellow NBA superstar Kobe Bryant is widely considered as being fake.

what i don't get is if people think Kobe's fake, why did they take so well to Jordan? Kobe's pretty much a mirror image in every thing he says & how he acts... maybe the fact that people think Kobe's trying too hard to be like Mike when there can only be 1 Michael Jordan... or maybe it has to do w/the whole rape accusation a couple years back... or maybe it's the soap opera between him & Shaq that developed in LA... still, Michael was not w/o his own big character flaws or demons either... it was just that the media portrayed the guy as a perfect role model, & Kobe was largely portrayed the same way until that whole rape thing went down... still, u never got the sense that hip hop generation took to Kobe even close to how they took to either Iverson or Jordan.

Kobe is by far the best player in the league, but as a person we still don't know who he is or what he's about... besides the thing in Colorado .