<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The escape clause that A.I.?s excusers have clung to is the illusory notion that his teammates have never been up to par, a belief more rooted in fantasy than the tale of Peter Pan. Tell that to Larry Hughes, who was denied the opportunity to blossom during his two years here, when he averaged 9.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.0 steals per game because of Iverson?s stranglehold on the rock. Now, Hughes? norms in those respective categories are 22.0, 6.2, 4.7 and a league-leading 2.9 for the Wizards, a team that collected more wins than did the Sixers. Let?s not forget about Matt Harpring, who averaged a mere 11.8 points per contest lacing up his sneakers alongside A.I. in 2001-02. The next season, the small forward moved on to Utah, where the grass was greener and he dumped in 17.6 per night, shooting 51 percent from the floor and helping the Jazz earn a playoff berth at a time when the West was as deep as it has ever been. Remember Bruce Bowen? His game is on display almost every June when the Answer is eating Taco Bell and watching the playoffs in his basement. After departing Broad Street, Bowen led the NBA in 3-point field-goal percentage for a season, won a championship as a starter for the Spurs and has become the best on-the-ball defender in the world. Then there?s Chris Webber, the sure-fire Hall of Famer, the jack of all trades who redefined the power-forward position. Granted, he?s a limping silhouette of his former self, but he still notched 21.3 points, 9.7 boards and 5.5 dimes this season in Sacramento, where the Kings were equipped with a substantially larger offensive arsenal than just the rifling right hand of one player. In Philadelphia, though, Webber?s figures have plummeted, not coincidentally, like the temperature in winter, to 15.6, 7.8 and 3.1. And the list goes on and on. The jury was in deliberation for too long -- nine years, to be exact -- but it has now reached a verdict: The 76ers have shown no evidence of being able to escape the gravitational pull of their franchise?s best player of all-time and history?s most productive baller, statistics-wise, under 6-0. With Iverson in the lineup, the team has never been and never will be greater than the sum of its parts.</div> source:http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=..._id=18170&rfi=6 well, what do you all think, i mean, i think that this article really makes a statement, i mean, look at hughes, he's now blossomed into a terrific player without having to play with AI. look at harpring, now he's a pretty good shooter. same thing with bowen, and now C-Webb. i mean, now, after reading the article, it seems that AI really is the problem. with AI on our team, sure we have an allstar and an icon, but he ruins the production of all of the rest of our players. i mean, even without AI, we still have green, whose a great player. if we can resign him in the offseason, i say that the best think to do is to just trade away AI for a decent shooting guard, or a decent small forward, and get some draft picks. what do you all think? after all, AI has a big contract, and he's the one of of the reasons why our cap is so big, also, he's old and he's aging. any thoughts?
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Tell that to Larry Hughes, who was denied the opportunity to blossom during his two years here, when he averaged 9.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.0 steals per game because of Iverson?s stranglehold on the rock. Now, Hughes? norms in those respective categories are 22.0, 6.2, 4.7 and a league-leading 2.9 for the Wizards, a team that collected more wins than did the Sixers.</div> Well it seems that he failed to mention how Larry Hughes was playing in his rookie year when teamed up with Iverson. And comparing a player from his rookie season to his best season is not very convincing if you're trying to make an argument. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Let?s not forget about Matt Harpring, who averaged a mere 11.8 points per contest lacing up his sneakers alongside A.I. in 2001-02. The next season, the small forward moved on to Utah, where the grass was greener and he dumped in 17.6 per night, shooting 51 percent from the floor and helping the Jazz earn a playoff berth at a time when the West was as deep as it has ever been.</div> Playing with a superstar in Philadelphia to playing with role players in Utah your stats are going to make a significant change, obviously. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Remember Bruce Bowen? His game is on display almost every June when the Answer is eating Taco Bell and watching the playoffs in his basement. After departing Broad Street, Bowen led the NBA in 3-point field-goal percentage for a season, won a championship as a starter for the Spurs and has become the best on-the-ball defender in the world.</div> Oh and I suppose it Iverson fault that Bowen only played 42 games and averaged just 7.4 minutes per game? Last time I checked that was the coach decision. If anything the coach should be questioned for that issue. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Then there?s Chris Webber, the sure-fire Hall of Famer, the jack of all trades who redefined the power-forward position. Granted, he?s a limping silhouette of his former self, but he still notched 21.3 points, 9.7 boards and 5.5 dimes this season in Sacramento, where the Kings were equipped with a substantially larger offensive arsenal than just the rifling right hand of one player. In Philadelphia, though, Webber?s figures have plummeted, not coincidentally, like the temperature in winter, to 15.6, 7.8 and 3.1.</div> I'm not going to break this whole thing down again. This has been discussed way too many times. But to be concise, having not one but two play makers on the court simutanesouly do take time. It takes a whole training camp and preseason for things to workout. I can promise you by next season Iverson and Webber will form one of thee best duos in the league (chemistry wise). So all in all, in my opinion this guy didn't make too much of an argument on why this should be blamed on Iverson. I'll admit however, Iverson is probably the hardest player to play with in the NBA because he needs the ball a lot to be effective so Iverson can be blamed to a certain degree, but not entirely like the author of this article is making it out to be. And being teamed up with guards that were brought in to be the second option just made things worse because it didn?t compliment his style of play what?s so ever. He is best when fitted with big man that hangs around in the low block. But to blame everything on him, I think that's not fair and defiantly not true for that matter.
