<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">For 31 years, all Allen Iverson knew was the East Coast. He embarked on the biggest change of his life when he was traded from Philadelphia to the Nuggets on Dec. 19. Two months later, life is good. He is in Las Vegas, having made another all-star team, though he will have to sit out Sunday's game with an ankle injury. More important, he and his family - wife Tawanna and four children - are warming to Denver. His sons, Allen II (Deuce), 9, and Isaiah, 3, and Iverson have been making their neighbors cringe by bouncing basketballs in their downtown Denver condominium. Daughter Tiaura, 12, is talking at home about her new classmates. Daughter Messiah, 18 months, is the youngest. "You know when everything's getting a little better when you're starting to hear classmates' names around the house," Iverson said. "They've made friends. "That was the most important thing, to let them know there was life outside of Philadelphia. There were other schools besides the schools in Philadelphia. There are other friends they can make besides friends in Philadelphia." Iverson admitted to being a little nervous about making the move west, but from the first time he walked into the Pepsi Center, the Nuggets have made him feel at home. "After leaving Philadelphia, I'm thinking, 'Is there life after that?"' Iverson said. "Then you get to a situation like this and everything is cool. It's comfortable as far as my family situation. "There are positive people around here. You kind of get scared of that because that ain't how it's always been in my career in Philadelphia. There were times where I was like, 'I don't want to go to work. I don't want to go in there. I don't want to be around certain people.' It's just different." Helping the transition was his being named as a reserve for the Western Conference all-star team, after seven appearances on the East squad. While the two-time All-Star Game MVP won't play Sunday, he will take part in all festivities this weekend and attend the game. Iverson said he still loves 76ers fans but he needed a change from a "suffocating" environment. "I had been there so long and had so many experiences there, so many different things, that (the fans) felt like they were a part of me," Iverson said. "They felt like at all times that I was available to them." Sixers fans watched him grow from a No. 1 draft pick out of Georgetown into a perennial all-star whose lengthy list of off-court missteps also kept him in the headlines. "He's a rock star (there). He couldn't go anywhere," said Rick Brunson, the Nuggets' player development coach who played with Iverson in Philly. </div> Source
