<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">She sat quietly in the first row, awaiting Allen Iverson's arrival for a quick question-and-answer session with reporters. Shurooq Albajalan loves the 76ers star and co-captain of the United States men's basketball team. Albajalan is an Iraqi Kurd. And a sports reporter for a fledgling U.S.-sponsored television network in Baghdad. And a woman. Apparently, basketball is big in Iraq. The network al Iraqiya - a reincarnation of the former Iraqi Media Network - will show Olympic basketball games on tape delay "whenever we can fit them in," said Kristin Whiting, a senior executive producer who works from the Iraqi embassy. "Iraqis are basketball fanatics," said Whiting. "It's the most popular thing we put on the air... . And Iverson, he's major to them." Albajalan, a 30-year-old former taekwondo champion, almost cried yesterday when Whiting told her she was going to Iverson's news conference. In addition to describing him as "very tall," Albajalan said Iverson seemed like "a gentleman." "I love him," she added. During the news conference, Albajalan, through an interpreter, asked Iverson a question: How do sports bring people of the world together? "Sports is everything in this world," Iverson said. "I think at times it gets out of hand, when you have this team as your favorite team, and this team is the enemy because they're playing against your favorite team. But a lot of times, people just love sports, and love competition."</div> Full Article Courtesy of Ashley McGeachy Fox/The Philadelphia Inquirer <font color="DarkRed">Registration Required</font> Good to see his worldwide fame being appreciated more than it is here in the United States.
