Allen Iverson Wanting Out of Philly Should Be Great News to 76ers Fans

So it's official. Allen Iverson and all his selfish, me-first attitude wants out of Philadelphia. I say the 76ers organization do AI and all the long-suffering Sixer fans a huge favor and trade him as soon as possible.

Of course, trading Iverson may be difficult (esp. considering his huge contract which has 3 years left on it at $20 million per) and it may warrant Philadelphia execs accepting that they won't get back nearly as much as they're parting with talent-wise, but a divorce between the grumpy Iverson and the 76ers has long been necessary and with a record of 5-13 entering Sunday, it can't make the team any worse than they already are.

But there's another big reason to trade Iverson sooner than later: Iverson is on the downside of a great career. He may not be showing it stat-wise (currently he's second in the league at scoring averaging 31.2 points a game), but, at 31, Iverson's body is showing signs of no longer being able to handle his consistent run-and-gun style of playing.

Just yesterday, Iverson had to miss a game against the Wizards due to back spasms and he may miss another, yet further speculating that the 76ers are going to do their best to trade him, Iverson was told not to accompany the team. And how did Iverson respond to this apparent "offense"? With typical churlish and childish attitude. "In my entire career, even the doctors haven't been able to tell me not to play," he said. "I've played through injury and illness. I think everyone knows how much I love being out on the court, competing and winning. That's why it was so disheartening to be told that I couldn't play, knowing that I was ready. It hurt even more to be told not to come at at all." (www.nydailynews.com/front/story/478609p-402652c.html)

What Iverson still doesn't seem to get is that outside of his years with coaching great Larry Brown, his style of playing has not led to winning. It was after all Brown who had the guts to tell Iverson that his 1 man against 5 approach to basketball wasn't going to win many basketball games, that he needed to try and make his team better and that he had to work just as hard on defense as he does on offense.