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Top three of all time.

No question mark.

No question.

Of all time?
No, the top three of all time are:
1. Micheal Jordan
2. Bob Cousy
3. Kareem Abdul-Jabar

With Dr. J. at #4.
Iverson, with time, might break into the top 20.

Professional Basketball is far and away my least favorite sport, simply because I think in no sport has been further distanced from the team concept in my opinion. College Basketball is a different can of worms, and is one of my favorite sports to watch for its team oriented play.

If we're talking all time greats, Allen Iverson seems to me an incomplete player, which characterizes a lot of athletes in professional sports. So we're talking top three, lets look at Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan(yours may differ, but for arguments sake let us pretend we agree here). A lot of titles among them, made a lot of players around them look a lot better than they were. Iverson will most likely retire before ever having won a title, and while the likes of Eric Snow, Larry Hughes, etc. are a far cry from Pippen, McHale, and Abdul-Jabar you get the feeling that when said triumverate steps on the court they're going to find a way to beat you with who they have.

I respect Iverson for his 'leaving it all on the court'-ness but I think to crack that top three you have to have that intangible ability of providing your teamates with the confidence that they are better than they are. Iverson, while may be one of the top ten guards of all time when its said and done, does not have this, and hence does not make my NBA top three of all time.

Unless your basing this on stats, all-star appearences, MVP's, and other individual awards in which case you've got Kobe Bryant and Vince Carter to deal with and I want no part of that.

iverson is my favorite active player

i agree he might crack the top twenty all-time by the time he's done, but even that is a tough thing to do

top three would be jordan with two of the following:

bird
magic
oscar robertson
wilt
kareem, i guess

eventually, lebron james will leave only one debatable slot in the top three. i believe this will be the case, barring injury or a big shift in his priorities.

dr. j is my favorite player ever, but i think he's in the second five

Part of the declaration is based on size and abuse.

I stand by it.

Shaq put him in the top five, at least.

If I want to get up every day and believe that there are things in the world that make sense, I'm going to have to ignore Lebron until I can handle it.

Part of the declaration is based on size and abuse.

by this standard, i'm tempted to agree

he may be the bravest player in the history of the nba

Definitely one of the top 5 largest egos in the history of competitive sports.

Nash

I looked at this topic title and thought it said "Alien Invasion."

I live in Philadelphia and I've seen a lot of Alan Iverson. Here's my view:
Pound for pound, the toughest player ever, no doubt about it.
Extremely talented and an immense will.
Selfish, as selfish as they get. Jordan was also selfish, in fact, started the trend as far as I'm concerned. But Iverson is selfish to the point that no other talented offensive players can co-exist.
makes players around him better - not! In fact, it is not all that unreasonable to say that he has had a severe negative effect on some around him. This year it's Willie Green, a player with nice skills who looked to be coming on. You can't do that when you only see the ball when Iverson's other options have closed down and he actually decides not to force up a shot.
Bottom line: His skill level is of the best, his heart and will the same, toughness - he has no peer, selfishness.....well, it detracts from all of his other qualities.

Don't get me wrong, I really like Iverson in many ways and am in no way a basher. I'm just telling the truth.

Everyone forgets, or maybe doesn't know, that when they went to the finals, he started off the season differently. His point totals were down for the first 15 games or os, of which they won 14 straight. Then, he started back to his selfish ways again. The sixers never really had to look back, and as long as they were winning like that no one cared.

But at that point, all of the players around him were clean-up types....excellent clean-up types and they were a perfect fit. He had an amazing years, one of the best ever IMO and played like a man possessed through a myriad of injuries that would have most players out.
The chemistry of the team was changed and, well, they are a .500 team. What's also lost is the group of players with talent that were gone, some of who IMO had their careers damaged by playing with Iverson. These included Tim Thomas, Jerry Stackhouse and Larry Hughes, who seems to have found himself and I believe on his way to having a nice career.

Iverson is one of the most talented players ever, but there are many players who were greater. Let me name just a few I'd rather build a team around:
Jordan
Wilt
Bird
Magic
Kareem
Robertson
Duncan
Olajuwan (I know I spelled that wrong)
Shaq
Doctor J
and others.................

No, Iverson is not in the top ten. Top twenty, I'd have to really look that over.

Today I'd easily take Duncan, Garnett, and Nowitski over Iverson and Lebron James is soon to be considered the best in the league, maybe by years end when he wins the MVP, and I am betting he will go down as a better player than Iverson. I am also betting Lebron will win more than one MVP and capture a few titles too. Iverson will not do either from this point on in his career.

Iverson, mcGrady, Carter and Kobe without Shaq will all be remembered as is David Thompson, maybe George Gervin.

Iverson shoots a bazillion shots. IMO, any of the stars today could average as many or more point than him with an equal number of shots.
Think about it, he shot 37 shots the other night.....37.!