Allen Iverson Starting for Philadelphia 76ers Tonight

Three years after leaving, Allen Iverson is back with the Philadelphia 76ers. Allen Iverson will start for the Philadelphia 76ers as they take on the Denver Nuggets at 4:00 P.M. PST on Monday night. This is the first time in three years that Allen Iverson has been back in a Philadelphia 76ers uniform, and it's fitting that he will go up against the team that traded for him. Philadelphia drafted Allen Iverson out of Georgetown University with the first pick of the 1996 NBA Draft, and he made his mark right away by taking home the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. He continued to have success with Philadelphia.

When the 76ers decided that they wanted to go in a different direction Iverson was then traded mid-way through the 2006-2007 NBA season to the Denver Nuggets. It seemed that the Nuggets were getting the better end of the deal, and he played parts of three seasons with the Nuggets. Side-by-side with Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony it seemed like they could do a lot, and in the 2007-2008 season Iverson ended up averaging 26.4 points per game. The following season though, Denver had the chance to make a trade for Chauncey Billups of the Detroit Pistons and they took that chance. Then Billups helped them get to the Western Conference Finals last season.

When the 2009-2010 season got ready to start, it seemed like Allen Iverson might decide to retire from basketball, but he decided to come back and play for Memphis in a mismatch that didn't end up working very well. He didn't like coming off of the bench, and in the end they parted ways. Now Allen Iverson has taken the chance to re-sign with the Philadelphia 76ers, partly because it seems he wants to reclaim some of that glory he had for the team, and party because the 76ers really needed a scoring guard after a rash of recent injuries. Now Iverson will take the court tonight in what could be an exciting home-coming.

Allen Iverson was the face of the franchise for the Philadelphia 76ers for quite some time. In 2005-2006 he averaged 33 points per game, and at one point he helped take the 76ers all the way to the NBA Finals. He has always been a shoot-first ask questions later kind of guard, and that often made it so that he would control the flow of the game. It was hard for teammates to play alongside him, but it was never questioned whether he was talented or not. Now Iverson has a chance to go back where his career all started, and if he can shelve his ego, this team might be able to do something heading into the 2009-2010 NBA Playoffs.

Sources:

Iverson Starting Against Denver

Iverson Career Stats