Four-star New Jersey running back Iverson Clement committed on Thursday to play his college football for the Florida Gators. In doing that, he also committed to making you feel really old.
Top recruit named after Allen Iverson picks Florida, and you’re old
Iverson took off around the turn of the millennium. That was, uh, a long time ago.
Clement is named after Allen Iverson, the 76ers legend whose NBA career stretched from 1996 to 2010. Clement is a high school junior now, so he was born somewhere in the 1998-2000 window that included Iverson’s liftoff as one of the world’s great players. The Georgetown product was becoming a popular topic of conversation.
From a 2015 Q&A Clement did with a Jersey paper:
MT: You have a unique name, is there any connection to Allen Iverson?
IC: Yeah, I kinda got named after him. He was big when I was born. My brother said you might as well name him Iverson since he liked him and my dad’s name is Allen.
College sports have had plenty of Shaqs and Kobes come through the recruiting pipeline in the last few years. There has not been a plethora of Iversons.
In addition to having a cool name story, Clement’s a nice get for the Gators. He’s rated as the No. 17 athlete in the 2018 class on the 247Sports Composite and a top-300 player overall. He plays his high school ball at Rancocas Valley.
Florida blog Alligator Army says:
If the Florida Gators have recruited any single position particularly well under Jim McElwain, it is running back. On Thursday, with the commitment of New Jersey athlete Iverson Clement, we got a reminder of that — and a glimpse of what it might be like to pair McElwain’s reputation for producing excellent runners with new running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider’s history of doing the same.
The Gators must now find a prospect named after Theo Ratliff and do their best to recreate the entire 2000 76ers roster in this recruiting class.
