1. 20 years ago, on March 12, 1997, Allen Iverson crossed over Michael Jordan.
Allen Iverson crossed up his hero Michael Jordan 20 years ago
Iverson was just a rookie from Georgetown, playing on the Philadelphia 76ers, who were near the bottom of the Eastern Conference at the time. You can imagine Sixers fans were stoked not just to see Michael Jordan play, but to see their No. 1 draft pick go up against him. The Sixers lost that game (Iverson was the top scorer, however), but for one moment, Philadelphia got a glimpse of its future with The Answer.
2. It was extra special for Iverson because, like all the other kids who grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Jordan was his hero, the player that made him want to play basketball. This wasn’t just a rookie getting his big moment against Michael Jordan, this was a kid getting his big moment against his hero. He loved — still loves — Jordan so much, he gave a shout-out to him in his Hall of Fame speech last year.
Here’s Iverson recalling being starstruck when he first played against Jordan.
“I remember the first time I played against him, and I walked out on the court, and I looked at him, and for the first time in my life, a human being didn’t look real to me. No, I mean, like -- I don’t know if y’all watch Chappelle’s Show, but he talked about a certain incident where somebody seen Rick James, and like I literally seen his aura. It looked like he was glowing. And I’m sitting there, and I’m saying to myself, like ‘Man, that’s Mike.’ And I’m looking at him -- I can’t stop looking at him! I’m looking at his shoes, and I’m like, ‘Man, he got on the Jordans!’ I mean, it was Mike. It was my idol, it was my hero.”
3. You can also probably see the crossover as a proverbial passing of the torch, a superstar veteran getting a taste of what his fans have learned through watching him. But let’s not forget that the (in)famously competitive Michael Jordan is a just a little bit salty about what Iverson did to him.
During Iverson’s appearance on SportsCenter, he recalled a moment he had with Jordan, when he visited a Charlotte Hornets game. Iverson told him that he was his hero, and Jordan responded, “Well, I couldn’t have been too much of a hero to you, if you crossed me like that.”
Touché, Michael.
