Iverson’s Next Stop Should Be Overseas

Are you a 6-foot, 34-year old, former MVP guard with a 27.0 point per game career average looking for work? I didn’t think so. The only person who can answer that question is The Answer himself. Hey, times are tough brotha. And when the going gets tough Allen Iverson retires.

After a couple weeks of job hunting Iverson, a 13-year veteran, has decided to announce his retirement from the NBA. It’s a move that seems a little premature considering the fact that teams are constantly looking for bench scoring and a veteran backup point guard to lead their team into the postseason. Iverson is capable of both but only seems willing to embrace a role that allows him to start and get the majority of minutes at either guard position. In short, Iverson would rather score 25 points per game and lose instead of contributing off the bench for a championship contender.

Nobody in the media is completely convinced that we’ve seen Iverson play his last game in the NBA. We all know his name will be brought up any time a contending team suffers an injury to one of their guards. The one option we haven’t heard too much of is possibility of playing overseas.

Iverson isn’t playing to put food on the table. He’s made $153 million dollars - yup, $153 MILLION!!! - during his championship-less career in the NBA but is still looking to be more of a focal point instead of a link in a chain, while still putting some coin in his cup. There’s no better place to do that in today’s professional basketball world than overseas.

Not only would Iverson have the run of the team but he would also be a huge draw for any team willing to sign him. Rational players like Josh Childress and Earl Boykins have taken advantage of the opportunity to play tax-free in a country that welcomes their services. The 4-time NBA scoring champ would probably draw the biggest in salary in the history of whatever Euroleague he plays in and might be able to tap into a new market overseas.

Iverson clearly isn’t wanted here. For reasons known only to him, A.I. isn’t willing to accept the role NBA teams want him to play so why not go overseas, cash a nice paycheck and give it another shot next year.

The biggest thing that would be affected during this transition is Iverson’s ego. Considering everything we’ve seen from him throughout his career, even more so lately, nobody can count out Iverson’s arrogance from playing a big role in negotiations with any team in the future. Unfortunately, his pride may get in the way of a potentially great situation overseas. He obviously hasn’t been able to swallow it in America lately.