When Austin Reaves gave his list of the top five shooting guards of all time during an appearance on the All The Smoke podcast, he probably didn’t think it was going to be all that big of a deal.
The fact that Allen Iverson wasn’t on that list though, led to Gilbert Arenas roasting him. When a fan also asked Reaves why Iverson wasn’t on there, he clarified that he considers him to be a point guard.
“I was thinking of AI as a 1”
Credit: no.chill.gil/Instagram
You get why Reaves thinks that way, as Iverson played both shooting guard and point guard in his career. His playstyle was certainly that of a two though as he won four scoring titles and had career averages of 26.7 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 6.2 APG, and 2.2 SPG.
He is arguably pound for pound the greatest scorer in NBA history. Standing at just 6’0″ and weighing just 165 pounds, it shouldn’t have been possible for Iverson to dominate the way he did as a scorer, but he somehow did it through sheer will. If you do consider him as a shooting guard, he probably does crack the top five, as not many could score at the rate that he did.
The Only Thing Missing From Allen Iverson’s Resume Is A Championship
Iverson is one of the more beloved figures in the NBA and garners a lot of respect. One of the knocks on him though, is that he never won a championship. The closest that Iverson got was the 2001 NBA Finals, where his Philadelphia 76ers lost in six games to the Los Angeles Lakers led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.
He certainly has to take some blame for his team’s never getting over the line. His style of play some would argue was not conducive to having success in the postseason and his lack of defense certainly was a problem as well. Still, it doesn’t take away from the fact that Iverson was just a special talent the likes of which we might never see again.
