INTRODUCTION In professional sports leagues such as the National Basketball Association NBA a first-year player is called a rookie Many rookies spend their first seasons trying to get used to playing with the best players in the world Most end up watching from the bench while the older players get most of the playing time But some rookies jump right into the fire and make an instant impact Some use their speed Some take advantage of their size Some rely on their basketball smarts And some succeed thanks to a little bit of everything Though the players featured in this book ended up taking different paths during their careers they all began as rookies They just didn't play like rookies They played like stars who didn't worry about being the new kid on the block Instead they took over the block
10 Allen Iverson brought his fearless brand of basketball to the NBA in 1996 Allen IVERSON The Philadelphia 76ers had fallen on hard times in the mid-1990s They needed a spark to change their fortunes Thanks to a lucky bounce of a ping-pong ball they wound up with an all-time game-changer The 76ers won the NBA Draft Lottery in 1996 and used the top pick to select speedy guard Allen Iverson from Georgetown University One of lverson's many nicknames was The Answer A family friend gave Iverson that nickname because Iverson was going to answer the NBA's need for new stars Though he stood only 6 feet tall lverson's height did not stop him from coming up big against the NBA's best His quickness made it nearly impossible for players to defend him Iverson won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award for the 1996-97 season after averaging 23 5 points 7 5 assists and 4 1 rebounds per game He set a rookie record by scoring at least 40 points in five straight games Iverson welcomed the challenge of making Philadelphia a winner again He rose to the challenge when the last-place 76ers squared off against Michael Jordan and the NBA champion Chicago Bulls late in the year Iverson finished with 37 points that night The Bulls ended up narrowly winning the game but Iverson had sent a message he truly was the Answer to Philadelphia's prayers
SHORT-CIRCUITED At 6 feet tall Allen Iverson was one of the smallest top draft picks in NBA history The shortest player taken No 1 overall was Gene Melchiorre The Baltimore Bullets selected the 5-foot-8 guard in the 1951 draft But Melchiorre never played in the NBA He was banned for cheating during his college career at Bradley University
