Allen Iverson is a former basketball player with the NBA with a net worth of approximately -$1 million. His controversial life and career have led him to be upside down in his financial situation. He will always be remembered as one of the greatest basketball stars of the 90s and early 2000s, but his choices have caused him to earn a bit of a negative reputation.
Allen Ezail Iverson was born on June 7, 1975 in Virginia. His mother was a 15-year-old single girl. He was given her last name because his father left them alone, and she wanted him to have her name. His life was not an easy one; he witnessed his first murder when he was only 8-years-of age, which is something most children have never witnessed.
While he was in high school he played quarterback for the football team, though he also joined the basketball team as well. By the time he was a junior in high school he was so valuable to both teams that he led both to state championship games. He was also named the Associated Press High School Player of the Year that year in both basketball and football. It looked as though his career in sports would never happen, however, when Iverson was 17. He was allegedly involved in an altercation in a bowling alley and accused of smashing a chair into a woman’s head. He was arrested and sentenced to 15 years. He was granted release after only four months in prison after clemency from the state governor on a sheer lack of evidence.
Unfortunately for Iverson, he was to spend his senior year in a school for at-risk teens, which mean no sports. Luckily, the head coach at Georgetown University believed Iverson would be an exceptional player based on what he’d seen in his first three years at his former high school, and came to recruit him. He was given a full ride to Georgetown to play basketball. His first season at Georgetown saw the team go to the Sweet 16, and earned Iverson the Big East Rookie of the year and the All Rookie Tournament First team nomination. The following season he took the team to the Elite 8 and it allowed him to become the all time leader in scoring at that time. It was his last year at Georgetown; he declared he was headed to the NBA.
He was a first overall pick for the Philadelphia 76ers, where he spent the first 10 years of his career playing professional basketball. At 6-feet tall, he was one of the shortest players on the team. He was being drafted by a team with a significant losing record. Even his significant skill on the court was not enough to pull the team out of their losing streak the following year. His third season on the team finally saw a winning streak, and it was the turning point in his career.
Before his fourth season with the Sixers, Iverson signed a contract that was good for $70 million over the course of six years. The following years were very successful for Iverson, who was named the NBA’s most valuable player, started in All-Star games, won championships and broke records. It was a long 10-year journey for Iverson, who was arguably one of the best players ever to play for the Sixers.
In 2006, Iverson went to play for the Denver Nuggets, and stayed with them until 2008. In November 2008, he was dealt to the Detroit Pistons, switching for the first time in his career from his number 3 jersey to a number 1 jersey. It was only 5 months later in April 2009 that the president of the team announced that Iverson would not be returning to the team to play, and it was widely speculated that it was because of Iverson’s public announcement only two days prior to this announcement that he would rather retire than continue to warm the bench at Detroit. Five months later, he was under contract with the Memphis Grizzlies. Only two months later he once again expressed displeasure at sitting on the bench and the Grizzlies “mutually” ended his contract.
A few weeks later, the Sixers announced that Iverson would return to Philly with a $1.3 million contract provided he was still on the roster as of January 8. He stayed on through February before leaving the tem to deal with his daughter’s undisclosed health issues. Later that year, he signed a contract to play for the Besiktas in a Turkish Basketball League that lasted less than one year before he officially announced his retirement in 2013.
Due to his fondness for gambling, drinking and trouble with the law, Iverson has been banned from several casinos in several cities and been involved in a number of lawsuits that resulted in him paying damages. It’s been reported for years that these bad habits have caused him to go broke and into severe debt. He has five kids and he’s more than a million dollars in debt.
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