Allen Iverson Officially Retires From Playing Basketball, Is Returning To Big3 Only As A Coach

ESPN – Ron Artest signed to play in the Big3 on Monday, and Allen Iverson will return as a coach, the league announced Monday. Artest, who legally changed his name to Metta World Peace in 2011, will play under his former name as a co-captain of the Killer 3s, who also have Chauncey Billups and Stephen Jackson on the roster. Jackson and Artest also were teammates with the Indiana Pacers. Iverson, 42, is returning as coach of 3’s Company. Iverson was suspended one game last August for his absence from one of his team’s games. He later apologized on Instagram.

Bubba Chuck NOOOOOOO. It’s for the best. Obviously Iverson was not nearly as explosive as he was during his Hall Of Fame career…for the 5 seconds he actually picked up a basketball for the Big3 last year.

Yup. That was his only game before a “Doctor” said he couldn’t play anymore. Then he went AWOL to the casino, but that’s neither here nor there. The main fact to take away from all of this is we will never see Allen Iverson play basketball again. It sucks, cause anytime you can get Iverson even in a gym shooting the rock makes the nostalgia wood shoot to the moon. I don’t care if he’s lost a step or 500, just the thought of him boogying in a 3-on-3 setting at any age or level of TGIFriday’s appetizers deep would be amazing. Not to mention Iverson in his prime would arguably be the greatest 3-on-3 player of all time. He would simply be unstoppable with all that space. But at least we can get him coaching and the soundbites that come with it. S/O Michael Rappaport for doing something actually constructive with his life.

That’s it. All I need in this world is AI talking about what’s on his mind and telling stories about the glory years. It’s blissfully entertaining 100% of the time, every time.

Keep on doing the damn thing, AI. That Reebok payday is still almost a decade off. For real though, Iverson in a 3-on-3 setting back in his heyday would be astronomically unreal. He’d be on that extremely short list for #1 overall playground pick out of all players in NBA history. Long Live The Answer.