Well this happened a lot sooner than I thought it would.  And AI fans complain that Pistons fans treated Iverson unfairly…see a pattern people?

Iverson made his debut for Memphis on Monday night returning to the court after a partial left hamstring tear, AI put up 11 points in 18 minutes in the Memphis’ 127-116 overtime loss.

“I had no problems (with the hamstring),” Iverson said afterward. “I had a problem with my butt from sitting on that bench so long. That’s the only thing I got a problem with. Yeah, I’ll be disappointed (if he’s a sub this season),” Iverson said. “I’m not a reserve basketball player. I’ve never been a reserve all my life and I’m not going to start looking at myself as a reserve. … To answer the question, ‘No, I’m not a bench player. I’m not a sixth man. Go look at my resume and that will show you I’m not a sixth man.” Via Fanhouse

Karma…AI, Karma.

I hate to post AI stuff anymore, but I love to say I told you so.
Hat Tip Detroit Bad Boys

The Pistons can finally (per NBA regulations) remove Allen Iverson from their roster.

From Adrian Wojnarowski at Yahoo! Sports

“Allen Iverson has agreed to terms with the Memphis Grizzlies and will sign a one-year deal by week’s end, a league source told Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday.

He’s expected to sign a $3.5 million contract, with incentives to make more based on performance.

“God chose Memphis as the place that I will continue my career,” Iverson wrote on his Twitter page on Wednesday morning. “I met with [owner Mike Heisley], [GM] Chris Wallace and my next head coach, Lionel Hollins.”

Iverson, 34, met with team officials on Monday in Atlanta, where they discussed his potential role with the team.

“I feel that they are committed to developing a winner and I know that I can help them to accomplish that,” Iverson wrote on Twitter. “I feel that I can trust them.”

After a turbulent season with the Detroit Pistons, Iverson attracted marginal interest around the NBA this summer. Several teams, including the Los Angeles Clippers and Charlotte Bobcats, made inquiries, but only Memphis presented a serious bid.

No contending teams bothered to court the 10-time All-Star after he seemed unable to accept a complementary role.”

I was asked today on Twitter by a follower “does this give you closure”…my answer: If he comes off the bench for the Grizz.

That would be the definition of closure “Bad Boy” style.

Can’t say I didn’t see this coming.

“Detroit Pistons President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars announced today that guard Allen Iverson will miss the remainder of the season. The all-star guard missed 16 games between February 27 and March 28 after exiting a game at New Orleans with a sore back on February 25.

“After talking with Allen and our medical staff, we feel that resting Allen for the remainder of the season is the best course of action at this time,” said Dumars. “While he has played in our last three games, he is still feeling some discomfort and getting him physically ready to compete at the level he is accustomed to playing this late in the season does not seem possible at this point.”

Iverson returned to action on March 29 versus Philadelphia and scored eight points with two assists and two rebounds in 21 minutes. In his three games back since the initial injury, he has averaged 7.7 points, 1.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 18.7 minutes per game.

Acquired by the Pistons from Denver on November 3, the 6-foot-0 guard has appeared in 54 games this season (50 starts) averaging 17.4 points, 3.1 rebounds and 4.9 assists in 36.5 minutes per game.” Via Pistons.com

Personally I thought Allen wasn’t going to return on his own after the injury, so when he did I was surprised.  I was even a bit more surprised when the Pistons made mention of Iverson’s post game comments after the Sixers game, so the fact that he’s been shut down after his retirement comments is no shock.  Say what you will, but my money is not on a medical issue being the reason for AI sitting out the rest of the season.

What the situation has done to what’s left of this season remains to be seen.  Everyone has their own AI opinions, but with what has been going on, this might be the best for the team right now.

Hard to argue with today’s Daily Dime on this one.

WEDNESDAY’S WORST
Allen Iverson, Pistons: I guess this coming off the bench thing isn’t working out too well for Iverson, huh? He went 1-for-8 from the floor, finishing with four points in just 17 minutes of action in Detroit’s 111-98 loss to the Nets.

And I’ve got to hand it to Adande for this paragraph of gold:

The Pistons have asked Iverson to come off the bench for the three games since he returned from a back injury that kept him out for a month. He’s reacting about as well as if they’d asked him to come in early for practice.

If it’s any consolation, there’s only seven games left in the regular season… and we’ve only got to win six of them to finish above .500!

Iverson may be back early – The Detroit Free Press

“I’m disappointed that the soreness I’m feeling in my back is going to force me to miss two weeks of action,” Iverson said in the statement. “After talking with the doctors at Georgetown yesterday they have told me that treatment and rest is the best course of action right now. Hopefully my back with heal and I’ll be ready to go following this two-week period.”

Iverson also said he had no problem with returning as a reserve.

“My goal is to help this team win a championship and I’ve said that from the first day I arrived here in Detroit,” he said in the statement. “I’m going to do whatever it takes to help us achieve our goals as a team regardless if I’m starting or coming off the bench.”

Allen Iverson is saying all the right things, lets just hope he fully recovers and flourishes in his new role on the team.  AI off the bench can be deadly, lets just hope he buys in.

:

“The Detroit Pistons announced today that guard Allen Iverson will miss the next two weeks due to a sore back at the request of doctors at Georgetown University. Iverson’s condition was evaluated at Georgetown today and it was recommended that he suspend basketball related activities for two weeks. He will not travel with the team to prevent stress on his back and will be re-evaluated again by the doctors at Georgetown following the conclusion of the two-week period.

The doctors at Georgetown University have been in contact with the Pistons’ medical staff and Iverson will begin treatment for his sore back upon his return to Detroit on Thursday” Via Pistons.com

One question….
Will Iverson play another game in a Pistons uniform?
Bash me all you want….I smell something fishy.

Can you honestly believe it?

I would be understating things if I said I was disappointed to hear about Allen Iverson’s decision to skip the hour-long practice Michael Curry held on Thanksgiving. Whether Curry decided to hold practice on the holiday or not is really not the issue. The issue is a new player, on a new team where he vowed that he would do whatever it took to fit in with his new teammates to strive towards winning a championship, decided he was more important than everyone else.

Had Chauncey still been on the team there would be no Thanksgiving practice Allen, they need more practice because of you and you didn’t show. Way to show your teammates you’re all about winning. What it showed them is it’s all about you.

I wasn’t thrilled with AI’s acquisition, but after watching his press conference when he joined the team and the sincerity in his voice that he’d do whatever it took I changed my tune. No doubt he’s a phenomenal player, but I didn’t like his attitude. So to be fair after the presser I wiped his slate clean in my eyes. Everyone deserves a second chance, right?

That didn’t last long at all. Try winning the fans back that were on the fence now Allen.

I truly enjoyed that a ton of you took time to comment on the situation, and if you haven’t already go read what fellow Pistons fans had to say in the comments of the original post. And feel free to keep them coming.

UPDATE: No Excuse from Iverson, just an apology.

Chris McCosky – The Detroit News

“I talked to Joe last night,” Iverson said Friday morning. “He was very supportive of me. He let me know how things are run around here and let me know it wasn’t something that can continue to happen. He let me know it was unacceptable.”

Iverson, who skipped practice on Thursday, was extremely contrite Friday morning.

“I have no excuses,” he said. “I apologize to my teammates, first and foremost, the coaching staff, the organization and definitely, our fans. It’s something that shouldn’t happen and it won’t happen again.”

Great holiday news for Pistons Fans.

“After Wednesday night’s 110-96 victory over the Knicks, he was one of many players who grumbled when coach Michael Curry decided to hold practice on Thanksgiving morning.

Iverson was the only no-show today. He will be fined an undisclosed amount and won’t start Friday night against the Milwaukee Bucks at the Palace.

Rodney Stuckey will start in Iverson’s place against the Bucks.” The Detroit Free Press

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Allen Iverson gets introduced for the first time at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

For those of you who were able to attend the game like I was, you can attest to the fact that the roar for AI was deafening. Detroit showed AI plenty of love, too bad it didn’t translate into a win.

In Detroit we always took pride in the fact that our team was of Championship caliber with no quote “Superstar.” You would be surprised (or not) to know that the recent acquisition of Allen Iverson has things moving and shaking in the Pistons organization.

This is a media release by the Organization today:

SINCE BLOCKBUSTER ALLEN IVERSON TRADE PISTONS’ NUMBERS SHOW SHARP INCREASE
The following numbers show how much impact Allen Iverson’s trade to Detroit has increased Pistons’ business in the first three days since Monday’s blockbuster deal:

1. The team has averaged over 5,000 individual ticket sales in each of the 3 days since the trade. Since Monday, the Pistons’ have sold an additional 100 full season tickets. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday have been the three largest ticket sales days of the season for the Pistons.
2. On the Detroit Pistons’ website, Pistons.com, the team was averaging 84,101 page views per day during the week leading up to the trade. In the three days since the trade, the following page view numbers were reported from Pistons.com. Monday-493,239, Tuesday-560,228, Wednesday-414,400. That’s an average of 489,289 per day, up over 400,000 per day during the last 3 days.
3. The Pistons’ merchandising department already has pre-orders for more than 1,000 Allen Iverson No. 1 Pistons’ jerseys. The Palace Lockerroom Stores expects delivery of those jerseys on Friday. Allen Iverson jerseys are expected to be in all Palace Lockerroom Stores sometime Friday.
4. Nationally, TNT has already added next week’s Pistons-Golden State game to its national broadcast schedule. Iverson’s first game on FSN-Detroit Friday night from New Jersey is expected to show a large viewership increase. Pistons’ ratings on FSN-Detroit are up 18 percent over last year at this time.

All of this comes as no surprise to me. I knew the Bandwagoners would jump on quick. I knew the merchandising department would be in a frenzy stocking jerseys – hell, 70% of the Pistons fans I know were salivating just thinking of going to The Palace Locker Room store. The national media never did like to take notice of Detroit, or didn’t want to for that matter.

A day in the life sure changes things, doesn’t it?

It’s been quite a ride for me over at Need4Sheed as it has been for 99% of Pistons fans. I can’t tell you how surprised (and not surprised) I was with the deal Dumars pulled off in the early hours Monday morning. I’ll miss Mr. Big Shot, he was a gentleman on and off the court who did so much for Detroit, and Dyess…I’m hoping that he’ll be back so I will set the sentiment aside until it’s final.

I let a couple of days pass before I put things down about what went down. So let’s do this Need4Sheed style.

Key Points of this trade:

• We just got the Superstar this town has been yearning for since Grant Hill donned a Pistons uni.
• The Pistons just got a lot faster.
• You give up a Big Shot and in return you get “The Answer”.
• Dumars locked Rip in to make sure his back court (Hamilton and Stuckey) is secure for the future.
• Something was going to happen and all things considered (Sheed and his contract) Chauncey was Joe’s biggest bargaining chip.
• The enormous amount of Cap Space Dumars has to play with after the season is over, no matter if he uses it in 2009 or 2010 when the free agent crop is a shopping list of Superstars.
• Believe it or not, it just made The Pistons relevant. As many times as they have reached the ECF in the past few years they will always be overlooked because of the lone Championship.
• Cartoon AI

• The Palace will have it’s first legitimate Sell Out of the regular season in a long time. I know, I have been there -- don’t let that sellout streak banner fool you.
• Will it make them better this season? It certainly won’t make them worse, but it’s sure going to make things different.
• Should we worry about what Iverson will do with Sheed in the same locker room? I think both really have settled down personality-wise. Sheed has been a model citizen since landing in Detroit and Iverson isn’t talking about Practice anymore, or is he?

• More Rodney Stuckey. Iverson will start at the PG, but really doesn’t like to play it. You will probably see a small lineup out of Detroit. Honestly the rotations are almost limitless.
• Not that Chauncey wasn’t but Iverson is beyond HUNGRY.
• AI doesn’t even sit for a bullet wound. Expect to see him out there unless he’s in the ICU.
• This is a deal for now and the future.
• If Chauncey went anywhere, I’m glad it’s home.
• Can Iverson’s game work with the Pistons’ system of team ball? Not that way he plays now, but from his talk at the presser he knows that and sounded quite sincere when he professed he would do whatever it took to make things work. Let’s see if he makes good on it.
• It was really evident that something needed to change, if it didn’t we would have at least 3 trophies out of this bunch.
• With Amir, Stuckey and Maxiell on the court with AI… make sure your DVRs are up to par because you can bet we will have some serious highlights coming.
• He’s not the Iverson from 5 years ago, so don’t expect it.  He’s still one of the best in the league.

• Chauncey’s #…..I wasn’t too excited they gave him Chauncey’s digit, but it’s not the end of the world. Surprised mostly.

• This makes Joe D look really good in my eyes.  Cap room, a superstar, room for building on the future, keeping the team in contention, not giving up too much (considering Dyess may still return), and the SPOTLIGHT.
• Will it make the Pistons chances for a trophy any better? Probably, because it was painfully obvious that unless something changed they weren’t going to win this season.
• Joe D locked up Rip, extended Maxiell, is probably bringing Dyess back and may be shopping someone else. At this point, look out for anything.
• Let’s give AI the benefit of the doubt before we pass judgment. I for one never really liked his character, but how can you not love his game as well as his heart?
• Iverson makes his debut tonight in Toronto against the Raptors, but his true unveiling will be on Sunday at home (for the first time) against Boston. And for those of you who have asked for the Iverson intros at the Palace, no need to ask. If they broadcast them….you know where to come.
• A present to all of us from Wes, a member of Team Need4Sheed. CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN