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

A small snippet from Slam made quite a splash and as we know the “close personal friend” route can never be confirmed.

“SLAM contributor J. Gamble [making his debut with us next issue] hears from a close personal friend of Rasheed Wallace’s that unless Sheed gets $8 million to play next year, he’s going to retire. If that’s true, we’ve probably seen the last of Sheed in the NBA.”

It was a buzz on local sports radio yesterday as well as chatter I heard from Sheed fans via email. I’m with Detroit Bad Boys on this one, if 8 million is the true price tag you have seen the last of Sheed in a Pistons uniform (although I didn’t see him coming back either way).

Dave Dial with his expertise of the Salary Cap over at MLive also weighs in:

“As for the $8 million dollar price tag, that will be tough for Rasheed to get next season. The Mid-Level Exception was set at $5.585 million for the 2008-2009 season and is expected to decrease next season. So teams that are over the salary cap can’t offer Rasheed the $8 million he wants, even if they wanted to pay him that much.

There will only be a handful of teams that have cap space this summer. OKC, Memphis, Portland, Detroit, Atlanta and Minnesota will all have significant monies under the salary cap.

I think you can rule out Portland and Detroit, for obvious reasons. I doubt Rasheed would want to spend his last year or two playing for Memphis, OKC or Minnesota. The losing and having no chance at winning a Title would get to him too much. That would leave only Atlanta, which would only have the cap space required if they renounce Mike Bibby and let Marvin Williams and Zaza Pachulia walk.

Which leads back to Rasheed deciding to just retire, or maybe the Pistons would include Wallace in a sign and trade deal with a team that is over the cap. The Spurs, Mavericks, Cavaliers, Bobcats and Celtics have all been rumored to be interested in Wallace. If Rasheed wants a one or two year deal at $8 million per year, it probably wouldn’t scare off all of those teams. With the summer fast approaching, we will know for sure if this rumor is true or not.”