"I knew I was gonna be the number one pick, but I didn't know," Allen Iverson says as he describes what was going through his head before the 1996 NBA Draft. He was the obvious No. 1 overall choice, but A.I.'s seen shoo-ins fall through before.
During his junior year, Iverson led Bethel High School (Virginia) to state championships in both basketball and football. He was being recruited by every major program in the country. Then, on Valentine's Day 1993, Iverson was involved in a bowling alley brawl with a group of white kids from nearby Poquoson. The fight was not unlike the frat v. frat melees I used to see every other weekend in college. Still, somehow, Iverson received a five year sentence, a punishment many have argued was motivated by racism.
We tell this story because it's emblematic of Iverson's public life, which is oftentimes pigeonholed and misunderstood. On Saturday, The Answer hopes to clear the air with the premiere of his documentary Iverson (May 16, at 9 p.m. ET). But first, he stopped by the Complex office to speak with us. Check it out.
