Sitting on a training table about 90 minutes before tipoff,
Allen Iverson shouted across the room to take a friendly jab at Nuggets teammate
Carmelo Anthony.
"Yo! What'd I do to you in pool? Didn't I beat the hell out of you in pool when we played?" Iverson yells.
And then in a conversational tone: "He can't do nothing with me in pool."
Anthony is lying down, but he's not going to take Iverson's trash talk without a retort.
"I had one ball on the table, yo," he responds, struggling to stifle a grin. "One pool ball."
By now, neither player can contain himself. Both bust out laughing. It's the kind of laughter shared between people who genuinely enjoy hanging out together.
It's the laughter of men who don't share common blood but consider themselves brothers. It's the laughter of kindred spirits who seemed destined to one day play alongside one another.
"He's taller and I'm more handsome than he is," Iverson said. "Other than that, we've got a lot of similarities."
Anthony, a 6-foot-8, 230-pound forward, and Iverson, a 6-0, 165-pound point guard, wear their hair in cornrows. Both prefer to wear a headband in practice and in games. Both wear an arm sleeve that is part protection, part fashion statement. Both are inked to the bone with tattoos that reflect their beliefs and honor their family.
"Brothers from another mother," Anthony said. "Of course everybody's going to compare us with the tattoos and the headbands and the arm sleeve and stuff like that. They can. They can keep comparing us. It's not a bad thing."
Melo and A.I. will add another common bond Sunday (6 p.m., TNT) in New Orleans when they take the court as starters for the Western Conference All-Star team.
Both made the team a year ago, Iverson as a reserve and Anthony as an injury replacement, but a sprained ankle prevented Iverson from playing in the game in Las Vegas.
Twelve months later, both are relatively healthy - perpetual bumps and bruises also seem to be shared - and they will be the first Nuggets teammates to start in the All-Star Game since
Alex English and Fat Lever in 1988.
"This will be special," Iverson said. "I hope the Nuggets people and everybody get our photographs with me and him in the backcourt or on a play or something like that so we can have it for our clips.
Said Anthony: "It's going to be fun. Hopefully, no double-teams, nothing like that. We're going to make the best out of it."
It promises to be a moment nearly 15 years in the making.
Watching from afar
Anthony was a 10-year-old kid surviving the rough streets of West Baltimore when a cocksure teenager out of Hampton, Va., started tearing up the Big East Conference as a freshman at Georgetown.
Because of neighborhood connections, Anthony was a St. John's fan, but he couldn't help but be impressed with Iverson, a cat-quick guard who seemed to defy the laws of physics while slicing to the basket for easy layups or leaning jump shots.
"I was just a fan for the simple fact that nobody ever had faith in him with his game," Anthony said. "They said his game was different than anybody else's. Really, he came in and changed the whole game of basketball.
"He was the only guy that was himself, especially at that point in time. He came in and decided, 'I'm going to be myself and I don't care what nobody else thinks.' "
By the time Iverson jumped to the NBA after two years of college, Anthony still was an unknown talent not yet out of junior high, but their paths would cross in just a few years.
Anthony said he was in high school when he first met Iverson, but neither remembers much about the initial encounter. It wasn't until Anthony emerged as a standout at Syracuse that Iverson started to take notice.
"After his freshman season I started to hear about him," Iverson said. "I don't watch college basketball unless Georgetown's playing. That's it. I saw highlights of him. I knew that he could play."
Seven years after Iverson was the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft, Anthony officially became a colleague when the Nuggets took him third overall in 2003.
Their career paths still were parallel, but a convergence was more possible than ever before.
Dynamic Duo unites
Throughout his first three-plus NBA seasons, Anthony constantly drew top defenders such as
Bruce Bowen and
Ron Artest and encountered double- and triple- teams.
It was a challenge Iverson faced for 10-plus NBA seasons as the first, second and third options for the Philadelphia 76ers.
During their time together on the 2004 U.S. Olympic team, Anthony and Iverson talked about someday playing together. Those conversations were revisited whenever the two crossed paths at All-Star events and during the offseason.
"I always wanted to play with him," Anthony said. "I always wanted to play with A.I. just because our games are a little bit similar. I always wanted to play with somebody who I can really relate to, on the court and off the court."
Both men grew up on street smarts, only to see those loyalties create image problems as pros. Both had their disagreements with former 76ers coach Larry Brown, who, as coach of the Olympic team, benched Anthony during the 2004 Athens Games. Both have breathtaking talent that finally converged when the Nuggets traded for Iverson on Dec. 19, 2006.
That talent has proved complementary. In the 82 games they have played together - Iverson has missed eight because of injury and Anthony has missed 20 because of injury, the birth of his child and suspension - the Nuggets are 49-33.
"Those guys have really done a good job of playing together," said former NBA coach Doug Collins, an analyst for TNT. "Any time you have two guys who give you 50-plus points a night, you've got a chance to beat anybody."
Next step
With two All-Star starters and the reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year in center
Marcus Camby, the Nuggets have a chance to make noise in the West.
Validation, though, has proved hard to come by, even with Anthony and Iverson regularly combining for more than 50 points a game.
Four years running, the Nuggets have failed to get out of the first round of the playoffs. Despite Iverson's arrival, 2007 was no different as San Antonio bounced Denver in five games.
Iverson held himself personally responsible for his new team's lack of success. At a locker a few feet away, Anthony refused to let Iverson shoulder the burden alone.
Though painful at the time, it was another subtle bonding experience that brought Iverson and Anthony closer together and reminded them of the one thing they also have in common.
Neither has reached the pinnacle of his sport.
All-Star games and the occasional recreational game of pool are nice, but both still are in search of a championship.lopezaa@RockyMountainNews.com
Generation next
With baggy clothes, oversized diamond earrings and unlimited street cred,
Allen Iverson influenced a generation of basketball players that includes teammate
Carmelo Anthony, who was 12 years old when Iverson was an NBA rookie.
Now it is Anthony's turn. Iverson said his 10-year-old son Deuce prefers to wear Anthony's No. 15 jersey instead of his dad's No. 3.
"He just loves Melo," Iverson said. "He's going to have a lot of influence on both of my young sons because they're going to have to grow up watching him."
A.I.: Artistic Iverson
Nuggets fans are well aware of Iverson's ability to draw defenders to the basketball. Not so well-known is his ability to draw defenders on a sketch pad.
"He's a crazy artist," Anthony said. "He tries to sketch everybody. He's one of those freelance drawers. He's real good."
Iverson said he discovered a knack for sketch art when he was in the second or third grade and he has cultivated it through the years by drawing caricatures of teammates, friends and family.
"I don't know how many people know, but it's something I've been doing all my life," he said. "It's something I enjoy doing in my spare time."
Match play
Because
Carmelo Anthony, right, represents Nike and
Allen Iverson is a Reebok man, they don't quite match head to toe. From the waist up, though, they could be considered fashion twins. Both recently talked about why they wear their hair in cornrows, sport headbands and don an arm sleeve.
* HAIRSTYLE
Anthony: My dad always had cornrows growing up. I started wearing cornrows when I was about 2 years old. My mother always used to cut my hair and I'd grow it back and (she would) cut it and (I'd) grow it back. Once I got out of high school, I decided I was going to keep it.
Iverson: I think it was my rookie season. When I used to go on the road all the time, guys used to push my hairline back and mess my hair up. I was like, I'll just get cornrows, get 'em braided and I don't have to deal with that no more.
* HEADBAND
Iverson: I don't know what made me start wearing the headband. I didn't start wearing a headband until . . . it was a while after I had been in the league. Just one day (I put it on) and I just kept doing it.
Anthony: Even when I didn't wear a headband, I always wore a cutoff sleeve off the shirt. I'd cut the sleeve off and make it into a headband. I always wore a handkerchief wrapped around me. I always had something. Just comfort.
* ARM SLEEVE
Iverson: That's when I got surgery on my elbow (in 2001). I had elbow problems all through college, and then I had a bursa sac (injury) and I used to have it there to calm it down. I just kept it when I got used to it.
Anthony: I busted my bursa sac (in 2005). That's why I started wearing it. I still do. My elbow's still messed up.
Before and after
Statistics for
Carmelo Anthony and
Allen Iverson before and after the Nuggets acquired Iverson on Dec. 19, 2006:
* ANTHONY
BeforeAfter
Games25990
Scoring average23.626.9
Rebounding average5.66.8
Assists average2.83.5
Field-goal percentage45.446.7
30-plus points games6134
* IVERSON
BeforeAfter
Games697102
Scoring average28.125.7
Rebounding average3.93.0
Assists average6.17.3
Field-goal percentage42.144.8
30-plus points games28630