Newly-inducted Hall-of-Famer Allen Iverson stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday night, sharing anecdotes of the time he went against Michael Jordan.
Colbert played the clip of the 2001 MVP in his rookie season crossing over Jordan and asked if it was one of the greatest moments of his career.
“It was definitely one of them,” said Iverson. “I really didn't pay any attention to it until the aftermath of it all. Once I got the response from everybody else worldwide. How many times they showed it on ESPN and still today five or six-year-old kids come up to me and they don't say ‘are you Allen Iverson?' They say ‘you're the guy that crossed over Michael Jordan, aren't you?'”
Soon it'll mark 20 years since the crossover that marked a new generation. Before Iverson, the crossover was a tactical move meant to change directions and create a sliver of space done in an outside-to-inside motion, keeping the ball tight at waist-height.
Iverson was the first to popularize a flashier style of crossover in the NBA, going from outside of the hip to the outside of the knees in devastating ways. His quickness and superior hand size for a man of his stature made this move possible and often caught opponents wrong-footed.
The 76ers All-Star revolutionized the game as there was no one to match his ability with the basketball, coupled with his fearlessness and desire to win — going against Jordan proved no different.
Iverson had mentioned in his Hall of Fame speech how he had seen “Jordan's aura” during the pre-game warmups and how he idolized the two-time three-peat champion.
“It was a special moment in my career because that was my idol, my favorite,” he added. “If it wasn't for him I would have never been a basketball player. I would have never gotten the vision, I truly wanted to be like Mike.”
Check out the clip from The Late Show here:
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