These days, players taking the occasional night off has become commonplace in the NBA. This certainly was not the case for the great Allen Iverson, though. The Philadelphia 76ers legend had such a knack for playing through his injuries that at one point, the Sixers had to trick him into sitting out games.
Sixers Teased AI When He Was Injured
In a recent appearance on the NBA Audacy Show, former Sixers general manager Billy Kings shared a rather hilarious story of how the team literally hid Iverson's jersey just to prevent him from playing through injuries:
“(Iverson) didn't wanna take a day off in games. Now practice, maybe, but games, he didn't wanna take the time off,” King said, via Caitlyn Holroyd of theScore. “When he was injured and we knew he couldn't play, we used to hide his jersey. Because he would come to the locker room looking for his jersey, we'd lock it somewhere so he couldn't get it.”
Take note that this happened multiple times. We all know how single-minded Iverson can get, so it isn't surprising that the Sixers had to resort to such desperate methods just to prevent him from taking the court.
On one occasion, he actually did. The problem was, he was missing another important piece of game gear:
“One time, in New York, he found his jersey but didn't have any shoes,” King said. “He was trying to send the ball boy to the Foot Locker around the corner. He said, ‘Just give me a pair of their Reeboks. I can play in those.' Then, he pointed to an attendant (and said), ‘What size are you, just give me those shoes,' because he wanted to play so bad.”
That's hilarious to hear now, but we can only imagine how incensed AI would have been every time this happened. Now we know for certain which side of the fence Iverson is sitting at when it comes to load management.
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