Like most people, athletes often find creative ways to express themselves. Some do it through the clothes they wear, while others create music in their spare time. Sixers legend Allen Iverson, however, says he used to spend quite a bit of his down time drawing playful sketches of his opponents.
“I love to draw.” Allen Iverson said in an interview with The Players' Tribune. “A lot of people don’t know that about me.
“See, I’m from the era where dudes would try to talk your ear off on the court: Gary (Payton), Reggie (Miller), KG (Kevin Garnett), Kobe (Bryant) — that whole generation. And the reason they talked so much? It’s because that was their way of finding an edge. And it’s funny, I guess, because I was never much of a talker like those guys… but I still found my own way to keep that edge. I’d draw.
“That’s right — I’d draw.
“You’d do me wrong, say something I don’t like, get on my bad side? I’d be liable to cartoon you up. And yeah, it’s just what it sounds like: I would take my paper, my pen, that good ink — and I would straight-up bury you. I would draw you as a cartoon, man. And all your worst features, your worst whatevers, I’d just put them on blast. I’m telling you all, it was cold. Nobody out there was (or is!) wanting to be on the wrong end of my pen.”
Allen Iverson, now 43 years of age, will go down as one of the greatest ball handlers the NBA has ever known. Many of his moves are still being imitated to this day.
The fact that Iverson would be quick to disrespect his opponents in cartoon form should come as no surprise, though, as he was a bit of a smack-talker himself.After all, this is the same man that crossed up Michael Jordan.
Just be careful how you come at Iverson, lest you end up in one of his sketchpads.
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