NBA Hall of Famer and former Sixers guard Allen Iverson recently looked back at the time he stepped over Tyronn Lue in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
The underdog Philadelphia 76ers led by the 6'1, flashy, electric guard met the juggernaut Los Angeles Lakers led by Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, and from Game 1 in Staples Center (now known as the Crypto.com Arena), it was a slugfest that involved Iverson scoring over 40 points, forcing the game into overtime.
And it was in the overtime of that game where Allen Iverson, with less than a minute left to play and with the Sixers up by two, is guarded by future Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue. Iverson takes one dribble to the right, then does a step-back dribble between the legs and pulls up a midrange jumper in front of Lue, and swishes it. Ty Lue falls down, and Iverson simply steps over him.
“I can’t tell you what the feeling was like, I can't duplicate it, I was in the moment,” Allen Iverson said on NBA TV's documentary Everything But The Chip: The 2001 76ers. “I just know he fell in front of me. I don’t know how I even thought about stepping over him like that.”
The Sixers won that game, but the Lakers would go on to the series 4-1, en route to their second NBA Championship with Shaq and Kobe. Although they were the winner, this Finals will always be remembered for how dominant Iverson was in his prime despite his size. In those five games, he averaged 35.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.8 assists.
If Allen Iverson won these finals, he truly could have been in the GOAT conversation.