Never can tell when they might go out on you

Iverson had Michael Curry for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and snacked on him between meals.Curry dared to consider a plan: bring Iverson off the bench to spell Rip Hamilton. Curry was in over his head to begin with, but when he put “Iverson” in the same sentence as “bench,” he was engulfed completely by the undertow.But that’s OK because Dumars was using Allen Iverson, plain and simple. Iverson wasn’t a basketball player, he was an expiring contract. Dumars looked at the little brat, saw millions and millions that would come off his books in July 2009, and drooled.Dumars couldn’t have cared less if Iverson’s stay in Detroit was as stormy as the Gulf Coast during hurricane season. Whatever was best for the Pistons the rookie coach and the prima donna player be damned.Dumars sacrificed his coach’s respect among the players and watched the ugliness of Iverson’s time as a Piston unfold with barely a whisper of protest All Joe D.

If Dumars says otherwise, he’s practicing revisionist history.But Iverson didn’t play nice, and thus almost blackballed himself right out of the league.There was a mysterious to put it nicely back injury that sidelined him just as Curry was about to implement his “bring A.I off the bench” plan Backs are funny things, don’t you know. Never can tell when they might go out on you.Yeah, you can roll your eyes here.Meanwhile, Billups thrived in Denver, leading the Nuggets all the way to the Western Conference Finals. But Dumars had his money.At age 34, Iverson was virtually unwanted in the NBA His act had worn as thin as onion skin The summer came and went. A player with over 24,000 points couldn’t get a contract offer. The league was wising up, finally.But then the Memphis Grizzlies came calling P.T. He said something about not having really talked to the coach yet and sounded thinly-veiled warnings about how he would react if he wasn’t made a starter.The Grizzlies scrambled to find Iverson a big enough bonnet and rattle. Meanwhile, they went out and signed guard Jamaal Tinsley, another head case who wasn’t even inthe NBA last season.

But even the Knicks, after a couple of frightful days of actually considering it, decided that it would be unwise to bring Iverson into a situation where younger players are trying to be bestowed playing time.So Iverson stayed “retired,” but really what he was saying was that he was going to hold his breath until he turned blue.Enter the 76ers and their 5-14 record P.T. Barnum was right again.Iverson wept Thursday at the presser, telling everyone that he “didn’t feel right” wearing any uniform other than a Sixer one. He spoke of being not terribly proud of some of the things he’s said and done during his career. He get this also said that he doesn’t need the spotlight.

He said he doesn’t need any special treatment.We’ll see.I’m not saying that Iverson’s were crocodile tears, but I do think that he came face-to-face with the death of his NBA career and it scared the bejeebers out of him. I think his tears were tears of relief and maybe, just maybe, a touch of contriteness.But the 76ers were 5-14 when they signed Iverson. They are nowhere near pursuing Iverson’s supposed white whale. I thought it would be a good idea to write the same type of article on the 10 best from the last decade of the 1900s.A minimum of 200 games is required to be considered for this list.There were 84 starting pitchers from the 1990s that reached at least 200 games. That is more than any other decade in the history of Major League Baseball, other than the 1970s, 1980s and 2000s.If a player does not appear on this list of 84, then they either didn’t reach 200 games or I consider them a starting pitcher from the 1980s or 2000s. The 1980s will be covered in a separate article and I just wrote my 2000s article, not long ago Starting pitchers will only be in one decade.