Iverson returns to 76ers

OKLAHOMA CITY - A gap opened, and in darted Allen Iverson.

It's a familiar play, just one that Iverson usually executes on a basketball court.

Iverson wanted to return to Philadelphia, the city in which he played the most productive of his 13-plus NBA seasons.

The 5-14 76ers, losers of eight straight games after last night's defeat in Oklahoma City and without starting point guard Lou Williams for eight weeks, needed a point guard.

There was an opening that maybe, just maybe, Iverson could fill.

Yesterday morning, the former franchise player, the 10-time all-star, the 2001 NBA MVP, agreed to a one-year, non-guaranteed contract, returning him to the organization that made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 1996 NBA draft.

Iverson, 34, is expected to make his "debut" Monday night at the Wachovia Center against the team to which the Sixers traded him in December 2006, the Denver Nuggets. According to team management, ticket sales for the game have taken off, Iverson's Reebok Sixers shoe is being re-released Saturday, and most local sporting goods stores expect his No. 3 jersey to be ready for sale Monday, too.

He was unavailable for comment yesterday, but the Sixers scheduled a news conference for 5 p.m. today at the Wachovia Center.

In 2006, Iverson's locker was cleaned out, his divorce from the Sixers less than amicable.

"Allen's people have tried to bring Allen back to Philadelphia," Sixers general manager Ed Stefanski said yesterday. "His group has talked numerous times about coming back to Philadelphia."

Explained Stefanski: "As I said to everyone, Lou Williams was our guy. We didn't need Allen Iverson from a basketball standpoint. But when Lou went down [with a broken jaw] . . ."

Thus began A.I. Part II.

On Tuesday, Stefanski offered Iverson's agent, Leon Rose, the deal: a prorated amount of the $1.3 million veteran's minimum salary, which becomes guaranteed only if Iverson remains on the roster Jan. 10, the date when all NBA contracts become guaranteed for the rest of the season.

Before then, the Sixers can cut Iverson - who played 10-plus seasons for the organization - without further financial guarantees.

Low-risk, high-reward, yes, but this thing wasn't blindly green-lighted from day one.

"Early reaction was, 'Well, I don't know if we want to go there . . .' " said Peter Luukko, president and COO of Comcast-Spectacor, the Sixers' parent company.

"But there's no doubt about this, from a basketball sense Allen is by far the best available player out there. I said, 'Jeez, maybe this isn't so crazy after all.' "

Luukko said he first spoke with Stefanski about Iverson on Friday, the day after Williams' jaw was wired shut.

"When Allen left, we all assumed that chapter was over," Luukko said. "He moved on, and we moved on. At the end of day there were no hard feelings, and it was over. When Ed [Stefanski] came to us with the possibility, it was purely a basketball move. This wasn't something me or Ed Snider or I dreamed of."

Talk quickly reached Snider, Comcast-Spectacor's chairman.

"It's an easy basketball decision to say this is the best player," Stefanski said. "But this is not a normal free-agent signing. This is Allen Iverson. I spoke to Mr. Snider and to Peter Luukko and told them what my thoughts were. They came back with a lot of questions: 'Did we think of this, and did we think of that?' But Mr. Snider has always been with me. He said, 'Ed, you're the basketball guy, you make the basketball decisions.' "

Earlier this week, Snider made it known he would support Iverson's return.

"When he left our organization I did say, 'We're going to trade him,' but that was only after he requested to be traded," Snider said. "This is an opportunity for him to shine here in Philadelphia, where it all started, with the most positive outcome."

Luukko acknowledged Iverson's initial tenure with the organization "did not end well."

"You put that aside and say, 'Where are we now?' " Luukko said. "We have a player who wants to get back in the league, and we have a team that needs that player.

"We don't have the expectations of Allen we had in the past."

So what are the expectations? Where does Iverson fit?

In mid-November, Iverson parted ways with the Memphis Grizzlies, for whom he played only three games. Before that, Iverson struggled in his 54 games with the Detroit Pistons, causing controversy in both Memphis and Detroit because of his desire to start.

Yesterday at the Sixers' shootaround, hours before the team lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Oklahoma, Sixers coach Eddie Jordan said he would "like A.I. to start, and that's where it sort of ended. And he was like a kid at Christmas, and that's how he explained it to me. He's really excited."

Jordan also said he "absolutely" expected Iverson to be on the roster all season. Jordan called this an instance of "seizing the opportunity" and likened Iverson's late-career return to Brett Favre's. The longtime Green Bay Packers quarterback, now 40, is having an MVP-caliber season for the Minnesota Vikings.

"Off the top of my head, when I woke up this morning and said, 'Maybe he can be that,' " Jordan said. "It's not a big maybe; I think he can be that."

Jordan, smiling, said teaching Iverson his read-and-react offense wouldn't be difficult because he would just isolate Iverson and get him the ball.

No tricks or backdoor cuts, just put the ball in Iverson's hands. Jordan said Iverson knows how the team plays, adding that he'll expect Iverson to learn only the minimum amount of the offense, not the intricacies.

"I think he deserves to start," said guard Willie Green, who played with Iverson for three seasons. "Especially coming back to a team he's put blood, sweat, tears into, and an organization that believes in him. It's only right for him to come back to Philadelphia and continue his career."

Stefanski said Iverson wants to show people he can still play, especially in this city.

And the organization, hedging its bets with that non-guaranteed contract, is betting he can make it happen.

"I told him the rules we had in place, and Ed [Stefanski] laid down the conditions as far as rules that everybody abides by," Jordan said.

"And I told the team: 'We all have flexibility in our personalities. Some guys do this, some guys do that. Some guys listen to their music loud, some guys softly. Some guys walk the straight and narrow, some guys waver. But as long as you're in the border of that road we're going, it's fine. But once you break that border, there are fines to be paid and consequences.' There are no problems yet, and I don't want to talk about problems."