PHILADELPHIA -- He needs them. And, somehow, they need him. This is a stroke of considerable good fortune for Allen Iverson, one of sport's galling misfits of the last dozen years, a man-child who doesn't deserve love from the public after a reign of misbehavior, immaturity and defiance that overwhelmed his spectacular talent and magnetism. But just as his career seemed lost and maybe dead, he found home again. The team he defined for years, the Philadelphia 76ers, has been an NBA non-entity. Of the 15 teams in the Eastern Conference, they are next-to-worst in the standings. Of the 30 teams in the league, they are next-to-last in attendance in a renowned basketball town. They needed a reason for people to care, an infusion of life, any sort of conversation piece in a town dominated by the Eagles and Phillies. And who should drop from the sky, without a parachute, but A.I., an unexpected potential Answer to the question of why the Sixers became so irrelevant, miserable and awful.
Unless, of course, he just makes them more irrelevant, miserable and awful.




