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Sixers, Nuggets reach agreement for Iverson
After 11 days of waiting, the NBA has an answer to the Answer question.
The Denver Nuggets have acquired Philadelphia 76ers' guard Allen Iverson.
The trade, some two weeks after Iverson demanded a trade in Philly, sends Andre Miller, Joe Smith and two 2007 first-round picks to the Sixers for Iverson and Ivan McFarlin. It was completed later Tuesday and sent to the league for approval.
The deal was first reported by ESPN Insider's Chris Sheridan and ESPN.com's Marc Stein.
"We hope to have him here tomorrow," Nuggets vice president of player personal Rex Chapman said of Iverson in a press conference on Tuesday evening.
Some requirements for physicals and reporting have been waived, according to the Nuggets, in order to get Iverson in a Nuggets uniform as soon as possible.
The Sixers announced the deal at the same time on Tuesday.
"First of all, I'd like to thank Allen Iverson for the last 11 years. He's given us some excitement," Sixers general manager Billy King said.
"What we were trying to accomplish was to get some cap flexibility, get a player that can help us, and I think we've done that," he added.
One of the picks the Sixers will receive comes from Denver, but the other one comes from Dallas, King said.
"I think the draft picks are very important because we want to build through the draft," King said.
The Sixers had been hoping to take back only expiring contracts in any Iverson deal, unless they were receiving a top-flight young player like Minnesota's Randy Foye or Shaun Livingston of the Los Angeles Clippers.
But with Philly and Denver struggling to find a third team to join in to make the deal more financially enticing for the Sixers, they decided to end an auction that began in earnest when Iverson's demand to be traded was confirmed by Sixers chairman Ed Snider on Dec. 8.
This deal will bring Philly a former league assist leader in Miller, Smith's expiring salary of nearly $7 million and those two first-round picks in June -- projected to be in the 20s -- to go with their own lottery pick. Miller is averaging 13 points and 9.1 assists per game -- third-best in the NBA -- while Smith, an 11-year veteran, has played little this season, averaging only 13.5 minutes and 5.1 points per game.
The Nuggets' interest in Iverson dates to last February and has only increased since the Sixers made him available to the whole league earlier this month. Their chief motivation is pairing Iverson with Anthony in coach George Karl's up-tempo attack, but acquiring Iverson now -- just a day after Anthony and J.R. Smith were suspended for 15 and 10 games, respectively, for their roles in Saturday night's fight with the New York Knicks -- gives a much-needed jolt to Denver's depleted roster.
Iverson won't be able to play with his former teammate from the 2004 U.S. Olympic squad until Anthony is reinstated for a Jan. 20 game at Houston.
"We think they're going to be a dynamic duo together and take this franchise to a new level," Chapman said of Iverson and Anthony.
Anthony and Iverson are currently the top two scorers in the league at 31.6 and 31.2 points per game, respectively. No two teammates have ever finished a season with both having averages over 30 points per game. Only twice have teammates finished 1-2 in the league scoring race, and the last time that happened was with the Nuggets. In the 1982-83 season, Alex English and Kiki Vandeweghe were 1-2. The 1954-55 Warriors had Neil Johnston at No. 1 and Paul Arizin at 2.
Miller, who led the NBA in assists with 10.9 per game for Cleveland in 2001-02, makes $8.7 million this season and has $19.4 million left on his contract over the following two seasons.
"I think Miller is one of the best point guards in the league," King said.
It's apparent, though, that the Sixers decided it was better to absorb Miller's contract now -- along with the opportunity to have three first-round selections in what scouts are calling the deepest draft in years -- as opposed to dragging out the Iverson saga further.
Iverson has been in exile for the past 11 days, languishing on the Sixers' inactive list while still accruing his per-game earnings of $156,218.
Even though the Sixers felt they had to trade Iverson, King said, "I'm not going to disparage what Allen did for this organization."
Iverson, 31, has a career 28.1 ppg scoring average in 11 NBA seasons, all in Philadelphia. He led the Sixers to the 2001 NBA Finals, where they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in five games, but the team has seen little playoff success since.
He was Rookie of the year in 1997 and MVP in 2001. He has led the NBA in scoring four times, most recently in 2005, finishing in the league's top three every year since 1999, and twice led the league in steals.
Source: ESPN.com
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