Allen Iverson Live

According to Yahoo! Sports, Allen Iverson met with the Memphis Grizzlies owner and GM on Monday in Atlanta.  However, they have yet to reach an agreement on a contract.    So the wait continues…

Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley, coach Lionel Hollins and general manager Chris Wallace attended the meeting. The source said there isn’t a timetable for Iverson to make his decision.

The Grizzlies have offered a one-year, $3.5 million dollar contract that could potentially be pushed to more than $4 million if the rights to guard Juan Carlos Navarro are renounced. While Iverson would like to be reunited with his former coach, Larry Brown, in Charlotte, the Bobcats have expressed only mild interest in him, given the franchise’s financial restraints. For now, Memphis appears to be Iverson’s only strong option to return to the NBA.

Despite Iverson’s preference to start, the Grizzlies would likely try to bring him off the bench while starting Michael Conley and O.J. Mayo(notes) in the backcourt. Hollins doesn’t want to slow the development of Conley and Mayo, the source said. The Grizzlies hope that adding Iverson would boost ticket sales and their profile.

In my opinion, the best situation would be for AI to land back with his old coach in Charlotte.  I think a lot of fans also feel this way.  However, it sounds like the Bobcats have financial restraints.  Since Iverson has expressed his interest in making the Grizz “a winner”, it is still good news.  His enthusiasm can be a good thing and at the end of the day, we all want to see AI back in the league…

The suspense is killing us.  However, it does look more likely than not that Allen Iverson will re-unite with Larry Brown on the Charlotte Bobcats.  The news around the internet is summarized below:

Iverson-Brown II? Maybe, maybe not - The Charlotte Observer’s Rick Bonnell wrote in response to the report: “I’m told by a great source that’s not true. However, that doesn’t mean Iverson won’t be a Bobcat. It sounds like there’s a good chance that will happen. My source says definitively that Iverson’s first choice is to play for Larry Brown again in Charlotte, and that there have been serious discussions about making that happen.”

Bonnell said that before any move were to occur, the Bobcats face issues with their payroll and a logjam at guard. But he adds: “You’d be adding a great scorer to a team that was last in the NBA in scoring, and you’d be adding a star to a team struggling to sell tickets and create a buzz.”

Iverson and Bobcats hammering out a deal? – Rumor has it the two sides have either agreed on a deal or are getting pretty close to one. Either way, one is expected to probably be signed sometime this week, according to the Sporting News.  The arrival of Iverson would likely not be good news for shooting guard Raja Bell(notes), who would surely get pushed down onto the bench.

Note that Raja Bell played with Iverson during their run to the 2001 NBA finals.  Raja Bell came off the bench back then, is he willing to do it again?

Iverson Wants Reunion with Brown – If Iverson does sign with the Bobcats, the team likely would need to figure out whether to trade or relegate shooting guard Raja Bell to a reserve roll. Another issue could be the contract itself—as Sean Deveney wrote earlier this week, the Bobcats haven’t been in the spending mode this summer.

This author thinks that Allen Iverson should be re-united with this former Coach Larry Brown to play for the Charlotte Bobcats:

In my opinion, it is the Bobcats because he can reunite with Larry Brown and it would be like the 2001 Sixers team again—except A.I. would not have to average 31 ppg. This is because the players around him are more talented. I am not saying they would go to the Finals, but if this happens they will make the playoffs as a six or seven seed.

Full Article Here.