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…

We are inching closer and closer to a deal.  Allen’s last twitter post:

I am looking forward to meeting the owner of the Memphis Grizzlies on tomorrow, along with his staff. I want to help them develop a winner.about 18 hours ago from web

h Memphis Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley and other team officials on Monday night. The free-agent guard could sign a one-year contract with the team, the Memphis Commerical Appeal reports.

The Grizzlies appear to be Iverson’s only suitor. They have $3.5 million left under the salary cap to give him, a figure that could increase to $4.4 million should they renounce the rights to guard Juan Carlos Navarro(notes)

Source: Memphis Commercial Appeal

Detroit Free Press: Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley was emphatic over the weekend that a roster move was not made to create more salary-cap space for former Piston Allen Iverson(notes).

‘Iverson wasn’t even part of the conversation,’ Heisley told the Memphis Commercial Appeal after renouncing the rights to power forward Hakim Warrick(notes) ($3 million in savings) late last week. It set off immediate speculation that the Grizzlies were going to renew contact talks with Iverson, whom the Grizzlies flirted with shortly after the free-agency period began July 1. But Heisley quelled that talk.

‘I think we decided we wanted some flexibility,’ Heisley said. ‘But the idea that there is a target is completely false. As for Iverson, I think he’s trying to get with a team like L.A. (Clippers) or Miami or someone like that. Frankly, I’ve tried to tell everybody that I don’t think we’re at the top of Iverson’s list, but no one wants to listen. All it is, we’re basically opening up cap room for us.’”

This is all the better for Allen Iverson – Grizzlies are definitely not a fit for him as the owner is notoriously bad and purely wanted Iverson’s name to sell tickets.  Miami and LA Clippers still seem to be the potential teams.  However, Miami seem to be focused at signing Odom at the moment which may have deferred away from any Iverson-related deal.