After establishing himself as a potential Hall of Fame guard, with offensive skills never before seen in the league and establishing himself as a perennial winner who's only flaw was that he was surrounded by insufficient backup, the last year has done a lot to tarnish that reputation. After being traded to Detroit he was an outright disaster, unable to find his place in the offense or in the locker room. Meanwhile the guard he was traded for, Chauncey Billups, lead his team to the Conference Finals.
As a free agent this summer, Iverson needs to go somewhere quietly and rebuild his image, much the same way that his old coach Larry Brown has in Charlotte. But it might be another small market team Iverson ends up with. One that now features an... eclectic makeup of personalities.
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.
NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony had an amazing season, leading the Denver Nuggets to the Western Conference finals, where they fell to the Lakers in six games. We caught up with 'Melo during the Nuggets-Lakers series, and he offered some insight about Kobe Bryant that the Magic might want to pay attention to as they prepare for Thursday night's first game of the NBA Finals. He also discusses movie stars he's met at the games, and what he thinks of boxing stars Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.
There have been many debates over the MVP award over the last few years -- from Kobe v. LeBron to the merits of Steve Nash's back-to-back awards. You can debate all you want about who should have won each year's MVP, but it is clear that a particular season's MVP is no longer likely to have playoff success.
With LeBron James' elimination at the hands of the Orlando Magic, this season marks the eighth time this decade that the MVP hasn't won the championship, and the sixth time that the MVP hasn't even made it to the NBA Finals. Compare those numbers to the 1990s, when the winner of the MVP award made the NBA Finals seven times and the won the championship five times.
The Nuggets far exceeded expectations this season. The team ranked not as the squad most likely to scare the snot out of the Lakers, but as the old guard least likely to return to the postseason in the New World.
Chauncey Billups, Nene, Kenyon Martin, Carmelo Anthony, George Karl, Chris Andersen, J.R. Smith and Joe Dumars changed that. The opening week trade for Mr. Big Shot completely transformed the spirit of the team, as did Karl's summer decision to focus on defense, even at the expense of his stars' allegiance. Everything else went right, for the most part.
But the franchise sit has payroll cuts to consummate, and little in the way of burgeoning youth to fill the holes. By trading the promise of cap space (in the convenient form of Allen Iverson) for Billups, the Nuggets trade a minor rebuild for contention. It worked -- the Nuggets were legit contenders. But what now? How can they possibly get better?
All year long, the Lakers had a singular, simple goal: to return to the NBA Finals, and avenge last year's loss in the championship round.
They achieved the first part of that goal on Friday by closing out the Denver Nuggets in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, 119-92.
In a series where the referees were the topic of discussion over the past two games, the Lakers made sure that this one wouldn't be close enough for the officials -- or the Nuggets -- to have any say at all regarding the outcome of this game.
It's pretty much put up or shut up time for Denver Nuggets coach George Karl and his team. Karl has been saying much of this Western Conference finals series that he believes his team is better than the Lakers.
Point guard Chauncey Billups maintains the Nuggets have outplayed the Lakers for most of the series except for the closing-out of games part.
The Nuggets, however, are running out of time. They need two straight wins over the Lakers or little of what they say or believe will matter. Five questions heading into Game 6:
He's going to play well on Friday night in Game 6.
That's the only logical conclusion you can draw after Billups' rather ordinary 12-point, five-assist night on Wednesday. It wasn't that Billups was bad, mind you. He wasn't. Billups was better than a slew of Nuggets; it's just that this postseason – and every postseason, for that matter – we expect more from him.
The clock is ticking on the Denver Nuggets. They seem like they're good enough to beat the L.A. Lakers in a seven-game series, but if they're going to get it done, it would probably behoove them to get a win tonight.
Will the Lakers prove to be resilient once again on their home floor? Or will the Nuggets make the right plays, close out a game and push the Lakers to the brink? Oh, and here are five more questions about tonight ...
DENVER -- For all the weird smack-talking from those Nike puppets, all the relentless marketing pushes by a sports-drink firm that suggests Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are on "a collision course," guess what? They might be headed for a Porsche-Hummer crash instead, which would be a colossal waste of ad-world brainpower and, when you consider the megastars excluded, our great entertainment loss in June.
No one is pondering a Denver vs. Orlando matchup, least of all ABC, which would watch in horror as a compelling postseason marked by fat cable ratings suddenly fades to black in the NBA Finals. "I'm sure the world does want Cleveland and the Lakers, the best two players in the world and the chance to see them in a seven-game series," said Nuggets star Chauncey Billups. "But I don't want to see it. And I'm trying my best to make sure it doesn't happen."
Allen Iverson needs to lay low for a while. 
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos. 
There have been many debates over the MVP award over the last few years -- from Kobe v. LeBron to the merits of 
The Nuggets far exceeded expectations this season. The team ranked not as the squad most likely to scare the snot out of the Lakers, but as the old guard least likely to return to the postseason in the New World.
All year long, the 
It's pretty much put up or shut up time for Denver Nuggets coach 
Watching 
The clock is ticking on the Denver Nuggets. They seem like they're good enough to beat the L.A. Lakers in a seven-game series, but if they're going to get it done, it would probably behoove them to get a win tonight.
DENVER -- For all the weird smack-talking from those Nike puppets, all the relentless marketing pushes by a sports-drink firm that suggests 
Three games into the Western Conference finals and we know a couple of things for certain:
