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The Detroit Pistons were a bad situation for Allen Iverson

By Duncan Smith

Apr 8, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers legend Allen Iverson delivers the ball for tip off against the New York Knicks at Wells Fargo Center. The New York Knicks won 109-102. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 8, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers legend Allen Iverson delivers the ball for tip off against the New York Knicks at Wells Fargo Center. The New York Knicks won 109-102. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /
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Allen Iverson was a member of the Detroit Pistons for just a season and played 54 games, but it was a dark time in Piston history and his career as well.

The Detroit Pistons were in the dwindling twilight of what was still an Eastern Conference dynasty at the beginning of the 2008 season, having just gone to their seventh straight conference championship series, falling in six games to the  eventual NBA champion Boston Celtics.

In a stunning move to try to rebuild on the fly, president of basketball operations Joe Dumars shocked the basketball world when he traded franchise cornerstone Chauncey Billups to the Denver Nuggets for Allen Iverson.

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The transaction couldn’t have gone much worse for the Pistons. Iverson’s decline accelerated precipitously, as he dropped off from an average of 26.4 points per game the season before with the Nuggets to an average of 17.4 points per game in his season with the Pistons. He didn’t fit well with Rip Hamilton, and it caused first-year head coach Michael Curry to repeatedly shuffle the backcourt threesome of Iverson, Hamilton and second-year guard Rodney Stuckey.

Without a doubt, Curry was underqualified for the position of NBA head coach, but he had a difficult situation to navigate through as well. In the end, Iverson’s contract was allowed to expire and he was not resigned, Hamilton’s relationship with the Pistons’ organization was soured, and Stuckey never developed into what the team had hoped he would.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Denver Nuggets flourished with their new leader, Chauncey Billups. In his two years in Denver, the Nuggets went 107-57 and he went to the All Star game in both seasons, and he continued to be a productive pro long after Iverson faded to obscurity on the court.

In Monday’s hour-long NBA TV special on Iverson, he opened up with analyst Steve Smith and discussed his time in Detroit.

"“Detroit was a bad situation for me,” Iverson told Smith. “I was told something, and I was promised something that wasn’t to be.”"

It was a situation doomed from the start, and after Iverson complained about his role with the team, the Pistons deactivated him for the final seven games of the season. It’s probably not unfair to suggest that the organization has only begun to recover from the debacle in the past couple of seasons.

In spite of his disastrous season in Detroit, Iverson will be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in September, along with Shaquille O’Neal and Michigan State Spartan head coach Tom Izzo.

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