NBA Insider – Memphis waiting on “The Answer”

I still find this pending marriage between Memphis and Allen Iverson a bit confusing. The Grizzlies are far from positioning for a surprise playoff run. Their +15000 odds aren’t going to change anytime soon, with or without Iverson, and the fact that they play in the Western Conference makes it unfathomable that a 34-year-old Iverson who played in just 57-games last year would do anything to thrust them in to prominence.

Iverson and Michael Heisley, the owner of the Grizzlies, met on Monday to discuss details of the contract. It’s believed to be a one-year, $3.5 million offer to bring in Iverson. To what end, though? I still can’t figure it out.

A lot of people kick up dirt on to Iverson’s resume, saying that he’s over-the-hill, his “me first” attitude is cancerous and he isn’t the same scorer he used to be. They forget that he is one of the most electrifying forces of nature that the NBA has ever seen. He claims that he wants to help them develop a winner, but he’s such a unique entity in that he could only ever make himself better.

He had an opportunity in Denver to turn Carmelo Anthony in to a superstar and failed. Are we to think that he’s going to make the awkwardly shaped O.J. Mayo or Rudy Gay into that player? I don’t know. Mayo is a shooting-guard as well, but when has Allen Iverson ever appeared as a great mentor? Name a single player that he’s been a teammate with and who he’s fostered the development of. Name just one. Go ahead. I’m waiting.

Sure he made some guys look good, but that’s not the same. Mayo is already on course for developing in to a second-banana, and Rudy Gay is the next coming of Ray Allen. Neither of them is going to learn too much from Iverson.

So the question is not whether Iverson’s $3.5 million offer from Memphis is his best offer. The real question is whether it’s his only offer. Charlotte and Miami have silently backed away from Iverson for whatever reason. Memphis has no championship hope. They have a young team developing in to a contender two seasons down the road. What exactly is Iverson going to do for them in one year?

Aside from selling tickets, if Iverson is “The Answer”, I still can’t figure out what Memphis’s question is.