17 Years Later, Allen Iverson's 'Practice' Rant Remains Timeless
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Seventeen years later, everyone is still talking about practice. At least on Tuesday.
Tuesday marked the 17th anniversary of one of the most iconic rants in not just Philadelphia, but sports history.
Taking a jump into the wayback machine, the Sixers were eliminated from the playoffs and Allen Iverson's relationship with head coach Larry Brown was rocky.
On May 7, 2002, Iverson began talking about practice – not a game.
"If a coach say I missed practice, and y'all hear it, then that's that. I might've missed one practice this year. But if somebody says, 'He doesn't come to practice — it can be one practice, out of all the practices this year — then that's enough. … But it's easy to talk about, it's easy to sum it up when you just talk about practice. We sittin' in here, I'm supposed to be the franchise player, and we in here talkin' about practice. I mean listen, we talkin' 'bout practice. Not a game, not a game, not a game. We talkin' about practice. Not a game, not a, not a, not the game that I go out there and die for, and play every game like it's my last. Not the game. We talkin' bout practice, man. I mean how silly is that? We talkin' bout practice. I know I'm supposed to be there, I know I'm supposed to lead by example. I know that, and I'm not shovin' it aside, you know, like it don't mean anything. I know it's important, I do. I honestly do.
But we talkin' bout practice, man. What are we talkin' about? Practice? We talkin' about practice, man. [Reporters laughing] We talk — we talkin' bout practice. We talkin' bout practice! We ain't talkin' bout the game, we talkin' bout practice, man. When you come into the arena, and you see me play, you see me play, don't you? You see me give everything I got, right? But we talkin' bout practice right now. … We talkin' bout practice. Man look, I hear you, it's funny to me too. I mean, it's strange, it's strange to me too. But we talkin' bout practice, man. We not even talkin' bout the game, the actual game, when it matters. We talkin' bout practice."
The Sixers aren't talking about practice Tuesday. They were in Toronto getting ready to face the Toronto Raptors in Game 5.