Sixers' Hall Of Famer Allen Iverson: 'I Know I Would've Been A Better Player In Football Than Basketball'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Sixers legend and Hall of Fame guard Allen Iverson appeared on Shannon Sharpe's podcast, Club Shay Shay, with former NBA player Al Harrington earlier this week and he made a pretty bold statement.
Nearly midway through the episode, Sharpe asked Iverson if he could've been as good in the NFL as he was in the NBA.
"Not being cocky or arrogant, I know I would've been a better player in football than basketball," Iverson told Sharpe. "Football was my first love."
It's no secret that Iverson was one of the most talented quarterbacks in the country during his time at Bethel High School in Hampton, Virginia.
As a dual-sport athlete in football and basketball, he was the Associated Press' High School Player of the Year and helped both teams win Virginia state championships.
Watching Iverson scramble and make plays in the NFL would've probably been just as exciting as it was watching him throughout his NBA career.
One college coach compared him to a former Eagles quarterback in a story that VICE published in 2016.
Allen Iverson was also The Answer on the football field ????
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 5, 2020
(via @timelesssports_) pic.twitter.com/N5OkEAmo89
"We were on him hard," former Florida State assistant head coach Chuck Amato told VICE Sports. "He was just a great athlete and a competitor. He would've been the first Michael Vick."
Shortly following his response to Sharpe, Iverson then jokingly told the host that "if I would've had to hit the gridiron, then I would've never stopped lifting weights after high school."
Iverson apparently didn't lift weights throughout his NBA career.
In 2016, the Sixers honored Iverson for recently being inducted into the Hall of Fame. He was asked by a reporter why he didn't lift weights when he played and replied: "that s**t was too heavy."
Regardless, Iverson made the right decision to go the basketball route. He finished his career as a Hall of Famer, won the MVP award in 2001, made 11 All-Star appearances, including winning the game MVP twice, earned All-NBA First Team three times, and was a four-time scoring champion.
And still, to this day, he gave Sixers fans one of the most memorable runs in franchise history when he led the team to the NBA Finals in 2001, but lost to the Los Angeles Lakers.