Allen Iverson did not enjoy his brief stint with the Detroit Pistons as he headed into the tail-end of his NBA career. He felt disrespected by then-Pistons head coach Michael Curry, who swore to make him a starter no matter what.
Some thought A.I. was just being a prima donna when he should’ve accepted the fact that he was already aging. However, Richard Hamilton backed Iverson’s claims and shared the same sentiment about their coach.
“[Curry] M.C. lied to us a million times,” Hamilton told Bleacher Report in 2009. “He sat me and A.I. down one time and was like, ‘I’m going to lean on both of you the whole year, just don’t go to the media. Say you’ll do whatever for the team and blah blah blah.’ This was a week before he brought me off the bench. He lied. So, I feel for what Allen said.”
Good team, terrible coach
Iverson was already 33 years old when the Pistons signed him in the middle of the 2008-09 season. However, he was still in his All-Star form, having averaged 26.4 points, 7.1 assists, and 2.0 steals per game in the previous campaign.