Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 19, 1994 TAG: 9410190059
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Iverson was cleared to play Tuesday by the NCAA after his eligibility was temporarily revoked for accepting plane tickets from a shoe company.
The reinstatement came after documents showed Iverson had repaid Nike for flying him to a company-sponsored basketball camp in Indianapolis in July 1993. The NCAA said Iverson repaid the company before the school contacted the NCAA.
``In my view, that demonstrated that he was making a good-faith effort to do the right thing,'' said Carrie Doyle, the NCAA director of eligibility.
Georgetown declared Iverson ineligible last week after the school learned he had broken NCAA rules by accepting the tickets and requested his eligibility be restored.
Georgetown coach John Thompson said Iverson's being declared ineligible was a procedural formality, and he was not surprised by the decision to have it restored.
``His being ineligible was a sensational way of putting it,'' Thompson said. ``The fact is the burden of responsibility was placed on the wrong person, a 17-year-old person who has not even been to his senior year in high school.''
Doyle said the decision was based on precedents where eligibility had been restored after players repaid companies for gifts or benefits considered improper.
Georgetown plays its first game Nov.27 against defending national champion Arkansas in Memphis, Tenn.
Two summers ago, Iverson was flown by Nike to the basketball camp from his Hampton, Va., home. He left the camp early a few days later to return home to stand trial on three felony counts because of his involvement in a fight at a bowling alley in February 1993.
The court case began Friday, July 9, 1993, then recessed for the weekend. Nike flew Iverson back to the camp for a weekend all-star game, then back to Hampton for the completion of the court case on Monday, July 12.
Under NCAA rules, the first set of tickets was admissible, but the second set was not.
Iverson was convicted of all three felony charges and served four months of a five-year sentence. He was granted conditional clemency in December by then-Virginia Gov.L.Douglas Wilder.
``I am impressed, frankly that he [repaid the company] even before the school asked him to do that, and he did it before the NCAA asked him to do that, and I think that says a whole bunch about his character,'' Doyle said.
by CNB