THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 3, 1995 TAG: 9501030162
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long : 105 lines
WASHINGTON - Former Bethel High standout Allen Iverson met the press for the first time as a college basketball star on Monday, one year after being released from the Newport News prison farm and eight games into his career as starting point guard for Georgetown University.
Fresh from being named Big East rookie of the week for the third time this season and flanked by Hoyas coach John Thompson, Iverson appeared for about 30 minutes at McDonough Gymnasium just before a team practice. The occasion was a special press conference attended by about 20 reporters that sports information director Bill Shapland organized to accommodate ``the huge volume of interview requests we've gotten.''
Thompson's rule of not allowing freshmen to speak to the press until they complete their first semester was the reason for the timing of Monday's briefing. But it is Iverson's extraordinary performance as a college player - he is averaging 21.5 points per game and was recently named the unanimous MVP of the Capitol City Classic in Sacramento, Calif. - that has created the interest.
Basketball was supposed to have been the one and only topic of conversation, but lurking beneath the surface were the three felony convictions for brawling in a bowling alley in February of 1993 that blemished Iverson's reputation, almost cost him his college career and brought him unprecedented national attention.
Iverson, dressed in practice gear and looking relaxed and confident as the Hoyas prepared for tonight's Big East contest with Pittsburgh, said he has kept up with his studies despite the national attention he is receiving.
``I'm working a lot harder than I did in high school,'' he said. ``I don't want people to just think of me as a basketball player. I want them to know I can get it done in the classroom as well.''
He credited the Georgetown University community for helping him adjust.
``I'm surrounded by a good group of people around here to help me with things like that, so things are coming together,'' Iverson said.
For a while it looked as if Iverson's life was falling apart.
From September 1993 until Dec. 31, 1993, Iverson was an inmate at the City Farm in Newport News instead of completing his senior year at Bethel, located in Hampton. Former governor L. Douglas Wilder granted him conditional clemency on the last day of the year.
His release from jail ended one of the most racially divisive, and most nationally notorious, incidents in recent Hampton history. The bowling alley brawl he allegedly participated in was between a group of whites and a group of blacks. Many in the Peninsula black community viewed Iverson's punishment as unfair.
But 1994 was a watershed for Iverson, and his college success symbolizes a remarkable about-face for the athlete, who starred in football and basketball at Bethel.
Iverson finished his credits for his high school diploma at a private school and enrolled in Georgetown after his mother made a special appeal to Thompson.
Going to Georgetown, Iverson said, is what his mother ``wanted me to do. I always wanted to play for somebody like Coach. So it was Coach and my mother that had the most to do'' with Iverson's enrolling in Georgetown.
Since he donned a Hoya uniform, Iverson has been the subject of much of the talk of the 1994-95 college basketball season. The Hoyas have won seven straight following an opening-game loss to Arkansas, the defending national champs, and Iverson has received much of the credit.
On Monday, the freshman standout was careful to praise his teammates.
``We have guys on this team who can really play,'' Iverson said. ``We can go to anybody at any time of the game.''
Despite the stiffer competition and higher caliber of play, Iverson's playing style hasn't been affected by the transition from high school to college, he said. He said Thompson promised him that the Hoyas would play an up-tempo brand of ball if Iverson came to Georgetown.
``I've been playing the same since high school. It hasn't changed my game,'' he said. ``I talked to the coach before I came and he told me he was going to let me play my game, and run up and down the court, and he's done that.''
Thompson, however, rejected speculation that he has capitalized on Iverson's talent by adopting a run-and-gun offense while scrapping the hard-nosed, defense-oriented brand of basketball that has been Georgetown's trademark during Thompson's 23-year tenure.
``We have run before,'' Thompson said. ``I think we were one of the first teams in the country to start pressing for 40 minutes. As a result of it, that creates running.''
But the Georgetown coach admitted that Iverson's impact has been immense.
``If you have somebody who has got his talent, you try to utilize his talent,'' Thompson said. ``We can feed off a talented person. Yes, sensible people do that.''
Thompson did his best to dispel any lingering doubt about Iverson's character by going out of his way to praise the 6-foot-1 athlete as a person as well as a player.
``Allen has done what I have asked him to do, and when he has not done it, we have sat down and talked about it, and that hasn't been frequently at all,'' Thompson said. ``He has been extremely easy to work with. . . . Allen is no special problem, whatsoever.''
One of Thompson's major challenges will be to keep Iverson from jumping to the NBA. But when a television reporter asked Iverson if he would stay at Georgetown for four years, Thompson interrupted.
``Don't answer that,'' Thompson barked. ``It's ridiculous, really. Ask him if he is going to stay at his station for four years.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Allen Iverson
by CNB