THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 6, 1996 TAG: 9607060577
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: 63 lines
About an hour before game time at the Boo Williams/Hampton Roads Pro-Am Midsummer Classic on Friday night, Allen Iverson sat in the Green Room at the Hampton University Convocation Center.
Pro-Am commissioner Wayne Hoffler walked in and Iverson asked him who he'd be playing with Friday night. No offense to those players, but did it matter?
In this city, they come to see Iverson. A crowd of about 7,000 came to see their native son - selected first by the Philadelphia 76ers in last month's NBA draft - make a rare home appearance in a wide-open summer league game against Norfolk's Joe Smith and other local players.
The game was part of a weekend of Iverson-related activities. City fathers have declared today ``Allen Iverson Day'' and have scheduled a parade. It will be the second of the weekend. Iverson started a parade Friday night just by making an appearance in the arena during a preliminary game.
Iverson signed an autograph, causing the inevitable rush of autograph seekers. With Iverson playing Pied Piper, a line of fans followed him from one side of the arena to the other.
Iverson took refuge in the Green Room, where he was denying interview requests.
Even without Iverson's input, the story line was clear: It was his night to entertain the home folks.
Other players knew as much.
``I'm just here to run up and down,'' said Junior Burrough, the former University of Virginia star who plays for the Boston Celtics.
That they did. Iverson was welcomed with a spotlight and dry-ice show, but his first-half game wasn't up to the hype. Looking as if he might have been trying too hard, Iverson missed jumper after jumper early. His best first-half moment might have been when he stripped the 6-foot-9 Smith, who was swooping in for a dunk. Iverson ripped a breakaway dunk a few minutes later, the kind the crowd came to see.
Iverson finished with 48 points, 11 assists and eight steals as his A&G Auto Imports beat Smith's Majestic Homes 143-141. Smith had 32 points and 12 rebounds.
Smith, splendid as he is, was not the man the crowd paid to see. The gentlemanly Smith, who plays for Golden State, is so accommodating that fans can see him each weekend for free in the Pro-Am.
Local Iverson sightings are rarer and presumably will be even more so once he packs off for Philly.
Iverson hasn't asked, but Smith said if he did, there's not much he could tell his former rival that could prepare him for the NBA.
``It would be pretty tough to tell him what to expect,'' Smith said. ``You just have to go through it. There's going to be a lot of ups and downs; there's really no way to prepare for that.''
Iverson knows all about ups and downs. Locked up for four months after being convicted for his part in a bowling-alley brawl in 1993, he was granted clemency by then-Gov. L. Douglas Wilder. He's getting a parade today, and will soon sign an NBA contract worth millions.
Iverson may be better-prepared than Smith thinks. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by HUY NGUYEN, The Virginian-Pilot
Allen Iverson took the court at Hampton University bathed in
spotlights and dry-ice smoke. He then flashed the skills that made
him the first pick in last month's NBA draft. by CNB