The Big3 Basketball league began just a few weeks ago and will make a quick stop in Philly on Monday. Allen Iverson has been side by side with Ice Cube the entire way promoting and being the face of the league as he once was in the NBA. Iverson spent the first ten seasons of his career with the Philadelphia 76ers and has a career average of 26.7 points and 6.2 assists per game.

Iverson's team 3's Company has been playing good basketball so far during the tournament. However, A.I. himself is a coach/player and has not played a huge chunk of minutes thus far as he tends to allow his teammates to be the stars of the show.

That is something that Iverson rarely did in Philly because his team relied on his scoring so much. Now, he has opened a new chapter in his life and doesn't mind being the educator on the floor. In a recent interview, Iverson spoke of what he wanted to give his die-hard Philly fans when he returns to his former home floor.

"I just want to give them a couple flashback of the time I had here."

However, Iverson confirmed later that he would not be able to participate in the game in Philly but would be coaching against another Sixer's Hall of Famer, Julius "Dr. J" Erving's team.

Time spent in Philly

Iverson was drafted as the No.

1 overall pick by the 76ers during the 1996 NBA Draft. At the time, it was the team's first No. 1 pick for the franchise in 18 years when they drafted Hall of Famer Doug Collins. A.I. brought hope to a city that had gotten used to losing. When he entered the league, he immediately made his mark by using his signature crossover on Michael Jordan during his rookie season.

Five years later, he became arguably the best player in the game during his epic MVP season in 2001. Every game that season, Allen made opponents fear him, as he was capable of putting up 50+ point performances at any given time.

Although there were no other great scorers on the team, they believed in A.I. so much that it didn't matter. His spirit and constant effort every night made his teammates rally behind him and they showed up to fight every battle.

He led the team through two playoff series that went all the way to Game 7 on their way to the NBA Finals. Unfortunately, he would not win his only shot at an NBA title that season. The Los Angeles Lakers had a team that consisted of Shaq and Kobe and were defending champs at the time. Still, the loss did not hide what Iverson did for the league that season. He averaged a league-leading 31.1 points per game that year and became the most popular player in the league.

2006 departure to Denver

During the 2006 season, the Sixers finally decided to part ways with Iverson after ten seasons. They traded him to a Denver Nuggets team that included a younger Carmelo Anthony at the time and it appeared to be the best opportunity for Iverson to win a championship. However, both Melo and A.I. seemed to never want to sacrifice their scoring, and that ultimately led to two early exits from the playoffs. Iverson was then traded to the Detroit Pistons for Chauncey Billups and his career was never the same after that.

Success of the Big3 league

At the age of 42, A.I. has shown that he is still capable of scoring the ball. He's also shown that he can be a good coach as well.

Iverson taking a step back and allowing the younger members of his team to get the most playing time has shown how much he's matured over the years.

Despite his lack of minutes, the league has certainly been a success for him and has placed him back on the basketball stage with much less pressure, and he seems to be enjoying every minute of it.
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