Now that Allen Iverson is no longer under contract with the Grizzlies, more details of his brief, tumultuous tenure with the team are starting to come out, starting (but probably not ending) with a couple or interesting pieces today.
Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins comes clean — at least from his perspective — with the Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Phil Jasner:
Memphis coach Lionel Hollins, a onetime Sixers guard who won a championship with the Portland Trail Blazers, views the situation as “strange.”
“He got hurt in training camp, so I hadn’t even had a chance to fit him in,” Hollins said. “But I do know that every issue was addressed before we ever started. Our owner told him he was being brought in to mentor the young guards, to come off the bench. He didn’t blink.
“I said he could compete [with Mike Conley and O.J. Mayo] for a starting spot, see whether it works. I asked him if he could handle it if it turned out he would be coming off the bench. He didn’t blink.
“I told him I wasn’t out to prove I was the boss; I wasn’t out to break him. I told him, ‘You’re stubborn, and I’m stubborn, but if we react to each other like that nobody wins.’ He laughed.”
These comments from Hollins echo some off-the-record info that began to drift around FedExForum in the past week, push back against the idea that the team hadn’t fully discussed potential roles — including coming off the bench — with Iverson. But as long as Iverson was under contract, team officials were always vague about their meeting with Iverson. That has clearly changed now.
