At the precise moment when we were all expecting that Allen Iverson‘s return to Philadelphia was merely a cyncial monument to marketing and nostalgia, yesterday at 5PM, all of that changed. It became about one man’s own redemption. If you’ve not yet seen the clip (after the jump), you might want to take a look. Because once you get past the “Oh my God, Allen Iverson is crying on television” part, a lot more emerges, and you can begin to understand all over again the things that have made Iverson one of the most compelling figures in Philadelphia sports history. And even though it was all by accident — as cynical as we ourselves are, we don’t think that Iverson planned to lead off all 5PM local news yesterday with a breakdown — Iverson showed us everything we could have ever wanted or needed to see yesterday: That he feels real pain when he thinks about his various stunts back here in the ’90s, that he is genuinely still in love with the game and that, holy hell, he might have finally grown up. If we thought we were excited about his return before, after this, we’re positively on the edges of our seats.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 3:16 pm.