Iverson's hunger, Kobe's passion highlight landmark '96 class

He was at the free-throw line late in the game when the MVP chants cascaded down on him, a moment when the approval finally matched the effort and the fearlessness. A moment Allen Iverson will never forget.

It was late in the 50th NBA All-Star Game, 10 years ago this week -- a symbolic time for a new generation of stars that ultimately would be led to new heights by Kobe Bryant in the post-Michael Jordan era. But the rebellion always started with Iverson. Somehow, the road to ruin or redemption was going through the smallest, toughest, most resilient hombre of them all.

The rebel, the hip-hop revolutionary, the player too stubborn and proud to back down, is on the outside looking in at All-Star weekend, which was always his time to grab the spotlight.

"Not a good feeling at all," Iverson said by phone Thursday from Atlanta, where he is rehabbing a leg injury that has interrupted his first season with the Turkish team Besiktas. "But God works in mysterious ways. Maybe I needed this experience to get back on track and appreciate what was given to me and what I earned."

People need to understand, some guys go through their NBA careers squeaky clean, and some don't," Iverson said. "I didn't. I'm not bitter about that. I can't be mad about that. I'm just proud of the things I did accomplish in the NBA."

"He was the guy that everyone wanted to come watch," said Jason Kidd, who witnessed Iverson's signature All-Star performance as a member of the West All-Stars in 2001. "But he took a pounding. His heart was bigger than his body."

So, too, was his impact.

There was never any questioning his talent, his showmanship, his ability to seize the big moment and wear it on his shooting sleeve. But as the NBA embraces another "next" generation, its rise cannot be recognized without a history lesson on the Iverson-led post-Jordan crowd that everyone feared and doubted.

"I think history will view him as one of the hardest-working guys, pound-for-pound, who ever played the game," said Iverson's long-time manager, Gary Moore. "And I think that was because of the legacy that was passed down by Charles [Barkley], Michael, Magic [Johnson] and those guys. He really wanted to be appreciated by those guys like no one else. That's why he played the game as hard as he did. That's why he played every game like it was his last."

The nation got its first glimpse of Iverson and Bryant in the rookie game at All-Star weekend in 1997, and it was nearly unanimous: the nation did not like what it saw. The confidence and fearlessness learned from watching Jordan didn't translate to the court -- or to Madison Avenue, Lord knows, with Iverson's allegiance to hip-hop culture and the inner city that gave him to us as is.

Iverson didn't just collide with bodies during his 14-year career; he made a habit of colliding with history, too. He came in, along with Bryant, during that historic All-Star weekend in Cleveland when the NBA unveiled its 50 greatest players. It was a clash of cultures and attitudes never before seen and never to be duplicated.

"I think we were very entertaining," Bryant said. "We had some entertaining players, players people could gravitate to. You had A.I., who was doing his thing, you had Vince [Carter] coming along, you had Tracy [McGrady] and obviously the Lakers and Tim Duncan down in San Antonio. It was a good run."

Better than anyone expected, which perhaps will cast Iverson's career, his impact and his era in a different light.

"When the new generation comes along, you still can't take away from those players," Bryant said. "[Iverson] did stuff that's never been seen before from a guy his size. You can't discount that. He took a team of one scorer and a bunch of hard-nosed players to the NBA Finals. And when he lost to us, he was doing it during our reign of having a great team."

"People criticized me for things I did, and rightfully so," Iverson said. "I accomplished a lot of things that nobody ever did before. But I should be criticized for some of the things I did wrong."

"I heard certain comments from those guys that were positive, and I heard some that were negative," Iverson said. "You've got to have thick skin in life, period. You're not going to always be praised all the time. Being young, I didn't understand that. Being older, I do. People would sit and debate. That's what made it interesting. That's what made people want to watch.

"I tried to be the best Allen Iverson I could," he said. "When you talk about those guys -- Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas -- you can't follow in those footsteps. You can only be the best player that you can be."

"A lot of the things that happened to me and the reason I'm not in the NBA isn't because of my ability," Iverson said. "I understand it's not my talent. I understand it has nothing to do with my ability to play basketball."

If only he knew then what he knows now. If only he could've united his 35-year-old conscience with his 25-year-old body.

"I wish I could get it back," he said. "I wish I could have done things different at certain times."

"A lot of the things that happened to me and the reason I'm not in the NBA isn't because of my ability," Iverson said. "I understand it's not my talent. I understand it has nothing to do with my ability to play basketball."

If only he knew then what he knows now. If only he could've united his 35-year-old conscience with his 25-year-old body.

"I wish I could get it back," he said. "I wish I could have done things different at certain times."

"I pray for the day when he can come back," Moore said, "and go out the way he deserves."