Allen Iverson is true to himself in the movie "Incomprehensible"

In 2021, at the time of the publication of his book dedicated to the 2000/01 season.Allen Iverson, journalist Jan Caswill explained to us that the former Philadelphia player was “unmanageable”species “permanent chaos”. This emerges from reading his autobiography, titled “Misunderstood”whose translation was released on October 29.

“My whole life was like that. People expected something from me that I didn’t understand. And they misunderstood me: my origin, what I experienced, made me different”we can read, from the beginning, to explain the title.

The book ends almost as his career begins

The originality of this book lies in The Answer’s choice to focus on his pre-NBA life. If we leave aside the last pages that talk about his MVP season, we are talking mainly about the younger years of the star, until his first season in the league in 1996/97. In this way, it becomes the perfect complement “2001, Allen Iverson’s Odyssey” our colleague.

Allen Iverson opens his autobiography on his famous May 2002 press conference and this “exercise” was repeated 14 times in two minutes. The former player is mocked several times in the book, as soon as the word “training” appears in the story.

Then everything comes into play: his strong bond with his great-grandmother and mother, his complicated childhood, his experience as a drug dealer. His discovery of basketball, the sport he refereed “too soft”preferring American football, “his first love”. “One day, when I was nine or ten years old, my mother came to me and said she was taking me to try out for the basketball team. I said, ‘Of course not.’he remembers.

There are also long, highly detailed pages about his football and basketball games in high school and then in college. Not forgetting the more famous moments: the incident at the bowling alley that landed him in jail for several months, or his meeting with John Thompson, coach of Georgetown in the NCAA.

“It’s not a life strategy I recommend. It’s just my way of doing things.”

Done in a very oral, very conversational style, the work (translated by Fanny Pissellup) is a good read. We seem to be constantly shifting between two worlds: the world of problems, with drugs, guns and murder, and the world of sports. As he was on the floor, the league’s four-time scorer is destabilizing. His life can be summed up in a simple formula: he knows it’s wrong, but he does it anyway. The “permanent chaos” that Ian Casseville spoke of is evident throughout the reading. As soon as he is subjected to a strict framework, Allen Iverson finds life boring.

“You don’t like my style?” I will do it even more. You don’t like my friends? I will hold them even closer to me. Do you think my family should be in jail? I will be there for them in court. You don’t like my parties? I’ll stay out later, have more fun. This is not a life strategy I recommend. It’s just my way of doing things. This loyalty, this stubbornness got me into trouble, earned me criticism and sometimes made me suffer, but it didn’t stop me from striving for excellence and making my mark in the NBA. »

So for gamer lovers, “Misunderstood” keep the promise with Allen Iverson true to himself, with his strengths and weaknesses, his good and bad moments, who never hides his true personal fragility.