Aaron McKie Recalls His Initial Reluctance to Play Alongside Allen Iverson

Hours before Allen Iverson's Basketball Hall of Fame induction, Aaron McKie published a story Friday on The Players' Tribune about his former Sixers teammate.

McKie, who played with Iverson on the Sixers from 1998 to 2005 and is regarded as one of his favorite teammates, touched on what his perception of Iverson was before being traded to Philadelphia, memories of being The Answer's teammate and other tidbits that he said the public "might not know about him."

Here are some interesting nuggets from the piece:

• McKie wasn't thrilled when he initially learned of his trade to Philadelphia, in part because of Iverson. "I didn’t know much about Philly, but what I did know was bad," he wrote. "I was going to a losing team. I was going to a team with a bunch of knuckleheads. The Sixers had Allen Iverson and they had Derrick Coleman, neither of whom had the best reputation. At this point, I didn’t know Allen at all at. We were both still young. But I had heard things about him."

• Before Allen Iverson actually destroyed (and stepped over) Tyronn Lue and the Lakers for 48 points, six assists, five rebounds and five steals in Game 1 of the 2001 NBA Finals, he said he was going to do it. "Take Game 1 of the Finals in 2001," McKie wrote. "Allen got all the pregame notes and clips, read how different guys were playing and what they were saying about him. He knew what to prepare for. He knew that the Lakers were going to use Tyronn Lue to try to shut him down. Allen took exception to that sort of thing. He’d say, “You know what? I’m going to destroy this m----------r.”

• A.I. was not only an artist with the basketball in his hands, but with a pencil as well. "A.I. can draw! Yessir, as in paper and pencil sketches," McKie wrote. "It’s a semi-secret about him: He’s a really good artist. He would always draw pictures of us and just slide 'em in our locker. He’d have headphones on and he’d be going at it on a piece of paper. Then all of a sudden, he’d just bust out laughing looking at his own drawing."

You can read the whole post here.

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