Allen Iverson Looks Pretty Terrible in New Biography by Washington Post Writer

Former Philadelphia 76ers player Allen Iverson has had one of the more storied lives and careers of any professional basketballer of our time, and now the whole sordid tale has been told in a new biography, Not a Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson.

The author is Kent Babb, a sports features writer for the Washington Post, and it’s fair to say that Babb probably didn’t pull any punches when examining the life of the 39-year-old Iverson, who played for our hometown team from 1996 to 2006 and again from 2009 to 2010 before playing in, of all places, Turkey, and then retiring. This is Babb’s first book, and he went for the jugular.

Many if not most of the stories inside the Allen Iverson biography have been told before, but now they’re all in one legacy-crushing place. You’ve probably already heard one big piece of news from the book — that close observers thought Iverson was drunk during his famous “Practice?” rant in 2002. (UPDATE: Iverson denied that claim during an interview with Stephen A. Smith, ESPN reports.) But there’s much more.

Here’s a sampling of some of the more outrageous and sad claims made in Babb’s book:

• Iverson left his young children by themselves overnight so that he could go out and get drunk.

• He urinated on the floor in front of his family.

• Iverson didn’t exactly maintain a healthy fitness and nutrition regimen during his time on the court, sometimes shoving several hot dogs into his mouth just before the start of a game, and he rarely worked out.

• He’s been accused of beating his ex-wife, Tawanna, on multiple occasions and once told her that he could put a contract out on her life for just $5,000. He allegedly dragged her up the stairs by her hair.

• Iverson once told a son of his, “You ain’t no real nigga. You a white boy. You preppy, you rich boy.”

• He skipped the birth of one of his children because he was drunk.

• Iverson showed up drunk for a sobriety assessment that was part of a custody battle between him and Tawanna.

Not a Game was released on Tuesday. So far, the former basketball great hasn’t had a thing to say about it.