Friday September 9th marked the day in which several men had their names solidified as greats as they were inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Headlining this year’s class was the Great Wall of China, Yao Ming, the great Aristotle, Shaquille O’Neal, and The Answer, Allen Iverson.

While this night marked a great accomplishment for these three men and everyone else inducted, the night belonged to Allen Iverson. Through all of the adversity he faced throughout his life and the uphill battle he fought his entire career his perseverance was finally recognized as he was officially dubbed one of the greatest to ever play the game of basketball.

Iverson was faced with adversity starting as a child, his mother gave birth to him when she was 15 and imaginably struggled to make ends meet. However, Iverson was able to find his outlet through sports. His first love was football and he had to be dragged by his mother to basketball practice but he proved to excel in both sports and play at a much higher level than anyone around him.

As a high schooler, Iverson was seen as one of the top prospects in the nation, and was being heavily recruited by schools all around the nation for both football and basketball.

This all changed following the night of February 14th 1993, where Allen was involved in a fight in a bowling alley, and was accused of striking a woman with a chair during the fight. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison but only served 4 months of the sentence after being pardoned by Governor Doug Wilder. He got out of prison but all of his scholarship offers were gone.

His mom had to beg John Thompson, the coach of Georgetown, to let him play, which he eventually allowed. Iverson took full advantage of this opportunity becoming a First Team All American his sophomore year and then becoming the first overall pick in the draft.

Iverson acknowledged the adversity he faced saying “I had to overcome what they said about me. I had to overcome all that to be wearing this [Hall of Fame] jacket right now. The naysayers, they helped me, too.”

He had his ups and downs in the NBA but won the Rookie of the Year in 1997, NBA MVP in 2001, made 11 all-star games, was 3 time All-NBA first team, was a 4 time scoring champion and was a 3 time NBA steals leader.

All these stats were enough to earn himself a spot in the Hall of Fame but the toughness he played with is what Allen Iverson is most known for, always giving everything he had on any given day. So, after all of his hard work and dedication, he finally gets to realize the dream of anyone who ever played the game of basketball, to be in The Hall of Fame.