Allen Iverson Officially Announces Retirement

OCTOBER 30TH: Iverson officially announced his retirement this afternoon from Philadelphia, on NBA TV.

OCTOBER 17TH: Iverson will officially announce his retirement at the Sixers’ home opener against the Heat on October 30th, reports Chris Broussard of ESPN.com (via Twitter).

AUGUST 21ST: Allen Iverson hasn’t appeared in an NBA game since the 2009/10 season, but in the years since then, he has played overseas and continued to try to make an NBA comeback. It appears the 38-year-old is finally ready to call it a career though. According to Tzvi Twersky of SLAM, Iverson is prepared to officially announce his retirement in the coming days.

As recently as this March, Iverson indicated that he’d love the opportunity to play in the NBA again, but it has now been three and a half years since his last game for the 76ers. No NBA club has elected to roll the dice on him since then, and Iverson was unwilling to play in the D-League this past year as an audition of sorts.

Assuming Iverson makes it official in the near future, he’ll retire as the NBA’s 19th-leading scorer of all time, though Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Tim Duncan are right on his heels and could pass him next season. Iverson averaged 26.7 PPG and 6.2 APG in 914 career regular-season contests, and increased his scoring average to 29.7 PPG in 71 playoff games. The longtime Sixer, who also spent time with the Nuggets, Pistons, and Grizzlies, was an 11-time All-Star, a four-time scoring champion, a three-time member of the All-NBA First Team, and won the MVP award in 2001.

In addition to his on-court achievements, the former first overall pick played a significant role in the evolution of the NBA’s off-court culture over the last two decades. According to Basketball-Reference, Iverson also earned more than $154MM during his 14-year NBA career.