Nuggets guard, friends drove past Virginia accident
By Aaron J. Lopez, Rocky Mountain News October 2, 2007
Along a busy highway in southeastern Virginia, Nuggets guard Allen Iverson delivered an assist that never will be included in his impressive NBA stat line.
Imagine the surprise of two women as Iverson crouched down in the median to find out if they were injured when their car flipped over along Interstate 64 near Hampton, Va.
"I remember looking in there and asking them, 'Are you sure you're all right? Is anything broken or anything like that?' " Iverson said Monday. "One of them looked up and said, 'Oh, my God, are you Allen Iverson?' I was like, 'Yeah, but don't worry about that. We're trying to get you all out and make sure you're all right.' "
An eight-time All-Star and one of the league's most recognizable - and sometimes polarizing - players, Iverson has received plenty of negative publicity during his 11 NBA seasons.
He hardly was thinking about his image when he and a group of friends approached the accident on that August night.
In addition to being upside down, the car was smoking. Iverson told his friend who was driving to slow down so they could see if anyone was in the car.
"It didn't look good," Iverson said. "I looked and seen them upside down. I said, 'Pull over. We got to see if those people are all right.' It was the right thing to do."
The police and paramedics soon arrived and Iverson and his traveling party continued down the road. Later that night, they stopped at the hospital to check on the women.
Iverson said he has not heard from the women since, but another woman who knew about the accident wrote a letter to the Philadelphia Daily News to commend Iverson for being a good Samaritan.
"We, the public, seem to hear only the negative stories, but never the small acts of kindness he performs," wrote April Snoparsky, of Boston. "This story reaffirms my belief that just because he's 'street' doesn't mean he isn't one of the good guys."
Now if that isn't being a good citizen, I don't know what is. At least people can now say that the man has a good heart, and stop worrying about all the wrong he's done in the past.
thats amazing, finally he gets some positive light, hopefully this will help people move on from his "bad-boy" image and i must say i laughed at the lady saying OMG are you Allen Iverson...sounds like something i would do
