PHILADELPHIA — Jayson Tatum remembers cutting his socks into arm sleeves and pulling on a headband, trying his best when he first started playing basketball to look like Allen Iverson. Kevin Durant was one of the tallest players on his travel teams, but he still made sure to test defenders with Iverson’s signature crossover dribble. And Chris Paul wanted to braid his hair as a kid and wear No. 3 because of Iverson.
“Everyone looked up to him,” Tatum said. “Everybody loved A.I.”
So it’s easy to imagine how the current NBA stars — players like Tatum, Durant, and Paul — feel when they receive praise from Iverson. Tatum, a Boston Celtics forward who will start in Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game, felt again like a 6-year-old in St. Louis with hoop dreams when someone sent him a clip last year of Iverson gushing over his game.
