One of the most famous rants in sports history has an interesting new twist thanks to a new book about Allen Iverson written by journalist Kent Babb.
Iverson, who rambled on about "practice" in a news conference that has since been replayed and mimicked countless times, was apparently drunk during the whole thing.
Not sober. Not sober. Not sober.
We're talking about drunk.
Per ESPN.com, which references passages in the book involving former Philadelphia 76ers president Pat Croce, former coach Larry Brown and former general manager Billy King:
After his talk with Brown, Iverson left with a friend and returned later for the news conference. "I assumed he went and fooled around somewhere," Brown said, tipping his hand up like a bottle, the author wrote in the book.
Before the news conference, King said he could tell that something was off about Iverson, but "if we thought that he was drinking or whatever, we'd have never done it."
Wrote Babb: "Some were entertained, and others watched the train wreck unfold, knowing from experience that Iverson was drunk."
