DENVER—When Allen Iverson helped two college students in a car wreck in Virginia in August, few noticed his good Samaritan deed.
Now, roughly six weeks later, in the wake of a pending lawsuit against him, people are noticing Iverson and the bad publicity that seems to follow him.
That’s just part of being A.I.
“I could do a million things positive and everybody would talk about the one negative thing,” Iverson said. “I’m used to it and it don’t bother me that people don’t recognize, as far as you people and other people that don’t matter. The only people that do matter is the people that I do it for, the charities, the people that benefit from it.”
The lawsuit filed in Douglas County District Court says the Denver Nuggets star, a Hampton, Va., native, didn’t come to a weekend of booked appearances in Omaha in early August, leaving fans at a youth rally and two clubs without their main attraction.
The promoter of who tried to bring Iverson to Omaha is suing the “Answer” for about $44,000 in damages.
But later in August, Iverson and a friend came upon a smoking, turned over car on Interstate 64 near his hometown. Instead of driving past, they stopped to help the two stunned college-aged women.
“I remember looking in there and asking them, ‘Are you sure you’re all right?'” Iverson told the Rocky Mountain News on 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.'”
He didn’t gloat about the good deed. In fact, it took weeks before anyone noticed. Instead, on Thursday, questions came about the lawsuit.
But Iverson wasn’t angry or bothered about the questions. His primary focus was still basketball. He’s used to the negativity.
“I understand that’s how my life’s going to be,” Iverson said. “I have a wife. I have kids. I have family members that are healthy. That’s the only thing I care about.”
Some recognize Iverson’s good deeds.
His good deed came to light after another woman who knew about what happened wrote a letter to the Philadelphia Daily News.
“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.”
Either way Iverson will do as he’s always done: play basketball.
And for the first time in his career, he seems happy to be at training camp.
“I’m not the biggest fan of camp, but I’m going to work as hard as anybody else,” Iverson said. “You might not like it, but when you see all the positive results about it and you see everybody is putting in that effort and coming together as a team, you can’t do nothing but enjoy it.”
Iverson wasn’t with the Nuggets at the beginning of last season, but following the team’s fourth-straight first round exit, he already feels the urgency and frustration that has built in Denver. And he’s not bringing any off-court baggage with him.
“When it’s time to play basketball, that’s what I do,” Iverson said about the lawsuit. “That’s just another situation that I’m not even worried about because I know the truth. I alerted them that I wasn’t going to make it and I guess they didn’t alert the people that’s supposed to have been there.”
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Associated Press Writer Oskar Garcia in Omaha contributed to this report.
