Life Without Iverson Can Be Treacherous

If Allen Iverson were commissioner of the NBA, he’d change plenty. First, he’d probably want to start the season over.

It’s not even December, and already the Philadelphia 76ers star has endured a whole season of bumps, bruises and turmoil.

Iverson, the NBA scoring leader, is out for at least three weeks with a broken thumb. That’s the worst of it, but not all. Philadelphia was 5-7 when Iverson went on the injured list for the first time in his career Wednesday, and he just hasn’t seemed like himself through the first three weeks of the season.

Or rather, he’s seemed a bit like his old self. He’s forcing shots, barking at the refs and quietly revisiting some of the disagreements that marred his relationship with coach Larry Brown in the past.

Iverson took issue with Brown’s dress code for long road trips, saying he would ignore the coach’s suggestion--and his teammates’ decision--to wear suits or sport jackets.

He has made veiled comments about Brown’s desire for Iverson to play point guard, his former position, for a few minutes a game so second-year player Larry Hughes can play with him in the backcourt.

“I’ll do anything to make this team successful,” Iverson said of playing point guard. “But I’d be lying if I said that is what I want to be.”

Brown and the Sixers don’t want to think about what transpired the last time Iverson was injured. Though he always plays through pain, but Iverson does not handle sitting out well.

Last season, a collision with Shaquille O’Neal in March seemed to set off a chain reaction that threatened to derail the Sixers’ progress.

Philadelphia ended an 0-7 streak when Iverson scores 40 or more points, beating the Lakers 105-90 behind Iverson’s 41 on March 19. Iverson, who is listed at 6-feet and weighs 165 with his jewelry on, was knocked around hard several occasions including a crushing pick by the 7-foot-1, 315-pound O’Neal.

That blow to the thigh left Iverson badly hobbled. He tried to play through the injury, but his temper flared April 2 against Cleveland, when he cursed Brown after the coach tried to put him in the game. Iverson skipped a road trip, apparently to let his leg heal, and made amends with Brown.

Philadelphia lost to the struggling Washington Wizards 101-93 Wednesday night, falling to 2-9 without Iverson. They recently lost three games to elite teams--Miami, Portland and San Antonio--by a total of 15 points with Iverson in the lineup.

For now, someone is going to have to pick up Iverson’s offensive slack. He led the league in scoring (30.8) and field goal attempts (310) when he got hurt.

“I was joking in practice that there’s 30 extra points out there if everybody can pick up their scoring,” injured center Matt Geiger said.

Thirty extra shots, too. Let’s see what happens when Iverson comes back.

ELLIOTT’S QUEST: Spurs guard Sean Elliott has revised his estimate for when he’ll be able to come back from kidney transplant surgery.

“I could probably come back now, but I wouldn’t be any good,” said Elliott, who received a kidney from his brother Noel on Aug. 16. “I don’t want to come back and be 70 percent or 80 percent and be a burden on the team.”

Elliott, who helped San Antonio win its first NBA title last season, originally targeted December for his comeback. But the Spurs, who signed Chucky Brown, Terry Porter and Samaki Walker to help fill the void, are playing well without Elliott. Some teammates have suggested that they don’t want to see him come back if it’s going to endanger his health.

The 31-year-old Elliott is taking medication to help his body accept the new kidney, without which he would have needed dialysis because of a kidney disease. He’s also lifting weights, but he said the hardest part of his rehab is conditioning. So he’s decided not to put a timetable on his comeback.

“That’s getting tougher and tougher every day,” Elliott said. “It’s probably slower than I thought it would be.”

An unexpected part of Elliott’s ordeal has been the response from other kidney transplant patients.

“It’s pretty standard at every arena to have people come up to me and say they got a kidney from their mother or their daughter,” Elliott said. “When you share something with somebody, it’s like a bond.”

KEMP’S WEIGHT: Cleveland All-Star Shawn Kemp’s weight is feared to have ballooned close to 300 pounds for the second straight season.

Twice in the last week, he has refused to talk with reporters after games--and one of them was a 103-100 victory over Portland in which Kemp had 28 points and 10 rebounds.

Kemp, acquired in the three-team trade that sent Vin Baker to Seattle in 1997, is averaging 20 points and 11 rebounds despite the extra pounds. While it’s hard to argue with those numbers, it’s worth wondering if a 6-foot-10 power forward who isn’t in his best shape fits coach Randy Wittman’s up-tempo plans.

Wittman elected not to play Kemp in key situations in the fourth quarter early in the season even when he wasn’t in foul trouble. Kemp didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter of a 101-90 loss at Detroit last week.

LAYUPS: Orlando sixth man Chris Gatling is the NBA’s Mr. All or Nothing. He had 31 points and 10 rebounds against Dallas, and 28 points and 11 rebounds against Atlanta. He’s also had two games with no points and another with two points. ... Stanley Roberts of the Philadelphia 76ers, the first player expelled under the league’s new drug policy, said he didn’t know how the “amphetamine-based designer drug” he’s accused of using got into his system. He says he plans to legally challenge the decision, which wiped out a $725,000 contract.