Hall of Fame ballots are traditionally distributed years after an athlete retires, for good reason: distance makes the mind grow stronger. I can remember reading in prominent publications that Orel Hershiser and Boomer Esiason were future Hall of Famers. In the end, neither of them were. They were just very good players. This is why we wait to pass judgment.
We're going to make an exception here. I want everybody who votes for the Basketball Hall of Fame to get out a paper and a pen and write a simple answer to this question, right here, right now:
Whom would you rather have — Allen Iverson or Chauncey Billups?
The answer is Billups, of course. It isn't even close. Billups went from Detroit to Denver last fall and turned the dysfunctional Nuggets into the No. 2 seed in the West. Three games into the first round, Billups has outplayed Chris Paul.
Iverson, meanwhile, went from Denver to Detroit and talked about finally having a chance at a ring, and I'm still wondering what he meant. Detroit is Hockeytown. Maybe he said rink.
Iverson quit on his team. Think about that. He quit on his team. Just up and bailed. Oh, officially, Iverson had a back injury. I guess if you don't want to come back, that's a back injury. Iverson dribbled (and dribbled and dribbled) his way out of the starting lineup. Then he claimed, in a well-crafted statement, that "My goal is to help this team win a championship and I've said that from the first day I arrived here and I'm going to do whatever it takes to help us achieve our goals as a team regardless if I'm starting or coming off the bench."
Iverson lasted three games coming off the bench. Three games! What did he think their goals as a team were? The Pistons finally announced that Iverson was done for the season, no mention of out for the regular season or we hope he'll be back. Just goodbye, don't come back.
I always loved watching Iverson and always thought of him as a great but difficult player. I had to see him up close to see what I'd been missing. He is truly all about him.
You can say it isn't fair to judge Iverson's career on this season, because his skills have diminished. I would argue that this is exactly the time to judge him. For years, as he shot too much and kept the ball from his teammates, you could argue that Iverson was not selfish, he was just doing what he thought his team needed, and a lot of times it worked. Now we know: it was all about him.
Now: Is Chauncey Billups a Hall of Famer? I'm not saying that. But he did win a championship (and Finals MVP) and is probably looking at his seventh straight conference finals appearance.
Oh, and he never quit on a team, let alone a playoff team.
Was Iverson ever a much better offensive player? Even that is debatable. Billups is a career 41.6 percent shooter. Iverson has shot 42.4 percent. But Billups has taken an inordinate number of threes, and his career percentage beyond the arc (38.8) is far superior to Iverson's (.313). And we all know Billups was a better teammate and better passer.
This is a debate we can only have in basketball or, I should say, only seriously have in basketball. Football is a specialized sport. Baseball is largely a series of individual acts that can be measured by statistics.
Basketball is different. The five pieces have to work together. I'd rather have Chauncey Billups as one of my five pieces than Allen Iverson. Right now, everybody in the NBA would agree. Please remember that, Hall of Fame voters. Please remember that The Answer was never the answer.
