The Golden Age of Basketball

On December 15, ten days before Christmas 2006, the Las Vegas Radiance announced the trade for Allen Iverson on their official website.

As soon as the news came out, all of the team’s ticket channels blew up: the phones were jammed, the website servers crashed under the traffic, and fans rushed to the box office to line up for tickets. The team’s season tickets for next year sold out in just half an hour.

Because Ah Gan might retire at any time, advance sales for Glory’s season tickets had been mediocre. Many fans were worried that if they bought season tickets for next season and Ah Gan retired, they’d be left watching only Yao Ming.

Yao Ming has enormous popularity within certain groups, but among young fans in North America his influence is far inferior to Iverson’s. The moment Iverson’s photo appeared on Glory’s website, it became the best possible advertisement for ticket sales.

At the same time, fans were very eager to see how Iverson would mesh with Ah Gan and Yao Ming—what kind of chemistry they would have, and what sort of sparks that might ignite.

The trade news quickly flooded major sports outlets across All-America. Unlike the slower newspapers and magazines, the now‑developed internet could repost and publish any story instantly. Fans could not only receive the news right away, but also go online to express their opinions and engage in heated discussions.

In 2006, the internet was still in the process of spreading in both China and the U.S. Those who could get online were generally adults with decent family circumstances and higher levels of education, including many highly educated professionals with strong expertise.

BBS forums were the mainstream online venues at the time, and their users generally had solid quality. Posts and comments tended to be substantive, forum management was fairly strict, and moderators would rigorously review user speech, banning personal attacks and extreme brainless remarks. The notion of "traffic is king" hadn’t appeared yet, and the tabloid style of "shocking" headlines and sensationalist distortions hadn’t fully blown into the online space.

So even though there was considerable controversy around this Iverson trade, fans of Glory, Ah Gan, and Iverson online could still look at it relatively rationally, analyzing its pros and cons from both sides.

"Iverson’s arrival can make up for Glory’s lack of punch on the perimeter. Before Iverson came, I felt Glory’s roster construction was getting more and more like the ’97 Utah Jazz: capable of making the Finals, but probably not enough to win the title. On that Jazz team, the burden of clutch offense fell entirely on Karl Malone’s shoulders. Judging from the last few seasons, the tougher the physical battles get, the more Yao Ming’s performance tends to be discounted—especially with how fierce the Western Conference has been these years. Miller is a good player, but his lack of shooting is just deadly. Iverson’s efficiency is poor too, but if you cut down his shot attempts, maybe there’s room for improvement."

"I really don’t like Iverson coming. He’s a pure on‑ball scoring guard whose playmaking and defense both fall short. Miller doesn’t have a three, and Iverson’s three isn’t much either. Since 2001, Iverson has basically turned into a cancer, and the gap between him and Kobe has widened; he’s only clearly better than Tracy McGrady, but he doesn’t even have McGrady’s size. I’m genuinely worried Ah Gan will stain his legacy at the end."

"Iverson teaming up with Ah Gan on Glory makes me very happy; I’m going to be skipping work to watch games again. Before this, with Ah Gan’s games, I’d watch if I could and just let it go if I couldn’t—he’s already 42. Now I’m really looking forward to seeing what kind of chemistry he and Iverson will have. But to be honest, judging from Iverson’s play with the 76ers—his shooting percentages and all that messy stuff off the court—it’s really worrying whether he’ll settle down and focus on playing in Glory. If he becomes a locker‑room time bomb, then this trade is absolutely a loss for Glory."

"I’ll worry about Ah Gan’s age, worry about him getting injured, worry about him getting dementia and forgetting which team he’s on, worry about him getting assassinated by the FBI or CIA someday—but I just don’t worry about him losing control of the locker room. Allen Iverson, are you ready to meet your strictest father? Ready to end your single‑parent life?"

Online, some people were optimistic, some pessimistic. Some saw Iverson as a cancer; others believed Ah Gan would keep Iverson in line.

In any case, Glory had once again stepped onto center stage and under the spotlight thanks to this trade—and that in itself was one of the trade’s goals.

Traditional sports media such as ESPN and Sports Illustrated graded the deal, and the level they gave Glory was only a C.

These experts and reporters know more of the inside stories about players’ situations. They generally worried that Iverson’s awful off‑court habits would drag the Las Vegas Radiance down.

Moreover, Iverson, as a small guard around 180 centimeters, was already 31. If he were a center who hadn’t suffered major injuries, this would be the golden age.

But for small guards, this age is extremely dangerous. Isaiah Thomas suffered a major injury around this age and retired directly.

Iverson’s style is very similar to Thomas’s, and after fighting in the League for ten years, Iverson’s body is covered in injuries. No one knows when he might hit a drastic cliff‑like decline.

ESPN’s experts even joked, "Watch Iverson retire before Ah Gan does."

In short, this was a very controversial trade, including the fact that it broke Ah Gan’s long‑standing norm of having no major trades in the middle of his career.

The last time one of his teams experienced this kind of blockbuster deal involving star players dates back to the 1990 offseason, when they sent Divac and Hornacek in exchange for Reggie Lewis.

Charles Barkley spoke out again after the trade, saying: "Ah Gan, why haven’t you retired yet? Are you seriously relying on mid‑season trades now to keep the roster competitive? Trading for Iverson is absolutely the wrong move. He’s a fighter, but not a good teammate—he’s going to ruin the final stretch of your career. What’s unbelievable is that it’s about to be seven full seasons since Ah Gan and I won the championship in 2000! Seven seasons—my God, that’s already the entire career for many players."