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Allen Iverson often is called basketball's little big man. The barely six-foot Iverson, who weighs only 165 pounds, is reason for hope for young boys who want to play in the National Basketball Association. Few of them will have the two qualities that set Iverson apart and allow him to succeed in a sport where height is a player's biggest asset: heart and talent.

As a child, Iverson showed promise as a young football star, and that sport was his first love. When he was introduced to the sport of basketball at the age of eight, Iverson began to see how he could play the game better. Known around his neighborhood for his relentlessness and energy, Iverson began to play basketball on the playgrounds of Newport News, Virginia, where he soon gained the attention of Boo Williams, an Amateur Athletic Union coach.

Iverson played football and basketball throughout his youth, both at school and on AAU summer teams. He led Bethel High School to state championships in both sports when he was only a junior. What looked to be a promising career appeared to derail in February of his junior year, however, when Iverson and his friends were involved in a bowling alley brawl that sparked a controversy throughout Virginia's Tidewater region.

Iverson claimed then, as he has as an adult, that he left the bowling alley when things started to get ugly. White people involved in the fight, however, told the police that Iverson was in the middle of the brawl. After deciding for a judge trial, Iverson found out that he would spend several years in jail, effectively ending his career.

Believers in Iverson's cause came to his aid. The tape showing the fight was grainy, they argued, and could not prove definitively that he was involved. The other evidence was witness testimony, and it came from bitter opponents in the fight. Iverson's backers won the fight when Virginia's governor pardoned him after five months in jail. Iverson began working to complete his high school studies although many colleges, including the University of Kentucky where Iverson planned to go, rescinded their offers of basketball scholarships.

Iverson legend has it that his basketball career did not end after his days in jail thanks to the efforts of his mother, Ann Iverson. A teenaged mother who had pushed her son to do well in athletics to make a better life for himself, Ann Iverson traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with Georgetown University coach John Thompson, who was known to give second chances to players he thought deserved it. Whatever Ann Iverson may have said that day worked. Thompson met with Iverson and gave him a shot to play.

Iverson left Georgetown early to enter the 1996 NBA draft. Selected first by the Philadelphia 76ers, Iverson embarked on a professional career that is still going. Although the 76ers have not had much success with Iverson as their star, save a trip to the 2001 finals where they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, Iverson himself has changed the game of basketball.

He is short for the game, but he makes up for it by outwitting his opponents. His crossover dribble, in which he fakes and then cuts faster than opposing defenses, is his signature move and even fooled Michael Jordan when the two went head-to-head early in Iverson's career. Iverson has won four NBA scoring titles, and is tied with Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain for the most ever. He also has been a perennial All-Star during his reign with the 6ers.

His off-court life has been the source of endless rumors from celebrity gossipmongers and ever-present scolding from older basketball heads. Regardless of any troubles in his early playing days, Iverson's personal life has come to represent devotion and fatherhood to many. He and his wife, Tawanna, have four children and have been together since high school.

Iverson is now 30 years old, ancient in the basketball world. He has said that his step may be a little slower than it was at 20, but he is still there, working hard in every game. Iverson has shown that it is possible to overcome the height disadvantage with pure talent. He has the ability to steal, score, and rev up the crowd, and despite the 76ers' performance, that will be Iverson's basketball legacy.

By Julia Mercer