The Los Angeles Lakers’ Austin Reaves recently gave his list of the top five shooting guards in NBA history, and he left off Allen Iverson, which led to criticism from Gilbert Arenas.
Reaves later explained that he didn’t put Iverson on his list because he thought of the former Philadelphia 76ers star as a point guard and not a shooting guard.
Iverson played 14 seasons in the NBA, during which he averaged 26.7 points and 6.2 assists per game. Although he was listed at just six feet tall, he flip-flopped between the 1 and 2 positions and put together a fairly impressive resume.
He won the regular season MVP award for the 2000-01 season while leading an undermanned Sixers squad to the NBA Finals that year, and he also ended up with four scoring titles.
Iverson was also one of the NBA’s most popular players during the 2000s, and he developed a cult following among fans that were part of the hip-hop community.
Just about everyone can agree that Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade are the first, second and third-greatest shooting guards ever in that order. Bryant, the late great Laker, played 20 seasons with the team and helped lead it to five NBA championships while becoming a transcendent icon himself.
Reaves grew up in Arkansas as a fan of Bryant. It led to him gaining the nickname “Hillbilly Kobe,” a nickname he wanted people to stop using in honor of Bryant’s memory. The Hall of Famer died in 2020, along with eight others, during a helicopter crash in Southern California.
More recently, Reaves gave Bryant’s nephew a birthday gift, which brought him to tears.
Reaves, who just earned a new four-year contract with Los Angeles, is seemingly a rising star. He progressively stepped up his game last season, and he could still have room for improvement, which led head coach Darvin Ham to say that he will become an All-Star at some point soon.
