Business Ethics

Allen grew up in the projects as the son of a 15-year old single mother. Their house in Hampton, Virginia lay on top of the city's sewers. Whenever they burst, the floor would be coated with sewage. Iverson's biological father Allen Broughton who stayed in Connecticut , where the family lived before Allen was born, never played any role in his life, and earlier this year, pledged guilty to stabbing a former girlfriend. Shortly after being born his maternal grandmother - often the pillar in an inner-city family - passed away as well.

Mom Ann had a hard time making ends meet, and the house was often without water or electricity because of unpaid bills. "She did whatever she had to do," Allen explains, while refusing to elaborate on that cryptic statement. Growing up, Iverson was often responsible for taking care of his younger sisters Brandy (born 1979) and Liesha (1991), which was especially difficult with the toddler, who suffered frequent seizures.

Mounting medical bills pushed the family further in debt. Ann's boyfriend, Allen's de facto father, Michael Freeman has been in and out of jail all of his life. After a car accident got him unemployed once again in 1991, desperate for money Freeman was caught and convicted for drug possesion with intent to distribute. "I didn't buy cadillacs and diamond rings," Freeman explains, "I was payin' bills."

Iverson used to blame the man who taught him how to play basketball and pushed him to excel at it. Today he's proud of Freeman. "He never robbed nobody," said Allen. "He was just tryin' to feed his family. It would kill him to come from jail and find out how his family was living. One time he came home and just sat down and cried." Today he's serving time in the same Virginia jail where Allen was sent in 1993.

Iverson's mom early saw Allen's basketball skills as a ticket to get out of the projects and live a normal life. She encouraged Allen to keep playing the game he loved so much.. Every time his mother saw him to lose heart she told him "go till the end every time u see the chance". Despite his rather short and slim body, Allen was never afraid of challenging bigger guys on the court.

Iverson recalls from his childhood:"Coming home, no lights, no food,sometimes no water. Then when there was water, no hot water. Living in a house where the sewer was busted under the house and having to watch my sister walk around in her socks all day because the floor was wet from the sewage. The smell was making my sister sick." Many NBA players grew up in broken homes and tough neighbourhoods and were driven to play basketball with one hope: escape the ghetto. Few had it as bad as him, though.

In a life that hadn't been a "sunshine story", Iverson was left standing in the middle of a brawl between black and white students in a bowling alley. One Valenite's Day, Iverson and some friends - all jocks and black - walked into a Hampton Bowling Alley. Allen was already a local sports hero, having quarterbacked Bethel High School's football team to the state championship only two months earlier, and in the process of leading the basketball squad to the same trophy. He was probably the best known person in the city that night.

Allen's crowd was loud and had to be asked to quiet down several times, and eventually something of a shouting duel began with another group of youths. The only undisputable fact is that shortly thereafter a huge fight erupted, pitting the local white kids against the blacks. 17-year old Iverson was tried as an adult, convicted of maiming by mob, and sentenced to five years for throwing a chair at a girl.

Virginia's first black Governor, Doug Wilder, granted him conditional release after four months behind bars. The trial and the verdict set off an national debate on race politics. Iverson and his supporters maintain his innocence. Allen cannot be seen on an amateur video if the incident, and he claims he left the alley as soon as the trouble began. "For me to be in a bowling alley where everybody in the whole place know who I am and be crackin'