Allen Iverson describes being a 19-year-old college student entering the Villanova Pavilion to play a game [theplayerstribune.com]

There were four men, making some noise way up in the stands. And they all had on handcuffs….. and chains..…. and orange jumpsuits. Those kinds of orange jumpsuits. And I remember the sign they were holding up — clear as day. It said:

ALLEN IVERSON: THE NEXT MJ

But then it had “MJ” crossed out. And they had markered in “OJ.”

You have to understand….. I mean, I’m a grown man, now, writing this. But at the time??? I was 19. That’s near a child’s age. And it’s not like I was embarrassed about my past, or about where I came from — NEVER that. But on the same token, it was just, like, Damn. Damn!! Can your boy start fresh, like, ONE time?? Can I just go to college like a normal kid, and play some ball? I’ll tell you this: there isn’t a luxury in the world like being carefree. All these people, they’ll be out here chasing money, and happiness, and this that and the third. But there’s nothing on this earth better than carefree. And that’s the one thing that I realized some of these people out there were never going to let me be.

And what made Coach Thompson so special is he knew that, man. He knew that. Coach knew……. and he could see my heart just sinking in that moment. He knew he couldn’t protect me from everything that was in this world.

But he sure tried.

Here’s what Coach Thompson, MY coach, did for me on that night: He didn’t ask for their sign to be confiscated. He didn’t yell and shout and make a scene. No. See, what Coach did is he calmly walked over to us, player by player, and told us that — don’t worry about our things — we were leaving the floor. That’s it: We were leaving the floor. No big drama. Heads held high. We were there…. and then we were gone.

And then once we were off that floor, and it was just Coach back on the court? He calmly told those refs, he said, “Hey, no disrespect. No disrespect to y’all. But here’s what’s going to happen: If you don’t get those four pieces of sh*t outta here, and I’m talking immediately — we’re gonna be forfeiting this game. Understood?”

They understood, man.

Source:
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/life-and-times-of-allen-iverson