Days of wonder typify Iverson ANN IVERSON was home in Virginia when the phone rang. It was her son on the line, her son the MVP. "He told me he got it and I told him I knew he'd get it all along," Ann said. "He laughed. He said, 'This would never have happened without you.' I told him how I felt, that it was special for him to say that, to acknowledge that. I told him how much it meant to me to know that he felt that way." Ann was talking and signing autographs from her seat behind the baseline at the First Union Center. It was the day of professional days for her son - accepting the MVP trophy in a tumultuous pregame ceremony, and then scoring 52 points to pulverize the Toronto Raptors in Game 5 of the Sixers-Raptors playoff series. Ann was there in the middle of it all, as she always is. During the MVP ceremony, she burst onto the floor and planted a big kiss on Allen's cheek, leaving behind a bright red lipstick print for the ages. During the game, she was waving her customary signs and sporting two headbands, a white one with the word "ALLEN" spelled out in rhinestones and a black one with the letters "MVP." Expectations surround her son and he just keeps delivering. Records fall, as do jaws, but Allen never seems to be fazed either way. "It never gets him down," Ann said. "The thing is, he just has such a positive attitude about life. Nobody can tell him what to do but him. The way I look at it, nobody can harm Allen Iverson but Allen Iverson." This had to be, back-to-back, the two best days in Iverson's basketball life. Didn't they? What could have been better in the long and unpredictable road Iverson has traveled over the last five years? What could possibly have been better than winning the MVP award Tuesday and then having another award ceremony last night, followed by another 50-point game against the Raptors? What? "I think my favorite day as a basketball player was just being drafted, coming from where I came from and making it to the NBA," Iverson said. "That was something. That was an accomplishment right there. . .Just being drafted. Just being put in the predicament to do these things is the most special thing to me." You expect one answer and you get another. It is the essence of Iverson, a wonderfully moving target. He finished last night with 52 points - and also with a sprained left thumb that nobody thinks is a big deal. After fighting to stay in games through the years, he actually pointed to coach Larry Brown and signaled that he wanted to come out with 4:45 to go. Brown appeared ready to faint, but still managed to grab Kevin Ollie and get him to the scorer's table before Iverson changed his mind. Between the pregame ceremony and the end, Iverson put on the kind of show that was just effortless excellence - 21-for-32 shooting, 8-for-14 from behind the three-point line. It was not his typical slash-and-burnathon. This was silk. This was different. And when he talked about it afterward, Iverson said things like, "It's been a rough five years for me, up and down, up and down. But that's life. I cry a whole lot but I don't whine about too many things."  Cry? Not lately, certainly. In Los Angeles, the news of Iverson's MVP award was met by petulant silence from Shaquille O'Neal. (One can only wonder what O'Neal was saying if he watched last night's game.) Anyway, what might have been Iverson's reaction had he lost? "I really don't think he would have been disappointed," Ann Iverson said. "I think his reaction would have been to think that somebody wasn't playing fair because he deserved it." Admittedly, this is cutting things pretty thin. The difference between being disappointed and feeling you were robbed would be lost on a lot of people. Then again, that's just another thing that makes Iverson such a fascinating character. "I'm going to continue to make mistakes," he said. "I'm going to continue to be human. I guess a lot of people can't accept that because I'm on this pedestal. . . But I can't satisfy everyone in this life. I just can't do it." This is true. But after the last 48 hours, it's a funny thing to bring up. In the First Union Center last night, there did not  appear to be any unsatisfied customers. To repeat: Nothing about the guy is predictable, nothing but sustained excellence. *		Author Rich Hoffman   Source Daily News   Return to Articles