Never mind that the 76ers' superstar is often as difficult to pin down for anything more than a brief interview as it is to stop his left-to-right crossover dribble.

Never mind that he had sprained his right ankle in practice, causing him to have the ankle iced for an hour by trainer Lenny Currier, and a limousine was waiting to take him to a photo shoot for ESPN Magazine.

Never mind that a Sixers employee had tried to end the session with five beat writers after 15 minutes, but Iverson waved her off, and The Answer continued to answer questions for another 10 minutes.

The 6-foot, 165-pounder knows he still may doing things he'll regret later, but he believes he's much more mature at 24 than he was as a rookie of 21.

Iverson admitted he had no idea what to expect of the NBA after the Sixers made him the No. 1 pick in the 1996 draft out of Georgetown.

"I wanted to show everybody I could play basketball at this level," said Iverson following yesterday's practice at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. "I did it the wrong way. I was so immature."

Iverson was a shooting guard forced to play the point as a 6-footer. Even as he averaged 23.5 points, became the first rookie to score 40 points in five consecutive games and was named NBA Rookie of the Year, he was perceived as a ball hog.

That didn't change in 1997-98, which was Larry Brown's first year in Philadelphia and Iverson's second straight losing campaign, despite averaging 22 points, cutting his turnovers down from 337 to 244 and improving his field goal percentage from 41.6 percent to 46.1 percent.

Iverson's breakthrough came last season, when he was named first-team All-NBA, NBA Player of the Month in February and led the Sixers to their first playoff berth in eight years. Brown moved him from the point to shooting guard and he became the first Sixer since Wilt Chamberlain in 1965-66 to lead the league in scoring with a 26.8 average.

"It all comes with winning," Iverson said. "It took us winning for people to accept me. It's a cruel world. I'm still the same person, only a little wiser. It comes with age.

"When I first came in the league, everybody wanted me to play like I was 30 years old. I was only 21. I'm learning more and getting better as a player. People are letting me be 24 years old.

"I pay attention to some of the things I read. Us being the second-largest draw to L.A. (last season on the road) ... it feels good people like the type of basketball we play and want to watch the talent God gave me.

"At my games, more kids show up. I have a hard time with adults. With kids, the mistakes you made aren't a big deal. All they care about is Allen Iverson. They don't care how many times you've had problems with the law."

Even with injuries that'll keep Matt Geiger and Theo Ratliff sidelined for at least the first two weeks of the regular season, Iverson is optimistic the Sixers are headed for a banner season. They open Tuesday in San Antonio against the defending champion Spurs.

"I want to win a championship," Iverson said. "If I didn't think that way, it would be unfair to the coaching staff, my teammates, myself my family. The team is definitely better than it was last year.

"I want some respect. I want referees to feel like, 'This team can beat anybody. We're going to call this game fair.' The thing I like about the team is even if we're down 20 points, we're still coming at you until it's over.

"When I signed with Philly, people said I should go somewhere else, that I'd never win in Philly. I said, 'I don't want to go to L.A. or the Jazz to win a championship.' That's the easy way, the coward's way out.

"I'll cherish the things I've done for the rest of my life, but I don't have a ring on my finger. I can lead the league in scoring, steals and, if I put my mind to it, assists. If we don't win it all, it doesn't mean anything.

"I want to be the best player on the best team in the world."