Allen Iverson the budding rapper is no more. Citing negative publicity, Iverson said today that he had scrapped plans to release a rap CD.

A year ago, the 76ers star drew the ire of many people when the lyrics to his song "40 Bars" became public. At the Sixers' media day last year, he spent more than 30 minutes defending the song. He then spent weeks doing damage control after having offended many homosexuals, women, parents, and other people with the lyrics.

"I'm through with it," Iverson said at this year's media day today, before the Sixers departed for training camp at Penn State.

"It was something I always wanted to do. It was a childhood dream of mine, just like basketball. But I feel like people took it the wrong way, and it kind of took all the excitement out of it.

"I hope no one would ever make me feel that way about this game that I play, to make me want to give that up."

Calls for comment today to Iverson's label, Universal Records, were not returned. 

Initially called Non-Fiction, the CD originally was to come out in February of this year. After controversy broke out over the lyrics to "40 Bars," the title of the CD was changed to "Misunderstood" and the release rescheduled for June.

But after the Sixers lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals, Universal said that the album had again been delayed and would likely come out next year.

At the time, Iverson - who rapped under the name Jewelz and has the name of his hip-hop clique, Cru Thik, tattoed on his left arm - was said to be recording new material less confrontational than "40 Bars." And there was talk among his close associates that when he finally did release his hip-hop debut, it would reflect the maturation of last season's NBA MVP. 

But today, Iverson made it sound as if the reaction to "40 Bars" had convinced him to permanently put aside his music career.

"The negativity behind it - I just felt like it was not something I should go through - or my teammates or, better yet, my kids and family," he said. "So I just look at it as something that I tried to do, and I just rubbed people the wrong way with it. The negativity swayed me away from it. I don't have the love for it anymore."

Sixers teammate Aaron McKie supported Iverson's decision.

"That's his thing," McKie said. "That's one of his hobbies, something he likes to do outside of basketball to maybe take his mind off of it. But, you know, you can see him evolve as a person. It caused too many problems with his job.

"When you come to play basketball and people ask you about a rap record, there's something wrong. So I think he pretty much wants to focus on his family and playing basketball."