He's third in voting for the East on the NBA All-Star ballot, the leader among Eastern guards.

He isn't on the 12-man U.S. Olympic team roster.

He leads the league in scoring and is the defending scoring champion.

He isn't on the Olympic team.

He was a first-team All-League selection last season, fourth in balloting for Most Valuable Player.

He isn't on the Olympic team.

Allen Iverson scored 34 points in the 76ers' 113-92 victory over the Golden State Warriors last night, handing out six assists, committing just two turnovers, draining all 11 of his free throws in 36 electric minutes.

He isn't on the Olympic team.

"It's not something God is ready for me to do right now, that's the only way I look at it," Iverson said in a measured soliloquy that emanated from somewhere deep inside.

"I'm from Newport News [Va.]. When I look back at guys from Newport News, I don't see anybody in the NBA, I don't see anybody who has achieved the things I have - [surpassing] Wilt Chamberlain's record [with five straight games of 40 points or more as a rookie], the scoring title, first-team all-NBA, things like that.

"When I'm not invited to play with another team, it wasn't meant to be. God doesn't want that for me. He wants me to concentrate on my team, I guess. I'm not on that team, but I know I get to play with another team, get to wear an NBA uniform."

The selection committee already filled nine spots for the team that will play in Sydney, Australia, from the squad that won the Pre-Olympic Tournament in Puerto Rico last summer. Early next week, the committee will announce that Miami's Alonzo Mourning, Detroit's Grant Hill and Milwaukee's Ray Allen have been added, reaching the 12-man limit.

Even though there is reason to believe Iverson would be the first small guard added should Miami's Tim Hardaway, Phoenix's Jason Kidd or Seattle's Gary Payton be injured or otherwise drop out, Iverson said he is putting the situation out of his mind.

"I promise you, and I put this on everything I love, everything - that's my kids, my mother, that's my friends, my family - I will not think about that again," he said. "I never thought about it.

"I'm a realist. I understand what I've been through in my life; I understand what I'm going through in my life right now.

"I knew [I would not be on the Olympic team]. Regardless of how I felt about my talent - I know and feel I'm the best player in the NBA - I knew I wasn't going to be on that team. With the question you're asking, you want me to tell you the reason you already know, and I'm not going to do that. Everybody knows. No big deal."

He means his image. He means his baggage. He means having once served four months on a prison farm on a charge from which he was eventually exonerated. He means his corn rows, his jewelry, his tattoos. He means it all.

"I know he should be there, he knows he should be there, and eventually they'll put him there," said Larry Hughes, his teammate and friend. "It'll be too obvious.

"When we talked, he wasn't worried one way or the other. He knew he probably wouldn't get picked, but [the Sixers are] his job, everything else is extra. He's the best player, as far as guards in the league, but this is just how they did it. All the great players can't make it. Sometimes you have to wait your turn."

According to all reports, it came down to Ray Allen and Toronto's Vince Carter, although Sixers coach Larry Brown said Iverson was "a finalist." Brown, an Olympic assistant coach (without a vote), said he would have "freaked" if Carter or Kobe Bryant, of the Los Angeles Lakers, had been chosen ahead of Iverson. He could live with Ray Allen, because he knew the committee felt a need for a pure shooter.

But Brown views Carter and Bryant as "young guys who are up and coming, but [Iverson] got us to the playoffs, was a first-team All-League pick, he's done those things."

So don't ask for a reason, Iverson said. Don't say you don't know. "You know," he said gently. "Yes, you do. Everybody knows.

"I can compete with all the guys on that team. Please, I want those guys to win. They're representing me, they're representing the league I play in."

Somebody pointed out that Mourning was chosen as a replacement for Shaquille O'Neal, of the Los Angeles Lakers, who opted out, and that Hill, who skipped last summer's games to get married, was a lock. But then there was Ray Allen.

"That's the perfect example," Iverson said. "Ray Allen is Ray Allen, Allen Iverson is Allen Iverson."

Would he go if asked?

"Send me over there to play soccer, anything," he shot back.

Would it trouble him if it were true his past was held against him?

"People," Iverson said, "are going to do that. It's not right, but it's something I kind of understand, that people would be kind of scared. After the things I've been through, I can't blame people if they say, 'Maybe he's not the right guy,' but when they talk about basketball, it's the right guy, simple as that.

"Maybe I need to do a lot of different things to change my image, but believe me, I won't change dramatically."

If it had meant shaving his head and putting away his jewelry, does he believe he would have been chosen?

"I would never be on the team then," he said.

"When this thing is over, I can look in the mirror, look at myself, look in my mom's eyes, in my kids' eyes, people I know care, and I can say I did it my way, without changing so that they can't recognize me anymore.

"I'm not a bad guy; it's not something dramatic I want to change. When I'm through playing in the NBA, I'm through. I'm never playing any more basketball. I'm not coaching, I'm not going to be involved, anything."

Iverson's team is 19-15, four games over .500 for the first time this season. The Sixers have won five of their last six.

But he is not - repeat, not - on the Olympic team. There will be no Love, Sydney for Allen Iverson. Brown said he "will be a fixture" on the World Championship team in 2002, the 2004 Olympic team that will play in Greece "and forever."

"There will be a time when they accept me," Iverson said. "It's not going to be because of my talent, they already know my talent, how good I am. It's going to be when they accept me. And I'll wait."

Garry St. Jean, the Warriors' coach, left the First Union Center knowing what it was like to lose twice in eight days to the Sixers, with Iverson scoring 34 in each.

"I just want to know whether I can petition the committee," St. Jean said. "They made a mistake."